Budd Boetticher Box Set (Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station)
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Movie Reviews of Budd Boetticher Box Set (Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station)
Movie Review: An Outstanding collection
Summary: 5 Stars
Budd Boetticher was a remarkable director. Sony Pictures, in their Collectors Choice set, "The Films of Budd Boettcher", presents five remarkable films that are still powerful today.
Including "The Tall T", "Decision at Sundown", "Buchanan Rides Alone", "Ride Lonesome", and "Commanche Station", this set is visually stunning, highlighting the natural beauty of the Lone Pine area. "Ride Lonesome" and "Comanche Station" resonate a theme central to his films, the lone hero seeking revenge and redemption. Randolph Scott stars in all five films, portraying to perfection the strong, silent hero.
In "Ride Lonesome", Barricade (Scott), goes after a man with a bounty on his head. Behind his apparent cold blooded nature, his real motive of finding the man who hung his wife is exposed in the end, and what was once a case of pure bounty, becomes an act of grace and forgiveness.
Future director Burt Kennedy penned the bulk of these films, honing his craft with a director with an eye for sparse storytelling, and a cast that understood what Boetticher was creating. Scott was essential to the films, adding his reputation and experience to roles that screamed "Randolph scott!". Images of Scott atop his animals, or silhouetted against the desert sky are vintage western iconic symbols. Co-stars James Coburn, Maureen Sullivan, Lee Van Cleef, Pernell Roberts, and Richard Boone contribute good performances to great films.
Watching these films is a pilgrimage experience. The Lone Pine settings, used in hundreds of films since the early 1920's, has been transformed into a more urban setting. When Randolph Scott rides by the familiar rocks of the geological formations, images of other films flood by. Randolph Scott appearing onscreen beckons me to a time when legendary actors rode the silver screen range, and westerns rode tall and proud in cinemas around the country. Principles were fought for and died on. Men of moral standing became outstanding community builders.
This is a collection for the collector of great films, though not all are of equal quality. The prints have been restored to brilliant color and sound. Watch these films, but if you have access to a big screen, I mean really big screen, go for the gusto. There is nothing like Randolph Scott riding tall on any screen!
Tim Lasiuta
Movie Review: "This is indeed wondrous!" - Ilya Morometz
Summary: 5 Stars
5 Boetticher classic Ranown westerns in one set? Cleaned up & widescreen? WE'RE NOT WORTHY....WE'RE NOT WORTHY!Movie Review: BRILLIANT MASTERPIECES -- FORGOTTEN GEMS
Summary: 5 Stars
Budd Boetticher's classic westerns finally arrive as a set in nice clean transfers. They are long overdue in a digital format and have been highly anticipated by film buffs as well those who treasure a view of Americana that includes honor, duty, horses and the landscape -- the majestic canvas on which we play out our lives.
The films have been detailed elsewhere. My favorites are "RIDE LONESOME," "COMANCHE STATION" and the "THE TALL T." They all feature Randolph Scott's as a consistent hero with different names. A hero in a changing world who still operates under a moral code that seems quaint.
On a side note: What or who is the "tall T"? It is never mentioned in the film. I can't recall if it is mentioned in Elmore Leonard's story "The Captives." Personally, I think the "T" is part of the architecture of the ranch where Scott rides a bull. It is prominent in one particular shot. And it is tall. Why this is the title of the film is a puzzle unless it is here where the story is set in motion. Or perhaps it is a physical body gesture that Scott makes at a place in the story that is a turning point. It is a human crucifix position as well. Perhaps that is the reference -- like John Wayne's crossing his arms at the end of "The Searchers," about which there is much speculation (some think it's an homage and tribute to his friend Harry Carey).
There's a clean, sun-baked look to these morality tales that sort of frames the simmering tensions that are usually played out in an explosive climax. Often in a natural "arena" setting. Boetticher was very enamored of, and comfortable in, a bull ring.
The underrated Randolph Scott is perfect as a taciturn, leathery-faced loner. He was a big star in his hey day -- but he has never been better than in these minimalist westerns. He's always a man of few words who often has a tragic back story that propel his risky, usually altruistic, actions. Scott is a rivetting screen presence. His graceful, economic physicality, the way he uses his voice, rides a horse, and especially his moments of silence and stillness are always compelling. There are no wasted actions. Hard to take your eyes off him. In many ways, I think Scott was Boetticher's on-screen avitar.
