Border Collies and Westerns
Mar. 14th, 2011 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechSaturday was the Border Collie Rescue Funday-- 30-40 dogs spazzing and about half that many people watching the show. Corned beef galore; also Apache's adoption anniversary. Weather was the best: breezy, brisk-but-not-cold. My fruit salad was a hit. Pics later...
Sunday: saw "Rango". Liked it a lot-- it was like a bunch of film geeks got together and tried to cram as many homages/pokes/parodies to "the western" as they could into 70 minutes. Almost literally, every line and visual was a reference to some western film or, oddly, Great Movies in general. Nods to films that Depp, ILM (animation/effects and nearly anyone involved with the film were plentiful: "Fear and Loathing", Star Wars space battles, etc. Oddly, there were also a poop-load of references to films having nothing to do with westerns (or the cast/crew) at all, including the main plot (which was a direct "homage" to "Chinatown", including scene rip-offs).
I love the homages to western regulars Eli Wallach (toad-thingie in first scenes) and the Lee Van Cleef rattlesnake was fun-- down to his pencil mustache and his "lawful-evil" character (<--Roz clued me in to that). I didn't see any Peckinpah refs...did I miss something? Plenty of Eastwood/Leone/Morricone refs, tho'.
Both Roz and I were confused by the ritual at noon/water-faucet, which looked oddly familiar (the Klan scene in "Brother, Where Art Thou"?). It these had been purely western cliches/nods, it would have been easier-- but the film was more of a massive movie-fan-geekout. I -loved- the CG imagery in this (even if -all- the characters were ugly as sin). The Van Cleef rattlesnake was particularly beautiful. Oh, and I liked and was at the same time bemused by the mole-gang: this was a nod/rip of the bad guys (the Danby family) from "Support Your Local Sheriff", one of my favorite films and favorite baddies. So this western comedy/spoof homage'd/stole from a western comedy/spoof...?!
Still, the film moves so fast that half the references are lost and don't get in the way of the story (which is thankfully simple).
Bottom line: fun film. Fun to try and ID the refs, too.
Sunday: saw "Rango". Liked it a lot-- it was like a bunch of film geeks got together and tried to cram as many homages/pokes/parodies to "the western" as they could into 70 minutes. Almost literally, every line and visual was a reference to some western film or, oddly, Great Movies in general. Nods to films that Depp, ILM (animation/effects and nearly anyone involved with the film were plentiful: "Fear and Loathing", Star Wars space battles, etc. Oddly, there were also a poop-load of references to films having nothing to do with westerns (or the cast/crew) at all, including the main plot (which was a direct "homage" to "Chinatown", including scene rip-offs).
I love the homages to western regulars Eli Wallach (toad-thingie in first scenes) and the Lee Van Cleef rattlesnake was fun-- down to his pencil mustache and his "lawful-evil" character (<--Roz clued me in to that). I didn't see any Peckinpah refs...did I miss something? Plenty of Eastwood/Leone/Morricone refs, tho'.
Both Roz and I were confused by the ritual at noon/water-faucet, which looked oddly familiar (the Klan scene in "Brother, Where Art Thou"?). It these had been purely western cliches/nods, it would have been easier-- but the film was more of a massive movie-fan-geekout. I -loved- the CG imagery in this (even if -all- the characters were ugly as sin). The Van Cleef rattlesnake was particularly beautiful. Oh, and I liked and was at the same time bemused by the mole-gang: this was a nod/rip of the bad guys (the Danby family) from "Support Your Local Sheriff", one of my favorite films and favorite baddies. So this western comedy/spoof homage'd/stole from a western comedy/spoof...?!
Still, the film moves so fast that half the references are lost and don't get in the way of the story (which is thankfully simple).
Bottom line: fun film. Fun to try and ID the refs, too.
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ah yes!
Date: 2011-03-14 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 03:26 pm (UTC)I *loved* the Rattlesnake Jake character, both for the way he was written as well as the way he was designed and animated. That seemed to be one of the best animated snakes I have ever seen; his motions were fluid and seemed very natural. What they did with the rattle was simply genius, as well, in my opinion.
This is definitely one I'm going to be buying when it's out on disk.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-15 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 06:13 pm (UTC)Charles Lee Jackson III (who presents the videos of old serials before the LASFS meetings start) offered a six-part seminar on the history of "B" movies, and pretty much concluded that The Western Genre was so popular, and so many westerns were made, that it is impossible today to make a Western that wouildn't use story elements already done to death, no way to make a fresh "take" on any particular setup; every idea, plot item, point-of-view, trick, scenario, setup, staging, and pose has already been used at least three times in the history of westerns, either in cinema or on TV.
It's not only easier to make a parody of the genre, a'la "Blazing Saddles", but the really hard part is to make a western which DOESN'T look like a parody or satire - and do so with a straight face. If "Rango" can do so with style, that would be great.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-14 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-15 06:17 pm (UTC)