m-sileo
Joined Jan 2013
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Ratings28.6K
m-sileo's rating
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m-sileo's rating
It begins as a simple mission and ends up as a portrait of a captain in the final stretch of a life already lived to the fullest. Wayne plays it differently here, quieter, more introspective, carrying the weight of decades of service and fully aware that retirement is breathing down his neck.
From the start, there's a crepuscular tone in the air. The narration sets a warm, nostalgic mood, as if we were watching the last light fade on an entire era. The fort, the rituals, the routines, the small conflicts, all of it feels like the remnants of a world slowly disappearing.
Captain Brittles is the emotional core. Every time he checks his watch, the same one that later becomes such a meaningful gesture, you feel the passage of time press harder than any external threat. The best parts of the character are in the small moments: visiting his wife's grave, hesitating, remembering. That's where you see the human side of a solitary, honorable man who left romance behind long ago and only wants to finish his last mission with dignity.
There are powerful scenes, like the reunion with his Native friend, where both acknowledge that the younger generation no longer follows the same codes. That sense of a world changing too fast runs through the entire film.
Visually, it's stunning. Ford shoots the landscapes with the kind of scope only cinema can offer: vast horizons, cavalry in motion, colors that look almost painted. In those small gestures-the woman sewing a flag, the gift of the watch, a brief exchange, you feel the affection for tradition, camaraderie, and a way of life nearing its end.
It's a western with heart and humanity, a blend of epic and melancholy that leaves you thinking not just about what's gained, but about everything that slips away.
From the start, there's a crepuscular tone in the air. The narration sets a warm, nostalgic mood, as if we were watching the last light fade on an entire era. The fort, the rituals, the routines, the small conflicts, all of it feels like the remnants of a world slowly disappearing.
Captain Brittles is the emotional core. Every time he checks his watch, the same one that later becomes such a meaningful gesture, you feel the passage of time press harder than any external threat. The best parts of the character are in the small moments: visiting his wife's grave, hesitating, remembering. That's where you see the human side of a solitary, honorable man who left romance behind long ago and only wants to finish his last mission with dignity.
There are powerful scenes, like the reunion with his Native friend, where both acknowledge that the younger generation no longer follows the same codes. That sense of a world changing too fast runs through the entire film.
Visually, it's stunning. Ford shoots the landscapes with the kind of scope only cinema can offer: vast horizons, cavalry in motion, colors that look almost painted. In those small gestures-the woman sewing a flag, the gift of the watch, a brief exchange, you feel the affection for tradition, camaraderie, and a way of life nearing its end.
It's a western with heart and humanity, a blend of epic and melancholy that leaves you thinking not just about what's gained, but about everything that slips away.
It feels more like a tribute to the great Chris Farley than a true documentary. It doesn't try to dig deeply into the darker sides of his life; it barely touches on them and quickly moves on, mentioning rehab but not the causes behind it. And yet it still works, especially in the first half, where friends and family recount how this shy kid, desperate to belong, became such a unique comedian.
The archival material is excellent: the footage from Second City and Saturday Night Live showcases Farley's almost supernatural physical energy and his total commitment to making people laugh. Seeing the origins of characters like Matt Foley is a real highlight, as are the home videos that reveal a generous, big-hearted guy.
The film gently suggests that SNL was both his big break and the place that wore him down the most. But it makes its intention clear: to celebrate how brilliant, brief, and unforgettable Farley was. It isn't a deep portrait, but it is a loving one, capturing the essential thing- the joy he brought. And for someone who lived to make people laugh, that might be the best tribute possible.
It also features strong interviews from Adam Sandler, Bob Odenkirk, Bo Derek, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd, his brothers, and many others.
The archival material is excellent: the footage from Second City and Saturday Night Live showcases Farley's almost supernatural physical energy and his total commitment to making people laugh. Seeing the origins of characters like Matt Foley is a real highlight, as are the home videos that reveal a generous, big-hearted guy.
The film gently suggests that SNL was both his big break and the place that wore him down the most. But it makes its intention clear: to celebrate how brilliant, brief, and unforgettable Farley was. It isn't a deep portrait, but it is a loving one, capturing the essential thing- the joy he brought. And for someone who lived to make people laugh, that might be the best tribute possible.
It also features strong interviews from Adam Sandler, Bob Odenkirk, Bo Derek, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd, his brothers, and many others.
Absolute masterpiece. Not just for its atmosphere or pacing, but for the depth of its characters and the way it uses familiar western imagery to tell something far more complex. It's one of those unusual westerns that begin with the genre's classic elements-outlaws fleeing the law, a ghost town, the lure of gold-and transforms them into an intense study of morality, temptation, and redemption.
The film opens with a bang: Stretch (Gregory Peck) leads his gang through a bank robbery and into a desperate escape across the salt flats, in a brutal sequence that reminds you how punishing the desert can be. It's a true via crucis: hardened men reduced to gasping, half-dead creatures, symbolically purified before being "reborn" in Yellow Sky. As in Shakespeare's The Tempest, the desert works as a biblical sea that transforms them long before they realize it.
