Forty Guns
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Movie Reviews of Forty Guns
Movie Review: Stanwyck Lashes Out ... Brilliantly
Summary: 5 Stars
Movie: ***** DVD Transfer: ****1/2 Extras: ****
Barbara Stanwyck is rougher than rawhide as Jessica Drummond, the high-riding "Woman With a Whip" (the film's pre-production title) in writer-producer-director Sam Fuller's movie about the female ruler of rugged Cochise County, Arizona. Armed with determination, wiles, and a savage lash, Drummond has firm control over the territory ... and she's backed up by a gang of forty sharp-shooting killers who follow her orders without question. Everything's going her way until a former gunslinger turned marshal (Barry Sullivan) arrives with his two brothers and begins to chip away at Drummond's power by attempting to restore law and order to the territory. Soon enough the lady and the lawman are engaged in a deadly battle of equals that will eventually engulf the entire community.
It's hard to believe that "Forty Guns" proved to be Stanwyck's last big screen appearance for five long years, a period in which she didn't make films because, in her own words, "no one asked me." Her performance is simply astonishing, and superbly nuanced: her voice and physical bearing communicate all too clearly that Jessica is not a woman to be trifled with. Stanwyck's triumph is even more complete when one realizes that the fifty-year-old actress performed all her own stunts in the film --- including being dragged by a horse during a harrowing tornado sequence! The rest of the cast is excellent throughout: Sullivan pulls off the difficult task of matching Stanwyck's energy without attempting to steal scenes; and nice work is also turned in by supporting players Gene Barry, John Ericson, and Dean Jagger. However, this is Stanwyck's movie all the way; her presence infuses every scene, even when she's off-camera.
The DVD presentation of this film is a credit to 20th Century-Fox Home Video. Both widescreen (Cinemascope) and pan-and-scan versions are included on the disc, and although it's not mentioned on the packaging, the DVD also includes the film's Original Theatrical Trailer. Picture and sound quality are superb throughout ... even the trailer is beautifully transferred. Overall, this is a magnificent release of a rarely screened film, enthusiastically recommended for fans of Samuel Fuller, Barbara Stanwyck, and the Western genre.
Movie Review: Forty Guns
Summary: 5 Stars
The imminent release of this 1957 DVD is well worth waiting for especially in showing the fim in its original widescreen format. FORTY GUNS is a creative Fuller reworking of the western genre turning stereotypes on their heads, revealing the raw emotionalism and insecurity affecting various characters, and containing brilliant examples of crane and tracking shots representing key elements of this cinematic genius.
FORRTY GUNS has received good critical comment in the past. But what is most notable in this film is the reworking of previous westerns such as THE GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K CORRAL and THE FURIES into a Fulleresque cinematic battleground. The Bonnell brothers (led by Barry Sullivan now reluctant to kill) are reworked versions of the Earpps while Barbara Stanwyck's sexually assertive Jessica Drummond is Fuller's masculinized version of Vance Jeffords from Anthony Mann's THE FURIES and her previous "Cattle Queen of Montana." Stanwyck, of course, personified the strong woman on screen in the pre-feminist era and this is one of her best performances. In this film, all conventions are overturned resulting in one of the most iconoclastic endings ever to appear in a Western. I will not spoil it for those who have not seen it but merely point out that Fuller directs the studio's "official climax" in a deliberately unbelievable manner. This is one of the best westerns of its kind directed by one of the major artists of Hollywood cinema. Cliches are absent and Stanwyck's character represents one of the most amazing inversions of classical Hollywood gender stereotypes ever to appear outside "film noir."
Companies should now follow Criterion's DVD release of PICK UP ON SOUTH STREET (1952)by releasing restored widescreen versions of Fuller's early Vietnam War entry CHINA GATE (1957) and MERRILL'S MARAUDERS (1961). In this current age of Hollywood creative bankruptcy, a return to the legacy of one of its greatest exponents is long overdue.
Movie Review: Forty Guns Is A Trip
Summary: 5 Stars
Forty Guns by Sam Fuller is about the strangest, most unusual, and bizarre "B" western made in the 1950's. I have watched it many times and I'm still not completely sure what the total plot of the film is and at various points during the film the plot switches to such strange directions that you as the viewer are wondering where the film is going and what's going on. Each time I watch it the more bizarre it looks. It is a western so unusual and strange that it is extremely entertaining and enjoyable. Most of the characters in this film are simply "Off the Hook" to use the slang of the kids today. I really like this film but I'm not completely sure exactly why. The characters that I enjoy the most are of course Barbara Stanwyck as the master of this giant ranch who rules with an iron hand, Barry Sullivan as the hired killer turned marshall who is a man who feels his time is over in the old west, and John Ericson who is Barbara Stanwyck's younger brother who is basically just crazy and shoots the original older town sheriff for fun and then kills Gene Barry on his wedding day - a very healthy individual. Dean Jagger's performance is also very strange and he hangs himself after trying to shoot Barry Sullivan and then being rejected by Barbara Stanwyck who he has secretly been in love with for years. All and all, one of the strangest westerns and movies for that matter that I have ever seen. I like it.
The B&W transfer for a film of this vintage is excellent which is a real plus.
Movie Review: a strange western from a great director
Summary: 5 Stars
Occasionally some of the great noir directors of the 40's and 50's like Fuller, nicholas ray, and billy wilder (wilder made a film in pretty much every genre) would make a genre film like a western.. When they did the results were very interesting as they used the same sorts of techniques in these films as they used in their other movies..
The sexual and psychological tensions of such movies like this one and johnny guitar would set them apart from your typical john wayne style western.. and subsequently they are often embraced by a more varied audience..
40 guns is shot in painfully beautiful black and white cinema scope with a stylized technique which often takes very interesting angles on the action taking place in the scene.. The acting and dialogue is pretty typical for a fuller movie - deliberately over the top sometimes.. and the music which is so deliberately western it seems almost like a parody..
All these qualities make it very enjoyable and at times surprising to watch a movie in a genre i usually don't enjoy.. But fuller could turn any story into gold..
Movie Review: Raw Energy
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Sam Fuller's FORTY GUNS is a rather baroque and extravagant Western that is pure energy and emotion. Almost impossible to follow, the story really doesn't matter. The emotional impact on the viewer of the sensational characters and events is Fuller's focus here with his pulp perspective. Gunslinger turned marshal Barry Sullivan confronts a matriarchal Barbara Stanwyck who rules the Arizona Territory with her army of forty guns. The dinner sequence at the sprawling table is an example of Fuller's offbeat sense of the dramatic. Barry Sullivan is excellent as the provoked marshal who continually avoids having to use his gun to kill. This film was written, produced and directed by Sam Fuller in Cinemascope, strikingly photographed by Academy Award winning cinematographer Joseph Biroc, as a major production for Twentieth Century Fox.