The Ballad of Lefty Brown: The Sidekick Rides for Vengeance

Old Lefty Brown’s riding mates have gone on to great things. One is now the governor of Montana and another is a U.S. Marshall. Perhaps most impressively, his partner Edward Johnson is the great state’s senator-elect. Brown ought to sign up with a lobbying firm and peddle access, but that is a city-slicker thing to do. He’s an open range cowboy all the way. It becomes a moot point anyway when Johnson is murdered by outlaws. Brown was always the comic relief, but like Sam Spade, he understands a man has to do something when their partner gets killed. Not a lot of people ever took the sixty-five-year-old bunkhouse cowpoke seriously, but he rides for vengeance anyway in Jared Moshe’s The Ballad of Lefty Brown (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Johnson was a respected rancher, lawman, an opponent of railroad interests. As we see in the opening scenes, he still dispensed justice frontier-style, with Brown right beside him. His wife Laura hoped their upcoming move to Washington would finally shake loose old Lefty, but Johnson was dead set on leaving him in charge of the ranch. Regrettably, that all changes when the two crusty partners walk into an ambush.

Poor, misunderestimated Brown is left alive to face the contempt of Johnson’s widow and ranch hands. Determined to settle the score, Brown sets off alone. Of course, nobody thinks he can do much of anything, so Gov. Jimmy Bierce dispatches Marshall Tom Harrah to retrieve him when they arrive for the funeral. However, Harrah finds his old riding mate is hot on the trail, so he temporarily joins the pursuit instead. Unfortunately, Brown will eventually find he has been denounced as an accomplice back at the ranch, just when he is most in need of help.

It is so refreshing to see a new western that respects the genre and what it represents, as is the case here. Ballad is definitely darker than your singing cowboy movies of yesteryear, but it is not exactly revisionist either. Moshe has obviously processed a whole lot of western cinema, but the films of Anthony Mann really jump out as a likely influence (which is a recommendation in itself).

He also gets an award caliber performance out of the always reliable Bill Pullman, possibly doing his best work since he was on Broadway in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? It is a tricky role playing the goofy sidekick forced to become deadly serious. In past eras, maybe a Walter Huston could have handled it, but he nails it cleanly. It is not just his partner who died, it is his way of life that is also slowly expiring, which viewers can just see in his sad, but still hawk-like eyes.

Jim Caviezel is entertainingly slimy as the governor, while Peter Fonda clearly enjoys his brief time riding tall in the saddle as the hard-nosed Johnson. However, Tommy Flanagan nearly steals the picture from Pullman, as the morally conflicted and profoundly haunted Marshall Harrah. It is a rich supporting turn, with range worthy of the frontier.

Clearly, just about everyone involved made the most of their opportunity to work a genuine western with an A-list cast, because Ballad looks just about perfect. Cinematographer David McFarland captures the sweep of the Montana plains and badlands and the design team gets all the period details right, in a Spartan kind of way, that never overshadows the grungy, archetypal drama. This is a film that people will definitely see over time, because there is a hunger out there for good westerns, like In a Valley of Violence and Slow West, but the target demo is naturally skeptical. Moshe’s film can hang with both those recent westerns, which is also saying something. Enthusiastically recommended, The Ballad of Lefty Brown opens this Friday (12/15) in New York, at the Village East.

Savannah: The Sort of True Tall Tale of Ward Allen

Ward Allen was like a grown-up version of Huck Finn.  The heir to one of Savannah’s largest plantations, Allen willingly renounced a life of privilege for a wild and woolly existence supplying fresh game to the city’s markets.  Unfortunately, the march of progress will not heed the angry editorials penned by the “Buffalo Bill of the River” in Annette Haywood-Carter’s Savannah (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

The Oxford educated Allen had a talent for blasting duck out of the sky.  Christmas Moultrie was a close second.  Savannah’s last child born into bondage, Moultrie had a long history with Allen’s family that evolved into a close camaraderie with Ward.  While this rather puzzles some of Allen’s would-be peers, his open defiance of modern game regulations often leads to more pressing problems with the law.  Despite his roguish carousing, Allen catches the eye of Lucy Stubbs, the headstrong daughter of Savannah’s least amused old money family.

Sadly, Allen was not cut out for the modern world, as viewers can easily deduce from the flashback structure.  Still, he left behind some colorful stories that Moultrie never tires of retelling in his twilight years.  In fact, those anecdotes formed the basis of John “Jack” Eugene Cay Jr.’s Ward Allen: Savannah River Market Hunter, the historical monograph on which Savannah is partly based.  Initially the Cay Family’s guide on river excursions, Moultrie forged a close relationship with the Cays that led to Savannah the film, co-produced and financed by Cay’s son, John.

Considering both Cays appear as characters in the wrap-around segments, it will be tempting for critics to dismiss Savannah as a vanity adaptation of a vanity publication, but there is more to it than that.  Frankly, it is an intriguing example of how tall tales and legends are passed down and codified in the digital age.  The relationship between Moultrie and both Allen and the Cays is also quite touching.  The near total lack of racial tension, aside from a flashback to Moultrie’s childhood, is obviously difficult to buy, but Savannah’s apolitical stance is frankly rather refreshing.

It is also easy to understand why Haywood-Carter was attracted to Allen as a historical and dramatic character.  Temperamentally too much of an anarchist to be considered a Southern Agrarian, Allen’s advocacy of a more natural, less mechanized lifestyle may well resonate with contemporary audiences (who do their hunting and gathering at Whole Foods).

