tjcbs

This film was a revelation, a western that DOESN'T LIE. The whole theme stripping away the mythology our culture has built around the west, scraping it away like the finish on a mirror and reveling the ugliness AND the humanity beneath. I was utterly convinced, both by the portrayal of the period and the reality of the characters. A large focus was its treatment of the subject of killing. The movie SHOWS US what it is like to kill a man, a stark stark contrast to the casual attitude taken by so many other westerns. We see what we already know, wild west or no, that killing is something that most people just aren't capable of. And yet the character of William Munny shows us that in spite of the mundanity he embodies in his later life, true evil still existed then as now, and every now and then, true heroism.

I decided to see this movie because I was interested in getting into Hitchcock and a friend was making a fuss about it. First of all, this already long movie feels even longer. The first half is nothing more than a drawn out courtship, with some supernatural elements thrown in. I feel like i was watching James Steward drive his car for at least half an hour.But the kicker is that the movie's "secret" is given away long before the climax of the film! So when the main character finally realizes what is going on I was thinking"So what, I already knew that!"

An ok, but flawed and overhyped movie.