Tonight I was all out of Christmas movies, so I had to resort back to my 7-Pack of Westerns that I bought in September or thereabouts. Remember when I bought so many Westerns that I was up to my ears in 'em? Then I watched a truckload of them over the last few months, and had only one film remaining in the 7-Pack (though a few more are left from other dvd sets). The name of the final movie is "JW Coop" (1971), written and directed by actor Cliff Robertson, and probably financed by Columbia on the strength of Robertson's box office success with "Charly", for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1969.
I had saved, or truth be told - put off watching - "JW Coop" as the last movie in the collection, for one simple reason : it was made in 1971. When you get into that era, you are entering a time of experimental filmmaking. The studio system that produced thousands of classic Hollywood films had collapsed in the 1960s, and the big studios were unsure where to turn for ticket sales. In many cases, they chose the counterculture of the time, or at least used the Hippie Era as a context for traditional stories. This is why so many films from the late 60s and early 70s seem dated now, because they fixated on what turned out to be a short-lived period of idealism and naivete in America that didn't work out.
The '60s ethos was amazing for music but less so for movies, mainly because the classic Hollywood Stars were past their prime and the studio system was no more. A more freewheeling time ensued in the motion picture business, a time that brought you "Easy Rider" in 1969. "Easy Rider" made a small fortune, as it chronicled the counterculture dream, but it could never have gotten made today and it wasn't a good picture when you come right down to it.
I mention all of this preamble because "JW Coop" might have been a pretty good Western, had a few things been different, one of them being the time period in which it was made. In this case, the detriment has more to do with the lack of discipline in the filmmaking of that short time period (say, 1969 through 1971) than it does with placing the film in a Hippie context.
The title character JW Coop (played by Robertson) is a top rodeo rider who has just been released from prison after serving almost ten years for writing bad checks (justice is harsh in Texas). He goes home to see his eccentric Ma, then heads out on the road to try and resume his career - rodeo bull riding - the only thing he has ever known, and which he is damn good at.
While on a highway thumbing a ride - a late 1960s Hippie theme right there - he meets beautiful Real Hippie Cristina Ferrare, later the wife of John DeLorean in real life. In the movie, she is a 21 year old free spirit, and she changes middle-aged Cliff Robertson's outlook. She represents the new age that has taken over during the decade he was incarcerated, and once he gets used to her he allows himself to open up and be liberated in his own Texas way.
There was another movie made at the same time with this theme, "Breezy", with Clint Eastwood as the middle-aged hard guy and Kay Lenz as the young Hippie Girl he falls for.
So you had Hollywood, not knowing what to do at the time and trying to cash in on the Hippie phenomenon. In "JW Coop", the focus is mostly on the rodeo competitions and JW's renewed drive to make a success of himself in this hard-scrabble and physically violent profession. The riders get the you-know-what kicked out of them by the bulls, and if a ride lasts ten seconds it is considered a success.
Had Cliff Robertson, as the writer/director, made the story entirely about the rodeo riders, and tightened it up from a bloated two hours to perhaps 85 minutes, he might have had something. And actually, Cristina Ferrare's character adds quite a lot to Robertson's post-prison development. She acquaints him to the way thing are now, in the new world of 1971, and he begins to have ambition and desire a lot more for himself.
So the story is not really the problem with "JW Coop".
Really, it's the excess that is the problem. The too many montages, of Robertson's Bus travellin' down the highway while banjo music plays. All of this brings to mind once again that Ramblin' Ken Kesey aimlessness, and it dates the film, whereas in comparison you can watch a classic Western from the Golden Era and any one of those classic films seems timeless.
Despite all of these complaints on my part (and movies really were pretty bad at the end of the '60s and into the early 70s), it must be said that Cliff Robertson did have the ingredients of a really original modern Western on his hands, if only he'd been able to rein in the excess.
But this is why you don't ever, ever - never never - allow an actor to write and direct a picture, unless they are Clint Eastwood, and even then.....sparingly (because, let's face it, "Unforgiven" is a terrible flick). But with Clint, most of the time you know he knows what he's doing.
He is the exception to the rule.
Let directors direct, and actors act. Don't mix things up.
And please, please, don't go on and on with your movies. Don't make them two hours long if your story doesn't warrant such a length.
Don't try to be like Mizoguchi. I know the formats and styles of his films are vastly different, but the thing is, know your limits as a filmmaker.
In the Hollywood Studio System, the overall effect was genius, for film after film ad infinitum for thousands of movies. This is because every single aspect of every movie was calculated for success, from the lighting to the casting to the direction to the sets, and more than anything to the story. They had a formula and it worked.
I can only give "JW Coop" a single thumb up, with maybe a slight docking to a single three quarters thumb up. Had there been a real director on hand to bring out the story and remove the fat, then Cliff Robertson might have had a success with this film.
It has it's moments, and even quite a few amusing, quirky characters and scenes, but boy does it go on and on and on, way too much and too long. ////
I will try to find more Christmas movies for you in the coming week.
We had good singing in church this morning, and I hope you had a good day too.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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