So looking over the westerns I've watched, it appears two me that I have only watched TWO westerns made before the 1960's (One of which being Vera Cruz, the other is High Noon). I've never seen a John Wayne movie. I think at some level this is purposeful. I generally wasn't interested in Westerns until about my Junior or Senior year of college. And this only arose specifically with Spaghetti Westerns. I suppose, I like the unAmerican western. The acid western, of course, why else would I have set off on my Acid Western craze. I'm not sure I can really say that Vera Cruz is a terribly traditional western though. There's a great deal of cynicism and some pretty casual violence, although next to no bloodshed. I really like Aldrich though, when I realized he directed it, I got a little more excited for the film. Kiss Me Deadly has got to be one of my more favorite film noirs. There's a nice and healthy amount of backstabbing in the film, or plotting to back stab. Cooper and Lancaster's "friendship" is a delicate one from the start. I was pretty involved in the film, hoping to figure out what was going to happen and I always like it when a movie gets me doing that. Both characters could be pretty villainous at times, and it grew difficult to figure out who was going to come out on top, or even if they could possibly work together. The film skirted the line between good and bad. Even with the generally kind, Cooper, he had enough of a reason to steal the gold, so it always seemed a little possible that he might. I was disappointed, however, how traditionally it ended. I was hoping for something a little less straight-forward and did a little more justice to the build-up. However, there was a lot of neat gun play and actually a lot of funny dialogue on the way there. I liked it very much!
Gary Cooper is SOOO jealous of Burt's teeth.
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