The House Next Door

Aw, Matt, I adore you more with each last single post (in a purely platonic manner, I assure you). Among our most undervalued directors, Walter Hill is surely among the best.

I'm all the more tickled that you singled out the underrated WILD BILL alongside the one everyone will recognize, 48 HRS. The one of Hill's that I think more people ought to check out is EXTREME PREJUDICE.

That is all.

Did anyone ask him about Supernova?

Seriously, though; Broken Trail sounds like a promising project (Robert Duvall on horseback is always a welcome sight to this filmgoer's eyes), from a director who does well by the genre.

I hope to one day do my part in creating a resurgence of Westerns. On the other hand, if Jarmusch couldn't do it, then neither will I.

Speaking of the genre: any forthcoming thoughts on The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada, Matt?

That's my favorite Walter Hill movie. I think I actually injured a few friendships by recommending it so enthusiastically. I don't have a copy of my NYPress review out here in Pasadena -- and it predates the paper's online archives -- but I'll see if I can dig it up when I get back home.

I don't adore every movie the man has done (GERONIMO, which I know some people love, always struck me as a bit lumpy and schematic). And for some reason I seem to like the gonzo stuff (JOHNNY HANDSOME, STREETS OF FIRE) more than the stuff that's intended as more mainstream (48 HOURS, ANOTHER 48 HOURS, RED HEAT). But goddamn it, the man's an artist. Plus, by helming the pilot of DEADWOOD -- the greatest dramatic series in the history of American television, he said for the 500th time -- Hill gave the show's future directors a stylistic starting point, and a hard but romantic tone that never subsided.

The short version: with its fractured chronology, highly theatrical setting and performances, and prismatic mix of different film stocks (and even some video!) I thought it was Hill's NATURAL BORN KILLERS -- but superior to the Stone picture in how it somehow managed to present archetypal but never cartoonish characters.

DVD: THREE BURIALS is a marvelous movie, though in my opinion more original in the first half (where it's more of a multilayered, multicharacter ensemble piece, like a Robert Altman picture with hair on its chest) than in the second half (which sometimes strains a bit too hard to raise Sam Peckinpah from the dead).

But to anyone reading this: By all means, see the movie, and see it in a theater. Jones isn't afraid to stroll through scenes and give us time to look around and really appreciate the characters and their environment. If one were determined to compare it with Peckinpah, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE or, better yet, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA would be a good place to start (and not just for the obvious plot-related reasons).

Jones also has a sharp eye for dramatically appropriate compositions; he's not one of those actor-directors who puts all his energy into the actors and treats the camera as a mere recording device. His collaboration with cinematographer Chris Menges (shooting in CinemaScope, balancing iconic beauty with documentary simplicity) is first rate. I hope these guys work together again, preferably on a Western.

Matt, if it weren't for the fact that both of us are straight and you're already married and reproduced, I'm not so sure I wouldn't be clamoring to have your children.

As far as Walter Hill is concerned, I too prefer what you call the "gonzo" stuff, if that's where we're supposed to file JOHNNY HANDSOME. I never did care much for STREETS OF FIRE, though. What did you make of UNDISPUTED?

Matt, if Dan Yuma blurts out "Ah Wish Ah Could Quit Youuuuu!" I'm going to recommend that this entire blog be doused with ice water.

Walter Hill's career has been very interesting. I sum up the director with this equation:

Walter Hill = Tony Scott - Attention Deficit Disorder + Talent

I'm glad you mentioned JOHNNY HANDSOME, a movie I love for every performance in it, especially Ellen Barkin. STREETS OF FIRE's soundtrack was always more interesting to me than the movie (Rick Moranis as the villain? C'mon, Walter...), but the timing of its release was perfect.

Since we're going with gonzo Hill choices, what about TRESPASS and THE DRIVER? I liked only the former; the latter is a stylish and unlikable time capsule of the 70's car chase genre. Both are weird movies shoehorned into conventional genres.

My most gonzo choice is THE WARRIORS, which is now apparently a video game. There was an infamous riot after a showing of that movie at the (now landmark) Loews Theater in Jersey City. I was there that day (and no, I didn't start the riot). Apparently, some real Warriors came out to play that day.

I was never a big fan of 48 HOURS, but it seems to get a little better every time I watch it. And lest we forget, Hill was one of the producers on Alien, and even cowrote the worst of the series.

My Mom liked Westerns far more than I ever did. She was always watching Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, Bonanza and those Clint Eastwood Man With No Name pictures. She loves Deadwood, too, and your love of it will have to balance out my disregard.

