..and they're coming real soon."
What ever became of Lee Marvin? I had to wonder almost all the while watching Monte Walsh. He sure was a hell of a good looking man, but more, this story felt like it fit him like second skin, like it was telling his tale, the tale of a man who was the last of a breed. Too, it was a timely tale of a time that was no more, of a West that was slowly fading from memory, with towns drying up or going civilized, with ranches disappearing and being consolidated by Eastern cattle syndicates, where grub stakes and fence riders gave the way to "capital" and wild west shows. It was almost hard to watch, all those references to lay offs and looking for the next best thing over the rainbow, up around the bend, in another town that only wants your soul and could give a damn about your best interests. It felt all too real, and then, when the reality would just about buckle the film, Lee Marvin and Jack Palance (doing a complete turnaround on this bad ol' gunslinger moment in Shane) would make you crack up, steal away the tension and bust it like a mean ol' bronc.
It's easy to watch those old revisionist Westerns, as they come across as being more authentic and gritty and "real" than those old classic Howard Hawk or John Ford Westerns ever could be. Not that I would turn a blind eye to Red River or Shane or My Darling Clementine. It's just that cut of 70's Western cloth is more appealing. It's what I used to watch in the movie houses growing up. No black hats, no singing cowboys, no strong men tall in the saddle, just cowpokes going from ranch to ranch looking for work. Just broken down men holding onto the end of the great Cowboy Dream. Maybe Anthony Mann noirish Westerns played too big of an influence in my life and I just didn't know it. Maybe Peckinpah and his Wild Bunch, or better yet, Junior Bonner, showed me a different path that a hard working, idealistic and somewhat non-rulebook embracing cowpoke could take in this world once he understood and appreciated that the plains were fenced, the towns were policed and the churches took over, leaving the heart of man on the dusty floors of the shuttered saloons and whorehouses.
It's been years since I've seen Monte Walsh in any capacity. I was happy to stumble upon a coph of it on tape. I watched with interest, sighed and laughed and thought for a moment or two that "this film is just a bit too real for me". Then I would look at that lovely craggy smile that Lee Marvin would throw up against the screen and know that it was just a movie. That the real world out there hasn't quite shook me off yet like a wild bronc, that the love of my life hasn't been whisked off by consumption, just religion, and that the world of work still awaits me out there, somewhere down the road and over the horizon. I just hope that I look as good as Lee Marvfn at the end of the day, at the end of the ride, at the end of that last roll of fence wire.
Action!
Lee Marvin bio, great quotes:
I wouldn't know about the Tom Selleck teleplay, I watched Fraker's directorial debut of Monte Walsh. If you want to see it, it'll be a bit of a trick. Catch on TMC if you can. Oh, and this overview stinks:
Nice conversation about Monte Walsh and Lee Marvin on Technicolor Dream blogsite:
http://christiandivine.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/monte-walsh-1970/
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