RAS-3

John Wayne's first starring role just blew me away. Televised letterbox style on AMC, I had to check and make sure I had the right date. Sure enough, this 1930 film was made using a 55 mm wide-screen process. Aside from that, it features some of the grittiest, most realistic footage of the trek west I've seen. Wagons, men and animals are really lowered down a cliff face by rope. Trees are chopped by burly men -- and burly women -- so the train can move another 10 feet. The Indians are not the "pretty boy" city slickers who portrayed them later; they're the real deal. A river crossing in a driving rain storm is so realistic, it has to be real (In fact, I understand that director Raoul Walsh nearly lost the entire cast during this sequence). I could smell the wet canvas. Each day is an agony. The various sub-plots are forgettable but the film as a whole is not. I can't think of another title that can beat The Big Trail in evoking a sense of living history on the trail to Oregon. Bravo.

This unmemorable trifle caught my attention with a contrived sub plot. The town curmudgeon is a Republican politician who must be defeated by the kinder and wiser Democrat. Why is the Republican so mean? He resists spending public funds on social engineering.

This 1933 film is surprisingly frank about the practice of using "customer girls" to promote commerce. A throw away line in this flic is an early indication of Hollywood leftist group think that now dominates the industry.

Flo (Loretta Young) explains to Maizee (Winnie Lightner) why she once loved a two-timing salesman:

Flo: He was different once. Maizee: Yeah, and so was the Republican Party.

It would be easy to characterize The Jack Bull as a formula western -- it has all the elements: Myrl Redding (Cusak), the righteous hero; lawmen corrupted by the villainous land baron, Henry Ballard (L.Q. Jones) and the showdown. But it's much more than that. Like Lonesome Dove, Jack Bull explores the character and individualism which marked the nineteenth century American west, and our eternal slavishness to political exigencies.

Never a John Cusak fan, I nevertheless found his performance as Myrl Redding superb. The film's only serious shortcoming is the distracting clutter created by today's obligatory -- and in this instance forced -- statement about our mistreatment of the American Indian. Other than that, I found the film compelling. Rating -- 8 out of 10.

Saving Private Ryan was two films, for me. The opening Omaha Beach landing sequence of 'Ryan' produced the most intense feeling I've ever experienced while watching a movie. Spielberg manages to trap history in a bottle and the sights and sounds -- especially the sounds -- are terrifying. Like the car chase in Steve McQueen's 'Bullit', Spielberg sets a marker that will hard to duplicate. After it was over I fully felt deserving of a campaign ribbon to wear on my polo shirt.

Having thus been promised a peek into history, I was overly disappointed with Part II which degenerates into just a good action flic. Spielberg junks historical accuracy for post Vietnam sensibilities. Captain John Miller (Hanks) and his squad of Rangers are portrayed as post Vietnam philosophers who dwell on the unfairness of having to risk their lives for a political necessity -- saving the fictional Private Ryan. In point of fact, the loss of the five Sullivan brothers when their ship, the USS Juneau, was sunk in 1942 resulted in changed Navy policy about allowing brothers to serve on the same ship. The public wanted (but never got) a law to that effect. So, the idea of saving Private Ryan would not have struck these 1944 Rangers as particularly odd. The movie, though, portrays Gen. George C. Marshall as a callous political hack for recognizing this exigency. While the World War II grunt fought for the same reason all grunts fight -- honor (cowardice, at least in 1944, was still viewed as more distasteful than death), these guys need fulfillment.

Other lapses continued to shake me out of my trance. A cameo appearance by Ted Danson, for instance, seemed out of place and I found myself thinking about Normy and Carla on Omaha Beach, and the pre-production Hollywood party when Spielberg says, "say Ted, if you're not doing anything tomorrow... ." Later, this squad of savvy Rangers is seen marching in file on the crest of a ridge, fully back-lit by the moon. Hardly something out of the Ranger survival guide. The action sequences, as always in a Spielberg production, were terrific, but by the end of Part 2 I was cynical about Spielberg's motives. Rated 8 out of 10 overall.