Winchester '73 is one of my fav westerns not just for the great performances of Stewart, McNally (great!), and Duryea, but that fantastic photography that's just drenched with noir.
shareThe cinematographer, William Daniels, was one of Hollywood's best and in "Winchester '73" his art is breathtaking.
You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.
It is outstanding. Too bad the movie wasn't filmed in color. Can you imagine how great it would have been?
shareIt surely is beautifully shot - the depth of background detail, at times reminded me of Kurosawa's 7 Samurai and Ford's Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. It looks superb now and I cannot think of anything worse than colourization - losing the stunning crispness and the work that went into the choice of checks, stripes etc.
...and we have a new game today, I think, don't we, Mac?
It is a pretty darned good western, but anyone raised on Ford and Hwaks would have seen it as something other than a western. It almost felt like a crime drama, with spurs. The cowboys don't feel much like cowboys, more like gangsters, and the background scenery is not Monument Valley, by a long shot. Wyatt Erap is hardly the Wyatt Earp we traditionally know from movies.
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