Monte Walsh (2003)
Monte Walsh (2003)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 01:52:02 | 4,48 Gb
Audio: Spanish, English - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps (each track) | Subs: None
Genre: Western
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 01:52:02 | 4,48 Gb
Audio: Spanish, English - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps (each track) | Subs: None
Genre: Western
Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins are long-time cowhands, working whatever ranch work comes their way, but "nothing they can't do from a horse." Their lives are divided between months on the range and the occasional trip into town. Monte has a long-term relationship with prostitute Martine Bernard, while Chet has fallen under the spell of the widow who owns the hardware store. Camaraderie and competition with the other cowboys fill their days, until one of the hands, Shorty Austin, loses his job and gets involved in rustling and killing. Then Monte and Chet find that their lives on the range are inexorably redirected.
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Monte Walsh (2003)
I haven't seen director William A. Fraker's 1970 big-screen version of Monte Walsh in a dog's age (nor have I read the original novel by Jack Schaefer), so I won't draw any comparisons to this cable version, but I will say that I've never seen Tom Selleck shown to better advantage than in this beautifully simple, elegiac western. It's his finest performance, with a character tailor-made to his maturing cinematic persona. Selleck re-teams again with director Simon Wincer, but quite the opposite from their lighthearted, action-packed Crossfire Trails romp, Monte Walsh is a mournful, sad coda for a disappearing West, mirrored in Monte's gradual realization that he has no worth, no place in the changing nature of the land and the country.
Monte Walsh (2003)
![Monte Walsh (2003)]()
Humorous moments do appear in Monte Walsh. The opening sequence (quite expertly paced and directed by Wincer) shows Walsh causing some trouble for an attorney who treats some young boys unkindly; Walsh's practical joke is as much to amuse himself in the jerkwater backstop he finds himself, as it is to "punish" the attorney. There's a riotous, genuinely hysterical sequence where the cowboys, having good-naturedly forced stinky cook Skimpy Eagens (William Sanderson) to take a bath, suffer from diarrhea at the hands of the upset chef, and there's a bunk house fight that winds up in laughter when the participants forget why they were fighting in the first place.
Monte Walsh (2003)
![Monte Walsh (2003)]()
But before and after each of these sequences, scenes of despondency and loss and deep, deep regret bracket them, giving even the humorous scenes a feeling of whistling in the dark for the characters who (already living an isolated, lonely life to begin with) are fighting a losing battle against "progress" and time. The Western as a film genre is almost always grounded in an events-passed, remembrance structure (excluding "modern" westerns), so even the most dynamic, most exhilarating, most action-packed Western with little on its mind, still has a sheen of times long gone, of commemoration of a vanished way of life. What joyful scenes there are in Monte Walsh ultimately feel even sadder when we see how little impact they have on staving back the inevitable melancholy felt by the forlorn cowboys (certainly the tragic suicide of isolated "Fighting Joe" Hooker, played perfectly by James Gammon, illustrates this well).
Monte Walsh (2003)
![Monte Walsh (2003)]()
Indirectly, Monte Walsh also points out the emptiness of the coming corporate culture (epitomized by Consolidated Cattle's odious Robert Slocum, nicely played by John Michael Higgins), where the individual means nothing, and his life, his way of living, connect in no way with his work or his means (perhaps this was why the western proved so popular during that most openly pro-corporate decade in America, the 1950s). As well, Monte Walsh gives a nicely layered approach to the film's only major dramatic element - the crimes of Shorty and his eventual death - by refusing to judge the character too harshly as a black-and-white villain. He isn't let off for his crimes. He's guilty, and Monte's sense of justice demands he dies for his crimes. But ultimately we feel pity (not sorrow) for Shorty, who is as lost as the other characters in a frontier that no longer has any use for his talents. Some heavyweight talent worked on the Monte Walsh screenplay (Robert B. Parker, David Z. Goodman and Michael Brandman), and it shows with the film's careful attention to maintain a consistent vision, a glum dirge to the vanishing cowboy way of life.
Monte Walsh (2003)
![Monte Walsh (2003)]()
Selleck, careful to stay limited and small in those scenes that could have been overplayed for pathos, is letter-perfect as the sadly romantic Monte. His scenes with Isabella Rossellini have a genuine spark of chemistry between the two (she looks quite pleased to be playing opposite the manly Selleck); she's such an instinctive, intuitive actor that she brings out the very best in Selleck's romantic scenes. The Monte character is a tough role for any actor to play. He has to first embody some kind of outsized persona, some gravitas (as did Lee Marvin in the 1970 film version) that the viewer can identify with and care about, and can empathize with once the character is established as falling through the cracks of a careless world. And then, that actor has to live up to the sense of tragedy that infuses Monte, who embodies an honorable way of life that, much to his surprise (because he probably never thought of it before), holds no meaning for anyone anymore. Selleck fits the bill on both counts here, and he's simply outstanding.
Monte Walsh (2003)
Special Features: Star/Director/Writer Film Highlights
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