Although a beautiful, finely made film, this is also the saddest Western I’ve ever seen, tragic to the point of heartbreak. This makes sense since it takes an unflinching look at the real frontier experience and is definitely not some Hollywood fantasy. Three women in mid-19th Century Nebraska go mad from the strain of living on the raw, empty prairie. Unable to care for them, local folk decide to send them back East, a migration in reverse.

Hilary Swank gives an outstanding performance as Mary Bee Cuddy, the finest, truest example of a brave, good frontier woman in film I’ve ever seen, better even than Jean Arthur in Shane. I deeply admired her character as the movie went on and empathized with her struggles and disappointments, many at the hands of thoughtless, callous men. Her tragic, unexpected end simply made me want to weep.

On the other hand, George Briggs, the protagonist played by Tommy Lee Jones (who also directed), is the sorriest excuse for a Western hero who ever forked a horse. A larcenous, lying, shiftless drifter who thinks exclusively of himself, rescued from hanging by Cuddy’s unexpected arrival, Briggs’s sluggish development of the rudiments of a conscience as he travels with Cuddy and the madwomen back to Iowa constitutes the story’s moral arc. Despite occasional kindness and displays of frontier savvy and toughness, Briggs is never fully sympathetic, with instances throughout the film of his general bad character and others’ contempt and disregard for him. Jones gives his usual professional performance, completely committed to the role, unpleasant as it is.

Jones also did an outstanding job directing. Long shots of the bare, unforgiving Nebraskan plains with miserable sod huts cut into low hills to escape the punishing wind, effective backstories showing how each poor, suffering woman went mad, accurate mise-en-scene with authentic period detail throughout, and strong performances all around by well cast actors. Three particular standouts are John Lithgow as a good hearted, frontier minister; Tim Blake Nelson in a brief, but effective turn in one of his signature rustic roles, and Meryl Streep as the minister’s wife who takes the madwomen into her home in Iowa.

The film’s last scene is especially effective: the incorrigible reprobate Briggs dances and sings aboard a ferry headed back West, accompanied by a banjo and bones, with strong intimations of his own imminent death. Jones shows grace and style in this scene and I’m certain he meant to evoke the famous 19th Century painting of a young man dancing aboard a flatboat. Yet rather than evoke images of hope, progress, and growth, the conclusion only hints at more miserable violence.

This is a good Western, but not for folks who prefer stuff like Gene Autry or John Wayne flicks.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2398231/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://www.amazon.com/Homesman-Tommy-Lee-Jones/dp/B00PM6G5TW/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+homesman&qid=1589077847&sr=8-1

This is a hardboiled, downright brutal at times, Australian “Western” along the lines of The Proposition, but with a more stripped down plot and a deeper focus on the nation-continent’s racism, specifically white persecution of aboriginals.

Set in 1922, the film puts you in the middle of things from the start: three white policeman in the bush, sent to catch a fugitive aboriginal accused of murdering a white woman, led by an aboriginal tracker. Rather than names, the  mythical aspect is stressed through calling the characters by terms that describe their personalities, the Fanatic, the senior policeman, the Follower, a raw, new recruit, and the Veteran, a saddened, weary, older man.

As you can probably guess from his name, the Fanatic is just that, a miserable, sadistic racist who delights in the abuse and murder of aboriginals. Despite continual setbacks, largely his own fault, he drives the search party on to catch their quarry, always demanding absolute obedience and control. Most of his abuse is reserved for the Tracker, the smiling, deferential aboriginal guide who patiently plods ahead on  foot while the whites ride on horseback, as his keen, bush savvy eyes unerringly pick out the escaping Fugitive’s path.

Despite his complete underdog status, regarded as less than human by the whites, especially the vicious Fanatic, the Tracker quickly proves to have carefully hidden reserves of cunning, resourcefulness, and knowledge the whites consider him simply incapable of possessing. He’s brilliantly underplayed by the aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, who was also in The Proposition. One way or another, he continually gets the better of the Fanatic as he leads the whites further into the bush. Gary Sweet also gives a good performance as the Fanatic, practically foaming at the mouth in his murderous frenzy to abuse aboriginals, men, women, and children alike, made all the more terrifying by his staring, intense, pale blue eyes.