While we're on Westers, what do you think of Budd Boetticker? I had never heard of him until I went to a Film Society showing of the movie David Webb Peoples blatantly (and brilliantly) ripped off for Unforgiven, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (which is a fantastic movie). I only went because I'd never seen a Randolph Scott movie--at the time, Randolph Scott was just a punchline in Blazing Saddles--but afterward I sought out every movie Boetticker made. The director was there, and what he said about Westerns and film in general was fascinating.

I agree that it would be great to see Robert Duvall on a horse again. I was one of the few people who liked Open Range. He, Annette Bening, and the gorgeous Alberta landscape made that movie.

In closing, I will be happy to babysit any children Dan Yuma has for you. Even better, I want to be in the delivery room.

Dan: Amazingly, for someone who likes Hill, I have never seen UNDISPUTED all the way through. That's no reflection on Hill, just continued unfortunate movie-watching luck.

Odie: Are you ready for this? When Boetticher came to the USA Film Festival to receive a Great Director award back in 94 or so, I interviewed him and did a piece about his movies. He sent me a signed photograph of his young self that now hangs on the wall of my office. It's one of my most prized possessions.

Odienator: I think Open Range is a pretty great film (here's my review from back when it opened).

Hey, DVD: I tried that link but it didn't work. I'm still curious, though.

I liked OPEN RANGE a lot. It's overlong (not as overlong as Costner's other movies, but still) and I didn't find Annette Bening very convincing (she seemed too 20th century somehow). But it's spare and unhurried and thoughtfully composed and edited, with great attention paid to the relationship between humans and the land. Costner's a visually talented actor turned director who, like Jones, works in the western tradition, and I hope he continues to do so.

Heresy alert: THE POSTMAN may be a mess, but it has some brilliant moments, like when the camp full of hardened post-apocalyptic slaves rebels against being shown UNIVERSAL SOLDIER but cheers THE SOUND OF MUSIC. More than overlength, its Achilles heel is the same one that ultimately fells all of his self-directed movies: Costner the filmmaker keeps bowing down to Costner the movie star and worshipping his sensitive manliness, to the point where one tends to get a bit nauseous. (The scene at the end of THE POSTMAN where they unveil a statue of the Costner character snatching a letter from a little boy -- and a fiftysomething guy standing nearby sobs and declares "That little boy was ME!" -- was probably a career low point, rivaled only by his "English" accent in ROBIN HOOD.)

I think it would do Costner a lot of good to quit starring in the movies he directs; I suspect it prevents him from making ruthless choices, and that in turns prevents him from becoming a great, as opposed to merely talented, director. Then again, even if he's considered that option, the market probably wouldn't let it happen.

Matt, the computer programmer in me must inform you that the URL to DVD's review is doubled. You will need to delete the second occurrence from the link. You'll see if you read the URL. To quote "All You Need Is Love:" It's E-E-Z!

I enjoyed your review, DVD, and would like you to read mine. I'll need to load it up to my site.

I liked Annette Bening a lot in Open Range, so I disagree with you Matt. She can't help it if she's hot, cosmopolitan, and looks like the Columbia Pictures lady. (Aside: the only laugh in WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? occurred when the Columbia Pictures logo actually turned out to be Annette Bening.)

The Postman made me want to go postal. I was banging my head into the seat in front of me, much to the chagrin of the guy that was occupying that seat. He complained I was waking him up.

Costner the director is smoking the dope Costner the actor is trying to sell us vis-a-vis "worshipping his sensitive manliness." Still, I think he's a fine actor more often than not, and he's not getting praised for the wonderful work he did with the superb Joan Allen in the otherwise dismal The Upside of Anger.

Costner could elevate his stature as an actor/director by directing himself in a villanous role. I like Julia Roberts more when she's a bitch--it liberates her, I think--and if Costner cast himself as an SOB meaner than Paris Trout, he might correct the mushy mistakes he makes in his self-direction. Just a thought.

This Panthers-Bears game is AWESOME!

Here is the correct link to DVD's review of "Open Range."

Ah, thanks for correcting my sloppy HTML!

I remember that The Postman did indeed have its moments, but most of them have evaporated from my mind, along with the rest of the film.

Matthew (if I may call you Matthew), I had quite forgotten your ardent defense of THE POSTMAN when it came out, and I've never seen it so can't say anything really, can I. (I am curiously somehow reminded of a moment from WATERWORLD that was pure Kurosawa, or Lucas, depending on how you choose to define it.)

Haven't been dodging the conversation, it's computer issues. I wish I knew how to quit you, indeed! (Actually I still haven't seen that one, but just threw away another three hours of my life on Peter Jackson's KONG remake ... strange, usually a second time I have some kind of idea of what to make of a given movie, and now I understand less why that was made than ever.)