Boetticher's recurring elements: a lone figure seeking vengeance or justice, figures adrift amidst an untamed landscape, tight places where moral imperatives explode. And always in Boetticher's westerns, there are unexpected moments where the camera holds on the physical beauty of a place or dotes on the sensuous image of a horse being groomed or running.
Boetticher, a cult director who continues to grows in stature, makes the most of his deceptively minimalist stories inhabited by complex characters. But it's not really the story that matters for Boetticher as much as the characters, how they move, and what they don't say, and of course the ever-present vistas that offer unexpected moments of challenge or transcendence as the moral imperative of the protagonist is actualized.
It seems to me that Boetticher's westerns are about coping with antiquated notions of honor and justice while we traveling a path where fate, destiny and free-will intersect. I guess that's why they linger in the mind. There's an undeniable Old Testament feel to the stories yet the main character is often saddled with a sense of existential angst. Maybe that is the definition of living in the post modern world.
For movie buffs and film scholars alike, the late Budd Boetticher is a giant, widely praised for the seven low-budget westerns he made starring Randolph Scott between 1956 and 1960. What's even more amazing is that these B movies were crafted with such loving care and precision. As in other art, overlooked at first, but now recognized as unique and authentic perhaps because they seem effortless and pure even to the naive viewer.
While working on the Columbia Pictures lot on Gower St, I got to know Boetticher quite well. He liked a script I wrote and invited me to ride one of his fine horses, Peropo, a spirited, unscarred veteran from the Spanish bullring. I apparently passed my test and this led to trips to Mexico where we scouted locations and Boetticher put on astonishing displays of how to fight bulls from horseback. During this time, I understood how much of Boetticher the man was in his westerns. Always the outsider who won't compromise, Boetticher was the real deal. Enthusiastic, witty, optimistic, artistic and a great horseman -- he relished being alive. He was also aware of a self-destructive side to his personality that was always a battle.
His bare-bones westerns usually had a lone, mostly silent, somewhat alienated hero on a journey through a hostile landscape. He crosses paths with a self-serving villain. There are tight places and grand vistas, lyrical and pastoral surprises.
Existential and ambiguously emotional, there remains a moral tone that somehow revolves itself around idealized integrity itself. Integrity, grace and fate were Boetticher's cinematic trinity. Burt Kennedy's sometimes ironic, often poignant, and decidedly lean screenplays were a perfect fit for Boetticher's mindset.
The extras in the set are very good. The feature length documentary on Boetticher "A MAN CAN DO THAT" is revealing and rather moving. A portrait of a singular artist and man who lived a full adventurous life that in some ways makes his movies seem tame. There are three commentaries, I especially appreciated the one by Janine Basinger on "THE TALL T." She captured the essence the man as I knew him.
I encourage film buffs to also find Budd Boetticher's classic 1956 western SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (Paramount) which was released earlier on DVD in a clean, restored transfer with significant extras. This should be included along with this set. Here, Randolph Scott, a sheriff haunted by the death of his wife in a robbery, hunts for the seven men responsible. Along the way, he helps a couple from Kansas heading west and is forced to deal with another former outlaw he had once sent to prison. As in some of his other films included in this collection, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW is a tense journey that takes us to a point of stillness, the moment of truth where righteousness of character is all that's left because "there are some things you can't ride around." The esoteric commentary's by James Kitses, author of "Horizons West: Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, Sam Peckinpah" and there's a new documentary "Budd Boetticher: An American Original."
Movie Review: why not for the European market??? Region 2?
Summary: 5 Stars
Great product, brilliant films, I`d love to order the box, but as I`m from Germany, I couldn`t play the films here.
Yes, Europeans love good western movies too, seems a bit out of place to produce them just for the American/
Canadian market. My favorite is " Ride Lonesome" , for sure Pernell Roberts is the perfect cast for a real cowboy,
but the other actors are great as well.
Movie Review: "SOME THINGS A MAN CAN'T RIDE AROUND"
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, so you like westerns and you have been busy building your collection of the genre on DVD. Well, your collection will reach a whole new level when you purchase the long-awaited DVD release of the Boetticher/Scott westerns. These are cult films among western movie viewers for simple yet profound reasons. First, as author Jim Kitses notes in his outstanding review of Boetticher's films in his book "Horizon's West", the films are exciting and thoughtful morality plays that uniquely involved villians that are just as sympathetic as the hero(s). Second, they represent the idea that despite being driven by obscure motives that can at times prove fatal for unfortunate acquaintances, the honorable individual matters. These films represent the true soul of the western genre, an amazing achievement by Boetticher.