TallPineTree

What a disappointment. I like Lou Diamond Phillips, and he and some other actors try, but the script, direction, and editing are terrible.

All the characters are one dimensional. The villain is so totally mean and one dimensional that one cannot fathom that he was Phillip's character's best friend when they were younger.

I wonder if the script was longer and it was butchered to fit into a 2 hour time slot on TV? Or was the script so bad this was all the director had to work with? Or was the editor at fault in fitting the movie into a 2 hour time slot? A number of scenes come so rapid fire to establish continuity and move the plot along, but they are so short and jarring that I wondered what I was missing.

For example, Phillips's character gets a woman he is interested in for a picnic. Cut to his cousin getting waylaid, robbed, and beaten. Cut to Phillips returning from the picnic to learn the news his cousin was robbed and beaten and was now at the doctor's place. Cut to talk with his family at the doctor's place about what happened (with no interaction with the cousin). Cut to two of the villain's henchmen beating up a homesteader and tieing him to a tree. Phillip's character witnesses it from a distance. (wait a minute, why is Phillip's wandering the countryside when he should be concerned about his cousin and retribution?) Henchmen ride off. Phillip's rides in and cuts the homesteader loose. The next we know Phillip's speaks with the sheriff to learn the sheriff won't do anything because he says the homesteader won't press charges and Phillip's wasn't there to witness the beating.

All the above happens over the course of a few minutes. There is a lot that could be expanded in each scene to give the scene weight, but isn't. Therefore none of it has any emotional resonance and is almost a montage, or could have been done by talking to explain situations. The actual picnic scene should have been there to establish a relationship between Phillips and the woman. I'm not sure why Phillips is attracted to this woman - could she be the only single woman in town not working at the saloon? Speaking of the woman, from the movie she worked for another business woman, yet in trying to remember her character name, IMDb apparently lists her a "Saloon girl". No... in the movie she has a conversation with the saloon owner about not working for him.

The fight scenes are poorly shot and edited. Lots of closeups and quick edits. The gunfights are dumb and lame.

The villain's wife spends half her screen time running around in corsets and bloomers with a drink in her hand, but somehow the movie can't even make that have a hint of sexiness.

Bad, bad, bad.

Last night at a local French film festival I saw this movie.

Ah, a comedy. That would be good for me right now. I should have expected as this was a foreign film - a French film - the comedy would be different than what I expected. But different can often be good. However this movie's comedy tone was sardonic. It also had a message and I think the message was more important to the filmmaker than the comedy.

I think the filmmaker was operating under "Give them enough rope and let them hang themselves" in regards as to portraying the Japanese. The Japanese way was dominant and superior in the Japanese eyes, but as much as Amelie, the Belgian woman, tried to fit in, her way was the Western way and considered inferior. While the Western approaches Amelie used for situations were wrong for this environment, the Japanese way often appeared to be cruel, rigid, nonsensical, mean, and pointless.

The more Amelie tried to fit in, become Japanese, or be submissive to Fubuki, her female work leader, the more Fubuki showed her dominance and cruelty. All the while Amelie in a voice over mocked the environment she wanted to fit into, even while swooning over Fubuki's looks, which gave a lesbian undertone to Amelie's attraction to Fubuki and desire to please her.

The film wasn't boring, the lead actresses were attractive, a few times situations in the film were mildly amusing, but the film's tone had a feel of smugness, condescension, and being superior from a feigned inferior stance.

Fubuki was a 6 foot tall Japanese woman, taller than most of the men in the movie. Usually all the strands of her hair were all in place. Her look was cold, clean, and severe in black business dress attire. She stood straight and tall. She had a look and demeanor of dominance.

Amelie on the other hand was disheveled. Her clothes were often rumpled and of a color palette out of sync with the others in the office. Her hair was always unruly. Her walk was her own. Her height appeared to be a little over 5 foot and she looked to be a mouse next to Fubuki's "cat". The more she tried to fit into the Japanese way, the more she sincerely - or insincerely - took on a submissive posture and tone.

The line between message and comedy is a hard thing for a movie comedy to achieve successfully. There was more of a message than true comedy in this movie. Even the message was muddled. Was the movie more about the cultural differences between the Japanese and the West? Or was it more of a story of Amelie and Fubuki's strange dominant/submissive relationship across a cultural divide? In the end the movie left me unfulfilled.

I noticed that "stupeur" from the original French title appeared to be translated to fear. Stupeur sounds like "stupor", which is not fear in English.

stupor

1. A state of reduced consciousness or sensibility

2. a state in which one has difficulty in thinking or using one's senses

I translated "fear" into French and got "peur". Okay...

Having watched the movie the correct title in English would be "Stupor and Trembling". The Japanese culture of work, mind numbing dull, senseless, repetitive and useless work mixed with cruel intimidation, seems to reduce a person to a stupor. I guess "Stupor and Trembling" wouldn't make an appealing English movie title. However, as the original French title uses the word stupor, that gives you an insight into the tone and reason of the movie.

The railroad is coming and not all people want to sell their ranch to make way for the new rail line. The local officials working for the railroad are violently encouraging the families to sell their ranches at the railroad's price. A railroad official from Chicago has come to help speed matters up, but in a non-violent manner.

Ernest Borgnine is one of the ranchers who are refusing to sell. Working for Ernest Borgnine is a former gunfighter (Luke Rivers / Casper Van Dien) who has tried to leave his violent past behind, and a teenage boy (Michael H. Barnett). Among those working for the railroad is a former gunfighter friend (D.C. Cracker / Bruce Boxleitner) of Luke River.

I generally liked this movie as I favor Westerns. I did feel the script needed more work. I thought there may be a connection between Luke Rivers and the teenage boy - and if there was - I missed the explanation.

Connections/relations/conflicts between other characters could have been developed more. I am uncertain if this is because of the script, the direction, or if the actors didn't have the 'heft' to pull it off. James Stewart, or other 1950s Western actors, had the gravitas to imply much with little.

Because a Mexican shawl is so reminiscent of Clint Eastwood in his 'Man With No Name' spaghetti westerns, Casper Van Dien looked 'wrong' when he took to wearing one late in the movie. Instead of enhancing his gunfighter status, it diminished him in my eyes as he could not compare to Eastwood.

The director has a different visual style. Occasionally his tilted camera angles was distracting. I disagree with his overuse of tight closeups - especially during fight/brawl scenes. I couldn't get involved in the fight/brawl when I only saw the person who threw the punch or the person who received it with no good establishing shots as to which person was fighting who.

I also felt the violent scenes of the railroad enforcers terrorizing the families were too many and went on too long. It was more than I expected from a TV movie. It says something when the credits lists as an actress: "Terrified Woman".

On the plus side, the movie did try to present people on both sides of the conflict being right and wrong, good and bad. You may be right but sometimes it is hard to stop progress. I believe the "Aces and Eights" referred to losing with a winning hand. Within the Western clichés the movie tried to be different, and while it didn't always succeed, at times I admired the effort.