Shalako
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Movie Reviews of Shalako
Movie Review: For all the Louis L'Amour fans!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an older movie, made from the book by the same name. It follows the book fairly well, although there's a rather creative addition where one of the women has gone off with the bad guys and gets killed by the Indians in a pretty ironic, and strange, way. Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot play the lead roles well, with the camera spending an inordinate amount of time on Bardot's very sexy looks. Still, it's a pretty good story, especially if you've read the book. Briefly, it's about a group of European aristocrats, with a few Americans thrown in, who come to the West to "hunt wild animals" although the leader is hoping to encounter Indians also. Shalako is a cowboy who ends up helping them when they encounter those Indians, who prove to be a lot smarter than the Baron expected. As a rule, I hate to see a movie after I've read the book, because I usually think that the movie isn't as good as the book, but they did a fair job this time and I enjoyed it enough that I bought the DVD and have watched it several times.Movie Review: Cool Bardot Western
Summary: 5 Stars
What is more retro-cool than watching a late 60's western starring
Brigette Bardot and Sean Connery?
A European Hunting party gets trapped out west and surrounded by
Indians. Connery attempts to move them to safety. This is an
intense serious drama that is eerily realistic at times.
You feel a sense of dread as this hunting party gets deeper and
deeper into trouble.
Bardot looks stunning, and brings her natural charisma to the film
Her romance with Connery is actually minimal. This is a drama with
action, not a love story.
There is a very intense stagecoach chase later in the film, with
great camera work. Somehow this film got lost in the shuffle, but
it's a great adaptation of a Louie L'amour novel.
Movie Review: Shalako
Summary: 5 Stars
The 5 stars are not for the director, actors, performance, or script translation. It's for the feeling it invokes when I watch it.
I first saw this movie as a kid on the big screen. Quite an adult movie for one so young but they were the days before PC when kids actually had fun. Snuck into the cinema on a lazy Sunday afternoon with my friends. Bikes piled in a heap outside. BB gun safely tucked under a bush. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I'm just glad I can watch it again on DVD. Thank you Amazon for making this available and dare I say affordable.
Movie Review: 1968 Survival Western with Sean Connery & Brigitte Bardot (and Valerie French)
Summary: 4 Stars
DIRECTOR: Edward Dmytryk
WRITERS: Louis L'Amour (novel) and Clarke Reynolds (screenplay)
CAST: Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Sephen Boyd, Honor Blackman, Jack Hawkins, Woody Strode and Valerie French
RUNTIME: 1 hour 53 minutes
LOCATIONS: Spain
COUNTRY: UK/West Germany
THE STORY: A pompous group of European nobles on a hunting vacation in New Mexico are beset by a band of Apaches who don't appreciate them trespassing on their lands. After the Europeans are abandoned by their cowboy guides they are helped by an intrepid loner named Shalako (Connery). Can they make it out alive?
As you can see, this European film has a lot going for it. It's based on a Louis L'Amour novel and has a great cast. Yet, it bombed when it was originally released and I admit not liking it much the first two times I viewed it, but then maybe that's because I saw it on a crappy taped-from-tv vhs hampered by commercials. I decided to give it another chance and bought the excellent dvd; after all, how can you go wrong with Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot?
The opening is reminiscent of "Duel at Diablo" and the rest of the film resembles "Hombre," which were both released in the late 60s as well; so if you're a fan of those films you'll likely appreciate "Shalako."
Although there's quite a lot of good Western action, the story tends to plod along despite the mere 110-minute runtime (minus end credits). This is what turned me off the first two times I saw it, perhaps mainly because I didn't understand a lot of the heavily-accented dialogue. With the dvd, however, I was able to use the subtitles and understand the slow drama of the story. I highly recommend this.
The film is a story of arrogance and betrayal -- the arrogance of the Europeans who have no respect for the "lowbred" cowboys or the Indian "savages," and the betrayal of the American guides, headed excellently by Stephen Boyd (Messala in "Ben-Hur"). But to my pleasure, "Shalako" is mostly a survival story. For some reason I love survival stories, like "Sands of the Kalahari" and "Flight of the Phoenix". This brings to mind other survival-themed Westerns like "Escape from Fort Bravo," "They Came to Cordura" and "Duel at Diablo."
