Cowboys and Aliens and Indians...........Oh My

Cowboys and Aliens

Directed by  Jon Favreau.  Written by what seems like a committee eight people

Starring Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Noah Ringer, Clancy Brown, Paul Dano, Keith Carradine

CBR News spoke to Platinum Studios head Scott Rosenberg about "Cowboys and Aliens."The idea for "Cowboys and Aliens" came to Rosenberg when he was reflecting on the classic childhood game "Cowboys and Indians." "I was thinking how it wasn't cool and fun anymore," Rosenberg told CBR News. "Some of the things that propelled it was that anyone could play it without having to run to the store and buy stuff. It's really something where you let the imagination go and it just dawned on me, hmm . . . 'Cowboys and Aliens' that would be pretty fun."

The stars of Moon, James Bond, Indiana Jones and Tron Legacy's new heroine, all in one movie.What can happen nothing but magic……… 

no magic, no fun, and no story.

Where to start maybe liking it to a cow patty , or horse manure it’s there, you’ve stepped in it, you can’t miss it, you have to look. Why? Curiosity and anticipation, the most awaited movie of the summer and it falls out of the sky like an alien ship shot at with a six shooter.

  Jon Favreau’s adaptation of the comic Cowboys and Aliens which centers on “Aliens who land in Arizona circa the mid-19th century intent on enslaving the local population and mining gold — until a group of cowboys and Apache Indians fight back.” Never reaches the place where no man has gone before.

The opening shot invites us into this western like a commercial for some rugged American made truck. 

We are introduced to the “quintessential” cowboy, Zeke Jackson (Daniel Craig) the man with no name, lean tough, he may not know who he is but he can handle a fight like nobody’s business. I liked how he looked like a charactercher of the comic book cowboy. The Hat titled just right so the only thing we see is the key light shining in his eyes, so tough he doesn’t’ even need a gun to handle bullies or sheriffs. Kudos for the American accent. You want to see a very good Daniel Craig movie screen “Layer Cake”

Daniel Craig

In town we meet the "wicked" son, the bar owner, the sheriff, and the preacher man played by Clancy Brown. One of the unsung supporting/character actor of our day, reminded me of Chill Wills a little bit.     

The bar owner, Doc is embodied by Sam Rockwell, always a pleasure to watch;(Moon 2009, was a brilliant movie.) Mr. Rockwell always creates truthful characters even if they are a bit off center; his performance with Christopher Walken in a Behanding in Spokane on Broadway was nothing short of exceptional. It always takes a few moments to realize that I am watching him; it happened here, Mr. Rockwell is the stock, central casting, bespectacled bar owner. He fills the character out with a deep emotional life. We care about Doc, really he is the only one in the movie that cared, even with a gun pointed at him, about what he was doing. Mr. Rockwell is one of the best actors working in Hollywood right now.

Ana de la Reguera as Marie Sam Rockwell as Doc

  The bad son, Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), who plays the part as “see I am bad, I do bad things and don’t treat people very nice” Can’t care about him or his whereabouts, so when he get lassoed by the Aliens and taken away.     

Don’t care. Writers fault    

It is funny that the aliens can travel across the interstellar void, suck gold from the ground as if it’s liquid.  (The way they do it is very cool. Very Sci-Fi.) Still have to lasso people maybe they like cowboys, as we all do. Is that why their attack is like a round up. Aliens acting like cowboys? We never find out why ? Are the people who are stolen: fueling the mining, the ship, are they food, no, let’s just stick wires in them that look cool and we can use that as a focal, plot point, a rescue. Writers fault    

Harrison Ford and Sam Rockwell

Dad, Woodrow Dolarhyde, the ageing Harrison Ford who I thought was old for Indiana Jones’ last installment. Just doesn’t cut the cow pie here, he is a storybook cutout, a sorry cartoon of a person, embitter, old war vet who has seen death and can boss it around like he does with everyone else. I have no sympathy for a man who can torture someone who works for him. Oh I get it he’s mean. Why should I care that his son gone missing? His big moment of “I care” by giving a Knife and a story to the boy, Emmett Taggart (Noah Ringer) just telegraphs this knife will be important. Used later in a cheap horror move gag, that also is telegraphed and plops down. 

 

Anachronistic technology abounds. Only one person says “what is that thing” that’s all. It does not seem strange to these people that there are flying things in the sky, which uses lights in a world lit only by fire. Lights that can kill you, not phased at all. People pulled up into the sky. The bracelet on Zeke Jackson’s arm, no one wants to take a look at it, even the Preacher/doctor the schooled man. Everyone takes this high technology in stride. Never questioning it. When they shoot down a craft we get the big “what is it” nobody pokes or prods. Then it’s off to chase the thing that came out of it. I know these are supposed to be tough, rugged, shoot first, and ask question later type of guys. No one say “hay that thing is bleeding a different color”, “its footprints ain’t normal”, WTF are we chasing and why.

Oh yea “because you own me” whatever that means. Very Bad writing.    

  That unspoken macho bond, of cowboy to cowboy, Mano a Mano is not here. I’m talking about the reason Doc Holiday walks down the street with Wyatt Earp, in both movies. The reason the cowboys from Silverado help each other……. not here. I just don’t care about these cowboys or the Indians, even with Nat Colorado (Adam beach) translating for us. The token Indian, with a heart of gold, side kick, hired hand, I dress like a white man but I am still an Indian      

Olivia Wilde

   Now the women, Ana de la Reguera as Maria, Doc’s wife, nice work. Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) from the first moment we see her there is something going on behind those beautiful eyes. I liked the idea of a dress with a gun belt; I don’t remember ever seeing a frontiers woman dressed like this. Ms. Wilde does a good job here with what she is given, which is very little. She is different, then we find how different. Again the plot falls face first into a steaming pile of good idea, bad execution, and no pay off. 