There are frequent scenes of brutality against aboriginals with the worst depicted through shots of Mother Hubbard style primitive paintings. It’s still tough to watch and made even more horrible by knowing such behavior was not only condoned, but frequently honored. The Follower, played by Damon Gameau, has an interesting story arc as he steadily grows more repulsed by the Fanatic’s indiscriminate slaughter. Like any good Western, landscape is one of the most important characters.  The Tracker is deeply satisfying from that aspect as well with frequent, long, lyrical tracking shots of Australia’s bush, from rocky, lifeless plains to endless, rugged mountain vistas covered with scrub, as awe inspiring in its worn, weathered way as the American West. Most interesting of all are the aboriginal characters, especially those at the end who remain true to the ancient traditions, ominously rattling long spears at a white intruder.

I recommend this film to anyone who likes a good Western or those interested in Australian history, warts and all. Viewer be warned, however. Like The Proposition, you’ll need a pretty strong stomach to watch this one.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212132/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-David-Gulpilil/dp/B01M25W77R/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=the+tracker&qid=1588299449&sr=8-8

I’ve come across some bizarre characters in biographies, particularly American bios for some reason. We may not be exceptional in other ways, but we sure lead the pack in producing notable head cases. Two salient examples are Howard Hughes and L. Ron Hubbard.

Yet of all the oddballs I’ve encountered, Charles Lindbergh is one of the strangest cats I’ve ever read about. Possibly the best pilot this country ever produced, undoubtedly brave with a brilliant, scientific mind, Lindbergh was a bundle of strange impulses and drives whose repellent qualities, most particularly his obsessive racism and anti-Semitism, made it difficult to sympathize with him, even considering his child’s kidnapping, one of the most notorious incidents of the 1930’s.

Of Swedish descent (this surprised me given his German name and notorious Teutonophilia), Lindbergh was from a second marriage with a large age gap between the parents and Lindbergh their only child. His wealthy father served as a Congressman. Lindbergh basically grew up with his mother, a controlling, distant woman who largely home schooled him. Due to this and being constantly on the move, Lindbergh spent no time with other children, a significant factor in his remote character and serious empathy deficiency. If Lindbergh wasn’t born with Asberger’s syndrome, his mom provided the right environment to make him that way with results good and bad. Lindbergh’s powers of will and concentration were superhuman, with outstanding results as a pilot. On the other hand, Lindbergh was aloof all his life. He also had engineer’s disease: he was always right about absolutely everything.

The bio moves briskly through Lindbergh’s early days as a pilot, the stupendous Atlantic crossing, a feat of courage, endurance, and will never to be matched again, the ensuing fame and adulation that was a curse for the painfully shy Lindbergh, his marriage to writer Anne Morrow that he designed as carefully as a blueprint for a new plane, her life together with this incredibly controlling man, and the awful kidnapping. The author efficiently summarizes the evidence, making it plain Hauptmann was guilty. Despite this awful tragedy, Lindbergh is less than sympathetic even here. Rather than let the police investigate, he took over, wasting time and money listening to obvious con men.

Charles and Anne moved on, having more kids along the way. Always in demand as a leading aviation expert and a huge celebrity, Lindbergh was sought after, nowhere more so than in Nazi Germany where Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering invited Lindbergh to see the newly revived air industry. Lindbergh accepted and happily swallowed the Nazi doctrine.

This is the worst aspect of Lindbergh’s personality (and he had a lot). He was a hardcore white supremacist, convinced civilization was about to be destroyed by black, brown, and yellow hordes, all insidiously controlled by Jews. Lindbergh became involved in the isolationist America First movement, openly siding with Hitler in the war’s early years before American entry into the conflict. This led to his reputation being seriously tarnished, no longer considered the brave, handsome, young man who embodied American values.

