The Hallelujah Trail
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Movie Reviews of The Hallelujah Trail
Movie Review: Good Movie, Bad DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
The Hallelujah Trail deserved better than this. The original movie was filmed amid the gorgeous summer New Mexico scenery in Ultra-Panavision 70 on 70mm film which should have afforded anyone wishing to make a DVD transfer the opportunity to produce an exceptional product, right? Wrong!
The letterboxed image is further reduced within the frame on the 16:9 screen (a rectangle within a rectangle); the picture is grainy, contrasty, and generally all around sucks. I was so upset at what I was seeing that I didn't even notice if the sound was any good or not.
Rent it if you must watch it, but don't waste your money purchasing it.
Movie Review: What a difference 40 years makes
Summary: 3 Stars
I first saw this movie back in the mid '60s when I was about 14 and thought it was a great movie. I recently purchased it on DVD and looked forward to enjoying it again. Unfortunately, like some wine this movie didn't age well. While there were some amusing spots (Donald Pleasance's performance)I found a great deal of the movie to be rather corny and ham handed. It was amusing to view again after forty years or so but for me it's not a keeper.Movie Review: It looks like a handsome production on screen but. . . oyy!
Summary: 2 Stars
I like the stars involved. I like Burt Lancaster when he's in the right project. Lee Remick is pretty. Brian Keith has been good.
But if this is a comedy I'm a little Green Martian
The only even slightly inspired comedic bit was Donald Pleasance as Oracle
As to the rest, well.....bloat comes to mind to describe it just like a lot of 1960's movies that went on forever.
Someone mentioned Blake Edward's "The Great Race" as being in the same big movie genre of the 1960's. That movie also has bloat but there are some real comedic gems in the performances of Tony Curtis, Peter Falk, Jack Lemmon and the chick. It had a semi-clothed performance by Natalie Wood that was genuinely sexy and it had a better portrayal of a feminist movement over Hallalujah's lazy portrayal of Temperance, although both portrayals would still cheese off feminists today.
In "Hallalujah" There is not an ounce of comic timing. There are set pieces that have the form and look of a comedy but the gag setups are inept and clumsy if the setups exist at all.
Just look at that awful confrontation scene when the Miners, Indians, Cavalry and the wagon train meet in the dust storm. It's like they made up all the scenarios on the spot with no idea of connectivity, pacing or tension.
The actors are shamelessly mugging and doing awful double takes. There are times it works and there are times it doesn't. This is one of those times it doesn't.
The narrator's narration is supposed to be, I take it, tongue in cheek. He sounds like he's from a bad industrial education film from the 1950's with upbeat, spunky music in the background.
The writing falls flat. In the first hour and a half of the film I did not even crack a smile. A comedy has laughs. My side remained completely unsplit. No internal organs were spilled in the viewing of this movie.
There is the egregious comedic portrayal of the Indians. People will say lighten up. Well, if it was a story about slave history with whites doing blackface would you say lighten up? I didn't think so.
For instance, the narrator is translating the Indian's speech as Pidgin English. I think if it was idiomatically translated it should have been portrayed as some kind of natural, fluent speech.
What should I expect though. This was a big studio project released several years before the fresh air of the early 1970's filmmaking generation that would give us a revisionist western like "Little Big Man." "Little Big Man" is a film which I love involving whites and Indians. Granted it engages in reverse racism portraying whites as the other/enemy but at least it has several actual guffaws in it, though it's not billed as a comedy.
I think there might be a generation gap involved here. If I knew the ages of the people involved there might be a slight skew towards the older ones actually liking this and giving it 5 stars. After all I'm used to MTV pacing and movie plots actually getting to the point within the first 15 minutes.
Movie Review: Blech. Just...blech.
Summary: 2 Stars
THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL is one of those big Westerns from the 60s, but rather than a straight Western, it's a "comedy." John Gay's script lacks jokes and humor, and John Sturges' direction does not make for a really enjoyable 2 hours and 35 minutes. The acting is fair at best, with the major exception of Donald Pleasance, who is marvelous as Oracle Jones. Watch his prophecy at the beggining of the film; it's a real gem. Elmer Bernstein provides a memorable title theme. But overall, it does not make this film worth you while.(It seems suprisingly low-budget.) MGM's mediocre DVD(solely utilizing the trimmed general release print, but with Overture, Intermission, Entr'Acte, and Exit Music) raises questions as to what extra was in the original 167 minute roadshow version(though for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would reserve seats for this.If anyone can give me information supporting the fact that this film was wildly popular on first appearance, kindly post it on this website.
-Jamie Teller
Movie Review: DVD Review (NON Anamorphic)
Summary: 2 Stars
As others have mentioned there are artifacts on the DVD transfer. Plus ..... this DVD is NOT Anamorphic as stated. My copy is 4x3 LETTERBOX with either 2.20 or 2.35 screen format.
Studios still need to release a proper transfer, because mine being LETTERBOXED I have to Zoom which magnifies the image to fill the 52" WS LCD so there are less black bars top and bottom. This means I see the artifacts even more in Zoom mode ... ;-)
Well at least I have the movie !! Hope this review helps others !!