Bud Boetticher (1916-2001) was an American film director who can be held in high esteem simply for six low-budget westerns, Seven Men from Now, The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, and Comanche Station. He achieved his major breakthrough when he teamed up with actor Randolph Scott and screenwriter Burt Kennedy to make the first film listed above in 1956. Spanning a four-year partnership, all six films are crafted with care and precision, despite some factual inaccuracies. The cinematography offers tight places within the Alabama Hills, juxtaposed to wide grand vistas, and pastoral surprises. He would stop panning and hold the camera for a moment, taking in the natural beauty near Lone Pine, California.
These bare-bones westerns made good use of Randolph Scott as a quiet, somewhat alienated hero on a journey through a hostile landscape, crossing paths with self-serving villains. His graceful, economic physicality or his calm use of his voice is consistently compelling. Always playing a character of few words, he out-Coopered Gary Cooper. Scott's screen presence glues these films together and one cannot help but like these charming and self-assured roles.
No comments:
Post a Comment