William A. Fraker's "Monte Walsh" is another bit of autumn
Here commemorated is the end of the cattle demand, and its key personality
Nothing in terms of Westerns can be deplorable than that
Blessed with the best of beginnings, a novel by Jack Schaefer, who gave a similar sound basis for "Shane," this depressed, impressive picture is a requiem for the cowboy... The cowboy superfluous and looking for a shop-keeping job; big business moving in from the East to rationalize; a cow town with an air of an early stage ghost town Any cowhand worth his coffee and beans could be forgiven for providing the thought: far better to go out in gun-blaze like the "Wild Bunch."
There are violent happenings in "Monte Walsh," which had Arizona locations, but not violent-spectacular Controlled melancholy covers them as it does everything else
Two grizzled characters, Lee Marvin and Jack Palance, who have both known better cow-punching times, ride into Harmony, another distant relative of the town portrayed in "Shane," and think themselves lucky to get jobs on an old ranch Among the new ranch hands is Mitch Ryan, who is determined to break a wild gray stallion The rheumy eye of Marvin still takes expert note
Relaxation for the two aging cowboys consists of a saloon-gal for Marvin (Jeanne Moreau, making both her U.S. and Western debut) and a widow (Allyn Ann Mclerie) with a hardware store for Palance, who ultimately makes a choice for marrying the store owner
The film is a realistic Western developed in an unhurried style with the emphasis on character and on the real drudgery of frontier life
Blessed with the best of beginnings, a novel by Jack Schaefer, who gave a similar sound basis for "Shane," this depressed, impressive picture is a requiem for the cowboy... The cowboy superfluous and looking for a shop-keeping job; big business moving in from the East to rationalize; a cow town with an air of an early stage ghost town Any cowhand worth his coffee and beans could be forgiven for providing the thought: far better to go out in gun-blaze like the "Wild Bunch."
There are violent happenings in "Monte Walsh," which had Arizona locations, but not violent-spectacular Controlled melancholy covers them as it does everything else
Two grizzled characters, Lee Marvin and Jack Palance, who have both known better cow-punching times, ride into Harmony, another distant relative of the town portrayed in "Shane," and think themselves lucky to get jobs on an old ranch Among the new ranch hands is Mitch Ryan, who is determined to break a wild gray stallion The rheumy eye of Marvin still takes expert note
Relaxation for the two aging cowboys consists of a saloon-gal for Marvin (Jeanne Moreau, making both her U.S. and Western debut) and a widow (Allyn Ann Mclerie) with a hardware store for Palance, who ultimately makes a choice for marrying the store owner
The film is a realistic Western developed in an unhurried style with the emphasis on character and on the real drudgery of frontier life