  

Why is she here? Why are the aliens mining gold? Why do the aliens look like rejects from the Lord of the Rings? The aliens on “Falling sky” are much more interesting. Homage, no, stealing a shot for shot idea from “Alien”. Why Indians, why bad guys. Why do the aliens use teeth and fists, when they have Blasters? I did think of Blazing Saddles when an alien punched a horse, this was serious, no camp.    

I did appreciate the alien ship was cigar shaped. The cowboys are not impressed with a mountain size thing sticking out in the earth. The sightings of UFO's in the period were that shape. I saw it on the history channel; even they have better cowboys and alien’s stories.    

Cowboys and Aliens.

Just a few, I thought would satiate and revive. 

                               Cowboys

1.    Oxbow incident (1943)

Cowboy Noir, first cowboy movie to take place at night

Two drifters are passing through a Western town, join a posse to catch cattle thief’s and must deal with the outcome.

2.    Magnificent Seven (1960)

An oppressed Mexican peasant village assembles seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.

3.    One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

First cowboys’ movie to use the ocean, directed by Marlon Brando

Running from the law after a bank robbery in Mexico, one thief betrays another and revenge takes years.

4.    True Grit (1969)

A drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer in Indian territories.

5.    Silverado (1985)

A misfit bunch of friends come together to right the injustices which exist in a small town. 

6.    Unforgiven (1992)

Retired Old West gunslinger reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner and a young man.

                              Aliens

1.   Farscape (1999-2003) Thrown into a distance part of the universe, an Earth astronaut finds himself part of a fugitive alien starship crew. The Very Best aliens ever, from Jim Henson production. 

2.   The Thing (1982) Great remake of The Thing From Another World (1951) Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting Alien

3.    Alien (1979)

A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers a strange alien ship and investigates.

4.    Starman (1984)

An alien takes the form of a young widow's husband and asks her to drive him from Wisconsin to Arizona.

5.    Man facing south west (1986-Argentinan)

A patient in a mental hospital claims to be an extraterrestrial.

6.    Morons from Outer Space (1985-English)

The story begins when three aliens get a bit hacked off at their 'friend' Bernard, who keeps making a prat of himself playing space ball.

7.    The Last Star Fighter (1984)

A video gamer, seemingly doomed to stay at his trailer park home all his life, finds himself recruited as a gunner for an alien defense force.  

                              Sci-fi Westerns  

Firefly (2002-2003) Five hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small, spacecraft “Serenity”, tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them. Creator Joss Whedon made what Roddenberry wanted “Wagon train” in the stars. Very good acting by all and full, filled out stories. Followed by a film Serenity (2005) the crew of the ship Serenity tries to evade an assassin sent to recapture one of their number.   

Cowboy Bebop (1998) Japanese anime series, 26 episodes directed by Shinichiro Watanabe , Written by Keiko Nobumoto -The futuristic adventures of an easy going bounty hunter and his partners. A jazz-funk-bebop soundtrack from the “Seatbelts” adds to the futuristic feel also used in the film.

     

Cowboy Bebop:Tengoku no Tobira (2001) A terrorist explosion releases a deadly virus on the masses, and it’s up to  the bounty-hunting Bebop crew to catch the coldblooded culprit. There has been talk of a live action film version with Keanu Reeves as reported by Mark Cassidy @ Comicbookmovie.com.When asked what progress has been made since the last official update almost a year ago the actor said..                "Nowhere, It hasn't been working. Every time [the script] comes back, it's still a gazillion dollars. Every time they try to pare it down, it's like, 'Well, that's not the film, what about the other kajillion?'" Even if the script and budget issues were to sort themselves out soon, at 46 Reeves admits he might be a bit old for the role at this point. "I'm getting too old to play Spike, maybe his older brother. Thorn! Maybe father of Spike! I'm sure some fans will be happy that Reeves most likely won't end up playing Spike as his involvement was met with mixed reactions at the time. Although he wouldn't be my first pick, I think he might have pulled it off. Anyway, its a shame that the film is tied up in such red tape as it would no doubt make an epic sci-fi flick under the right director.

West World (1973) Michel Crichton

A robot, malfunction creates havoc and terror fir unsuspecting vacationers at a futuristic, adult-themed amusement park. Can’t forget Yul Brynner’s gunslingers’ eyes

My First, The Valley of the Gwangi (1969) 

Early 20^th century cowboys corralling a T-rex for a circus. One thing I will never forget, the table top miniature horses. The stop-action special effects talents, of Ray Harryhausen are featured in the film.

Light fare Back to the Future III (1990)

The Very First, Sci-Fi western was a 12 chapter, A 1935 Mascot serial called The Phantom Empire. Mascot combined for the first time the western, musical, and science fiction genres. The series starred, non-other than Gene Autry, the singing Cowboy. This was his first starring role playing, you guessed a singing cowboy.  

Future Sci-fi westerns, The Dark Tower Series (1982-2004) by Stephen King. Directed by Ron Howard, (3 hour movie - 22 episodes of TV- 3 hour movie) still up in the air at last report. Talk of Javier Bardem as Roland.