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 One Eyed Jacks I saw One Eyed Jacks for the first time recently, and I'm sad but not really surprised that it's not regarded as one of the iconic Westerns, discussed among the obvious greats like The Searchers or The Good the Bad and The Ugly. Until a few years ago it was not easy to find One Eyed Jacks in any decent quality to watch at home, but Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese supervised a restoration in 2016 that shows the film for what it is, one of the greatest Westerns ever made. Maybe the craziest thing about One Eyed Jacks is the people who could've been involved but weren't, in the end. A script written by Sam Peckinpah(that was thrown out and rewritten), and a talented young director in Stanley Kubrick(who would walk away from the project leaving Brando to direct the only film of his career), the story of what could've been is almost as interesting as what actually ended up on-screen. But in the end I think the force of nature that was Brando won out here, and One Eyed Jacks speaks for itself. This is the only movie that Brando would ever direct, and yet it's as visually stunning as any other Western or VistaVision film I've seen. Times would come later in Brando's career where perhaps his demanding personality started to outweigh the benefits of his talent, but in 1961 he was at the height of his powers as a presence on-screen and apparently off as well. One of the stories that people talk about with One Eyed Jacks is that Brando refused to shoot certain scenes until the wave were juuuust right. Well, looking at the shots that he ended up getting, can we really argue?  In front of the camera Brando delivers a performance I think you can argue is one of his best, and we all know that's saying something. He is the titular One Eyed Jack(or is he?); a man who is capable of showing a caring, charismatic side while hiding a more selfish, brutal side. You never quite know what he's gonna do, and that intangible something that's constantly simmering under the surface is a quality that Brando brought his entire career. I don't think it's possible to make a truly great Western with just one good actor though, and here the rest of the cast is excellent, along the lines of what I'd come to expect from John Ford-style Westerns of the 40s and 50s. Karl Malden in a role that Gene Hackman must've been aware of when he played Little Bill in Unforgiven. Katy Jurado, a veteran of many Westerns and the first Latin American woman to be nominated for an Oscar, plays a very strong character here as well. Throw in smaller roles for guys like Ben Johnson and Slim Pickens, and this really feels like a Western, not just a Marlon Brando movie that happens to be set in the Old West. Really though I became aware of One Eyed Jacks because it was the last movie to be filmed in VistaVision. I'd heard Scorsese discuss the format in an interview about The Searchers, and he describes it as the best format ever for filmmakers. It was mostly a Paramount process, and so a bunch of Hitchcock's classics were shot in it, but in the end efficiency and economics won out and they stopped using it in 1961/62. So I think in the end that's why he participated in restoring One Eyed Jacks, he remembers the joy of going to a theater and seeing VistaVision films projected and was frustrated that one of the best of the era wasn't being represented properly. In fact, in this clip about the restoration he actually mentions a discussion with Spielberg where they were complaining about the quality of a One Eyed Jacks DVD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOspWo-Vtjw Hopefully in the years to come there will be a reevaluation of One Eyed Jacks and it will start to get recognition as more than just the film where Kubrick walked off and Brando sat around for days waiting for the perfect wave. Check it out! Previous Movies of the Month Somebody fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Sep 18, 2019 |
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Sep 1, 2019 00:35
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| # ? May 14, 2024 00:03 |
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This is a fascinating, beautifully made film. Too bad Brando didn't get to direct again since this really does feel like a bridge between classic Hollywood style and the "new" Hollywood. As for the restoration, it was originally an independent production released through Paramount. Apparently, it didn't actually fall into the public domain, but rather once Paramount found that they didn't own the film anymore (despite releasing a VHS and laserdisc), they didn't bother to enforce anything. The rights ended up with Universal, who with The Film Foundation had the 4K restoration initiated. While it was released in 1961, it was shot on the dreaded Kodak negative stock used for 1959-1960 productions. Dreaded because even with optimal archival conditions, the yellow layer would disappear rapidly. Films shot on this stock also include North by Northwest, Spartacus, and Disney's Pollyanna... and all required expensive restorations to be restored and later presented on Blu-ray. One-Eyed Jacks was also one of the last VistaVision productions, save for a few Japanese films and effects work. The clever method to restore the film was to scan the faded camera negative, then also scan the corresponding black and white color separation (created back in 1961 as insurance for negative damage). The two sources are digitally stitched together to recover the full original color. (The current Blu-rays for North by Northwest and Spartacus used this process, as well)
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Sep 1, 2019 01:30
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What stuck out with this one were the layers of deception going on among most of the characters. It goes without saying that there's no honor among thieves but this one goes even further as everyone is lying to each other in a variety of ways. At times I was reminded a little of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and Cape Fear (1991). Also, Pina Pellicer stuck out in her role and reminded me of Audrey Hepburn. I should've watched this on BD but got impatient and watched it on Tubi and it was bootleg VHS quality. All the extreme long shots were pixellated and featured potato-blob-horsemen riding around. 
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Sep 8, 2019 05:14
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Zogo posted:What stuck out with this one were the layers of deception going on among most of the characters. It goes without saying that there's no honor among thieves but this one goes even further as everyone is lying to each other in a variety of ways. Yea my first instinct was to assume that the title referred to Brando's character(Rio), and he's got this great bit at the beginning where you see him giving a woman a ring in a very heartfelt way only to immediately reclaim it when he's forced to make a quick exit. But really almost every character is deceptive in some way and some are deceptive in different ways depending on who they're interacting with at a given moment.
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Sep 9, 2019 14:18
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Sorry I was late to sticky this. Completely missed it due to hurricane struggles and offline stuff.
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Sep 12, 2019 19:25
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I kinda felt like Brando was too much in his pretty boy phase for this movie but Karl Malden is an excellent Western villain. Feels kinda like the prototype for Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. edit: i see now that the OP pointed this out
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Sep 12, 2019 19:33
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:I kinda felt like Brando was too much in his pretty boy phase for this movie but Karl Malden is an excellent Western villain. Feels kinda like the prototype for Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. Definitely agreed about Hackman. The characters are extremely similar. I think Brando's youth and good looks actually fit the character here, he's supposed to be a guy who's very dangerous but he also has a very charming side.
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Sep 12, 2019 19:38
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| # ? May 14, 2024 00:03 |
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I didn't see this mentioned, but this film is currently available on streaming on Amazon Prime. It's also available on Tubi for free with ads It's also in the Criterion Collection, which means that most library systems should have it for rental. It's sadly not on CriterionChannel, though.* edit: Just a friendly reminder that we have an underused Western thread *added in 2016 Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Sep 18, 2019 |
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Sep 18, 2019 22:25
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