Can you believe Woody Strode, a black man, is cast as the main Native American antagonist? It works, believe it or not, as he looks convincingly Indian.
THE BABE REPORT: Of course, Brigitte Bardot is one of the most beautiful women to ever grace God's earth. With the exception of one bathing scene she's dressed to the hilt throughout. But -- man -- she has such a cute, pouty face and incredible locks of full blond hair. Honor Blackman, who played Pussy Galore in "Goldfinger," is also on hand. I never thought she was all that beautiful, although I like her as an actor.
Of great interest to me was the appearance of the underrated brunette Valerie French. She played the incredible hottie in "Jubal" (1956) when she was 28. "Shalako" was her final film and she was 40 at the time of release. She's mainly a background character but she does have some lines and you'll catch quite a few good glimpses of her. As far as I'm concerned she's just as beautiful as Bardot, if not more, albeit brunette. And, no, it makes no difference that she's 40.
FINAL ANALYSIS: In light of my initial bad impression of "Shalako" due to seeing it on a crappy taped vhs and the numerous mediocre reviews, I fully expected to not like "Shalako." I was wrong. This is a good late-60's Western. I don't like the Spanish locations (as Spain just can't cut it as a stand-in for the American West) and the story does tend to plod a bit, especially if you suffer from ADD; but, other than that, I found the film quite worthwhile for all the above reasons.
Some critize the ending as ridiculous, but I liked it. Would it likely happen in real life? Probably not. But I didn't find it all that unbelievable. In other words, the filmmakers pulled it off. It's a good MOVIE ending. That's why they went with it.
GRADE: B
Movie Review: Bond on the Range
Summary: 4 Stars
The twin manias of 60s cinema -- the Euro-Spy craze inspired by James Bond and the "Spaghetti Western"-- seem to find their nexus here in the lone Western to star Sean Connery. It's based on a Louis L'Amour novel. I recall it strangely had a reputation as being dark and violent, ala those "revisionist Westerns" of the late 60s, so-called as their penchant for often sadistic violence or sensuality distinguished them from the tame TV fare that around that time dominated the airwaves and was killing off the genre.
The film revolves around a group of pampered and titled Europeans who go on a hunting party in the American west. They're indifferent to the treaties that restrict hunting on certain lands, and when Apache's attack, their only hope is the former Army tracker who warned them in the first place -- the mysterious Shalako played by Connery. (Their worries also include the mustache-twirling hunter they've hired whose beady eyes are on one of the ladies in the group as well as their pricey jewelery.)
You can tell that the filmmakers are conscious of transplanting Connery to the prior century. For the first half of the film he doesn't do much, but we still get lots of scenes of him on his horse to get the 60s audience comfortable with the idea that he's not 007. And this kind of works, because while these scenes have no significance to the story -- and do pad the running time -- you do marvel at how good he is on horseback. Even when he takes center-stage and his considerable presence dominates the action, he has a solid ensemble to work with. I think there were over half a dozen names above the title here. They're a wild cross-section of European and American (semi) stars, and they're all good. The stand-outs may be Stephen Boyd (always as good as he is underrated) as the villain, and Honor Blackman as the haughtiest lady in the party. (I think this has to be the only time Connery was reunited with a Bond girl.)
Unlike other European Westerns from the time, there seems to have been contemporaneous sound captured for this, so we don't get that standard dubbed soundtrack you get with most Spaghetti Westerns. Indeed, for Brigette Bardot as the female lead, I used the DVD subtitle option, as I couldn't make out much of her dialogue. She's the other main attraction here, besides Connery, and her blinding blondness is fetching, if not exactly heart-stopping. She has a couple of romantic scenes with Sean that are cheesy, but fun.
Like other films based on L'Amour novels, this one has a solid plot and characters. It's a little over-long, but it holds up -- thanks mainly to the seriousness that went into ther direction and performances for the non-action scenes. These set things up so that we're invested in what happens.
This isn't a groundbreaking Western from the period. But it is fun, with heroics, romance and solid action. Connery fans will be more than satisfied.