Lindbergh moved past this to some extent, becoming involved in aircraft production during WWII, even finally figuring how to get to the Pacific front where he flew fifty combat missions as a civilian, well into middle age. In postwar years he traveled, working diligently as an environmentalist. He also found time to have children in Germany with three separate women while still married to Anne and micromanaging her life and their kids when he was home. It was bigamy and very big of him too. This alone illustrates what an odd, almost sociopathic personality Lindbergh had.

This is a good biography, fast paced and easy to read. Ms. Fleming’s bibliography shows her previous books were in the young adult and middle grade fields, which may explain her gift for straightforward explanation and a highly readable narrative.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in aviation, 20th Century American history, and those who like a good read about a weird dude.

https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Charles-Lindbergh-ebook/dp/B07SZQQB9K/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W5N742YQB4X5&dchild=1&keywords=the+rise+and+fall+of+charles+lindbergh&qid=1586654617&sprefix=the+rise+and+fall+of+charles%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50746168-the-rise-and-fall-of-charles-lindbergh?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=PfmaS4tS6S&rank=1

According to the IMDB webpage for The Texan, although one of hundreds made by Paramount whose rights were sold for TV distribution in the industry’s early days, this film has apparently NEVER been broadcast until March 2020, a gap of nearly a century since it was last seen. It’s paradoxically a pity the film went so long unviewed and simultaneously delightful it’s been recently unearthed for modern film fans to see. And The Texan is absolutely worth watching, a fast moving, well scripted, pre-Code gem based on an O. Henry story.

Cooper plays the Llano Kid, a larcenous Texas outlaw, quick with his pistol, with a knack for evading the law. He falls in with Thacker, ably and gruffly played by Oscar Apfel, a con man with a proposal. Thacker knows a wealthy Mexican widow who pines for her son who ran away years ago. He asks the Kid to pose as the son so they can cheat the widow out of her money. Although initially reluctant, the Kid’s mercenary instincts prompt him to go along. In Mexico, the Kid meets the widow, Dona Ibarra (somewhat overplayed by Emma Dunn) and his gorgeous, friendly cousin, Counsuelo, a perfectly lovely Fay Wray, hard to recognize here as a brunette and doing a passably accurate Mexican accent.

Cooper’s Kid is a type he played to perfection in later years, a tough, capable cowboy, able to handle conflict, but tonguetied when emotion is involved, especially with women. As his character spends time with Dona Ibarra, you watch his reserve worn down by her overpowering, unconditional love. She loves him like a mother and the Kid comes to love Dona Ibarra as a son. This leads to a climactic scene where the Kid tersely but eloquently tells Thacker he wants no further part of his miserable scheme.  Cooper shows strong acting talent here. Cooper’s rejection of Thacker leads to a violent shootout at the film’s end. With no further spoilers, the film comes to a satisfying dramatic conclusion.

Cooper wasn’t even 30 when he made this film and he’s a delight to see. Smooth featured (this was decades before his face lift), impossibly long and lean, a true top cowhand just as much at ease in the saddle as on foot, endowed with natural style and poise, Cooper looks fantastic in a flat hat and short vest, particularly when he dresses as a vaquero in Mexico with high boots, a serape, and a long, braided quirt. His acting was good throughout the film with even a flash of his impish humor when Dona Ibarra serves the Llano Kid a typical American meal of doughnuts, pickles, and apple pie. Fay Wray was a very beautiful woman and did a good job with the limited part she had as the romantic interest. Strong support was provided by James A. Marcus as the Bible spouting, pistol toting Texas sheriff John Brown.

Anybody who’s a fan of Gary Cooper or Western movies (can there be any gap between those two sets?) needs to see this film right away!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021463/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://www.amazon.com/Texan-Gary-Cooper/dp/B0856VJK9H/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=the+texan&qid=1586142203&sr=8-4

He probably wants to steal everything you have and make you his slave.