The ghost town is no promised land, but a perverted one: a place whose very name evokes both gold fever and a sickly, contaminated sky. After days of agony, the outlaws stumble upon Mike (Anne Baxter) and her grandfather, the only inhabitants left. Their first encounter is magnetic: she appears pointing a rifle, fierce and unyielding-an absolute warrior. When the old man considers giving up, Mike is the one who refuses, flipping traditional roles and giving the film a surprisingly progressive tone.
It quickly becomes clear that the desert and the ghost town aren't the story's true center, but the backdrop that lets the script focus on what really matters: human interaction. The tension doesn't come from Indian attacks or big showdowns, but from constant negotiations and moral standoffs between people forced to share a confined, unsettling space, cut off from the world.
Dude (Richard Widmark) intensifies this internal conflict. Elegant, manipulative, always watching from the shadows, Widmark plays a character who practically embodies temptation. His black wardrobe, sly grin, and posture echo classical Devil imagery. He is the tempter, the accuser, the serpent who stirs greed and lust in the others as he plots to steal Stretch's leadership.
Stretch, by contrast, follows a path of Christian redemption: doubt, fall, repentance, a promise sworn on the Bible, a symbolic wound to the hand, and finally the moral courage to confront the evil he helped unleash. Between him and Dude lies a moral duel-two possible paths, two worldviews, two spiritual destinies.
In this atmosphere thick with symbolism, gold becomes a kind of original sin. From the first shot of the nuggets on the table-like a demonic offering-to the betrayals and deaths they provoke, gold is the corrupting force at the film's core. And yet the film never loses its humanity: the relationship between Stretch and Mike unfolds organically. She mistrusts him, he insists, they resist their feelings, and somehow, in all the chaos, they find a way to recognize each other.
Holding all this together is Joseph MacDonald's ruthless black-and-white cinematography. The deep shadows, the gritty texture of the desert, the decayed interiors of Yellow Sky... every frame has the expressive power of top-tier film noir.
And then comes the ending. What any other western would turn into a grand shootout happens offscreen. We don't see anyone fall. We only hear the gunshots and watch the men drift in and out of the frame, walking toward their fate. Wellman's choice isn't stylistic convenience-it's moral. By keeping the climax invisible, he transforms the violence into a ritual of redemption. It's no longer a spectacle; it becomes something spiritual, almost religious.
An astonishing, singular western-one that uses the genre's bones to explore the corrosive pull of greed, the possibility of redemption, and the strange, haunting space between the two.
The film opens with a bang: Stretch (Gregory Peck) leads his gang through a bank robbery and into a desperate escape across the salt flats, in a brutal sequence that reminds you how punishing the desert can be. It's a true via crucis: hardened men reduced to gasping, half-dead creatures, symbolically purified before being "reborn" in Yellow Sky. As in Shakespeare's The Tempest, the desert works as a biblical sea that transforms them long before they realize it.
The ghost town is no promised land, but a perverted one: a place whose very name evokes both gold fever and a sickly, contaminated sky. After days of agony, the outlaws stumble upon Mike (Anne Baxter) and her grandfather, the only inhabitants left. Their first encounter is magnetic: she appears pointing a rifle, fierce and unyielding-an absolute warrior. When the old man considers giving up, Mike is the one who refuses, flipping traditional roles and giving the film a surprisingly progressive tone.
It quickly becomes clear that the desert and the ghost town aren't the story's true center, but the backdrop that lets the script focus on what really matters: human interaction. The tension doesn't come from Indian attacks or big showdowns, but from constant negotiations and moral standoffs between people forced to share a confined, unsettling space, cut off from the world.
Dude (Richard Widmark) intensifies this internal conflict. Elegant, manipulative, always watching from the shadows, Widmark plays a character who practically embodies temptation. His black wardrobe, sly grin, and posture echo classical Devil imagery. He is the tempter, the accuser, the serpent who stirs greed and lust in the others as he plots to steal Stretch's leadership.
Stretch, by contrast, follows a path of Christian redemption: doubt, fall, repentance, a promise sworn on the Bible, a symbolic wound to the hand, and finally the moral courage to confront the evil he helped unleash. Between him and Dude lies a moral duel-two possible paths, two worldviews, two spiritual destinies.
In this atmosphere thick with symbolism, gold becomes a kind of original sin. From the first shot of the nuggets on the table-like a demonic offering-to the betrayals and deaths they provoke, gold is the corrupting force at the film's core. And yet the film never loses its humanity: the relationship between Stretch and Mike unfolds organically. She mistrusts him, he insists, they resist their feelings, and somehow, in all the chaos, they find a way to recognize each other.
Holding all this together is Joseph MacDonald's ruthless black-and-white cinematography. The deep shadows, the gritty texture of the desert, the decayed interiors of Yellow Sky... every frame has the expressive power of top-tier film noir.
And then comes the ending. What any other western would turn into a grand shootout happens offscreen. We don't see anyone fall. We only hear the gunshots and watch the men drift in and out of the frame, walking toward their fate. Wellman's choice isn't stylistic convenience-it's moral. By keeping the climax invisible, he transforms the violence into a ritual of redemption. It's no longer a spectacle; it becomes something spiritual, almost religious.
An astonishing, singular western-one that uses the genre's bones to explore the corrosive pull of greed, the possibility of redemption, and the strange, haunting space between the two.
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