Jim Caviezel is surprisingly charismatic as the reckless, larger than life Allen.  A bit of a departure for the Person of Interest star, he clearly seems to enjoy Allen’s boozing and bombastic Shakespeare quoting.  Hal Holbrooke also appears to be having a ball as Judge Harden, the acerbic jurist who passed the bar and was appointed to the bench only spend most of his career trying Allen for hunting season violations.

Evidently, the circumstances surrounding Allen’s marriage are the best sourced elements of the film, but they are also the dullest.  Nevertheless, Jaimie Alexander plays her with some welcome attitude and backbone.  However, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Moultrie mostly just stands about, looking vaguely pained by Allen’s self-destructive behavior.  On the other hand, he contributes the eerie blues rendition of “Wade in the Water” heard over the final credits.

The American south is often shortchanged by Hollywood films that too often reduce the cultural fertile region to a burning cross.  The reality was much more complicated than that.  At least Haywood-Carter and her co-screenwriter Kenneth F. Carter take a stab at a more balanced portrayal, but the results are certainly mixed.  Mainly recommended for those looking for the PBS Masterpiece Classic version of History Channel’s swamp people reality programming, Savannah opens this Friday (8/23) in New York at the AMC Empire, as well as theaters throughout the southeast.

The New Prisoner

In mathematics, six is the smallest perfect number, making it an appropriate designation for the unnamed protagonist of The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan’s cult 1960’s science fiction series. While the original Number 6 was a paragon of individuality, times have changed. In AMC’s three-night six-hour miniseries reboot, Number 6 now desperately clings to his sense of self in the face of a technological dystopia. Yet, Prisoner fans will be happy to hear Number 6’s mantra remains the same: “I am not a number, I am a free man.” They will have plenty more to compare, contrast, and debate when The Prisoner (trailer here) debuts this coming Sunday night.

A man wakes up in the middle of the desert. Though disoriented, he still rushes to help an elderly man fleeing an armed gang. Following the dying man’s instructions, he makes his way to the nearest settlement, a community of largely homogenous pre-fab buildings referred to simply as “The Village.” There are no names in The Village. Everyone is known only by their number. (According to the press kit, mine is 779). The reluctant new arrival is told he is and always has been Number 6, by Number 2, the supposedly benevolent ruler of this ostensibly happy community.

We quickly learn from early flashbacks the new Number 6 at least has a first name, Michael. We also know he recently resigned from a sensitive position at an electronic surveillance firm, but the true nature and location of The Village remains a mystery. As in the original series, Number 2 will wage a not-so cold war to break 6 of his headstrong individuality and convince him to accept life in The Village.

Pulling out all the stops, 2 targets 6’s human vulnerabilities, like familial love and romantic attraction. Yet unlike the original 6, who tormented a rotating cast of 2’s with his brilliant counter-measures, the new 6 constantly struggles to maintain his sanity in the face of this 2’s relentless psychological warfare. Of course, should 6 ever try to make a break for it, Rover, the ominous beach ball, is still there to herd him back to the tight little Village.

Number 2’s cream colored suit fits Sir Ian McKellen to a tee. He is absolutely perfect as mysterious mastermind, reveling in every nefarious scheme, while dealing with his rebellious son 11-12 and sick wife, M2. The casting of Jim Caviezel as 6 is also an inspired choice. He has the right on-screen intensity as the defiant everyman and also brings a certain iconoclastic reputation as an actor that actually enhances his credibility in the role. (Who else in Hollywood would be more likely to be banished to The Village than the star of The Passion of the Christ and The Stoning of Soraya M?)

Though many of the particulars have changed (like the desert setting in place of the vaguely Mediterranean ambiance of the original Village), AMC’s Prisoner often nods to the classic series, with strategically placed props, including an antique penny-farthing bicycle and a lava lamp. Writer Bill Gallagher also demonstrates a similar flare for eccentric details, like the Village cuisine, which is now consists almost exclusively of wraps (except for the cakes baked for 2, of course). The new Prisoner also delves deeper into the sociology of The Village, where surveillance is one of the subjects taught in grade school and matches are made through blink counts.

While AMC’s Prisoner is divided into six episodes (each with a title that echoes those of the original series), it is very definitely a sequential narrative that steadily builds towards its final reveal. Unlike the 1960’s show, the new incarnation of The Prisoner is much more cinematic, capitalizing on the sweeping sand dunes and sun-drenched vistas of its desert locale. In fact, Florian Hoffmeister’s lensing nicely reflects the surreal nature of the Village (wherever it might be), suggesting he might be the right cinematographer to shoot the next Dune adaptation as well.

In most respects, the new Prisoner gets the tone and spirit of the otherworldly Village right. However, the evil Summakor Corp. seems like small beer compared to the shadowy forces behind the original Village, which might have been run by our side, the other side, or both sides cooperatively in an early manifestation of New World Order paranoia. Still, AMC’s Prisoner makes up for the evil corporation cliché with a series of increasingly inventive revelations that should even pass muster with the generation of viewers raised on The Matrix.

Indeed, this Prisoner is a very cleverly constructed science fiction event that will definitely entertain newcomers to the Village and satisfy most cult followers of the original Number 6. It is commendably ambitious, requiring a certain commitment of time and attention, given its fractured narrative and the frequently dubious nature of reality within its story. The Prisoner debuts on AMC this Sunday (11/15), continuing through Tuesday (11/17), with two back-to-back episodes each evening (8:00 PM EST).

(Photos © Keith Bernstein/AMC)