I love the way this movie flows, both with the motion of the plot, the various changes in scenery, and the constant wise-cracking banter between all the characters. I mean, i could almost "watch" the movie just by listening to it: no picture, just sound. The dialogue is just that enjoyable. And some of those quotes from Scripture are real howlers...
shareWhile Peckinpah did not write the original story, both he and the film's producer maintained for years that virtually all the dialogue was rewritten by the director. (For those who don't know, Peckinpah also changed the original ending so that Judd dies, rather than Westrum -- which makes all the magnificent difference to the movie.)
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You both said that very well!
This film is near-flawless in every sense.
I can even forgive its 'Mayberry' execution to the story.
Definately, a 'sign of the times' for early 60's decade of movies;
before the New Wave Awareness explosion...
and later;
when westerns dabbled in dirt, grit...and realism.
Love it when Scott asks "Did you learn your lesson?" After McCrea punches out the young guy.
"I surely did"
Scott "Got room for another"
"Let her rip"
Scott punches him as well.
"God Damn, dipsh!t Rodriguez, gypsy dildo...PUNKS!"
The Biblical quotes are not meant to be humorous. Your comment is a product of our decadent, secular culture, which is light years from 1962.
shareHold on, spencerc. While not quite punchlines, the dinner-table duel of scripture verses between Judd and farmer Knudsen is meant to be a light moment -- as I think Peckinpah intended viewers to be pleased by the lawman's display of his own relevant grasp of biblical content in replying to Elsa's father.
Later, toward the end of the nocturnal barn scene, Judd offers another timely quote right after young Heck's "comeuppance" from Knudsen: "The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit: He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein." (Proverbs, Ch. 22 v. 14)
That beautifully delivered line and its timing were definitely intended for humor in 1962, and I don't think you have to be "decadently secular" to think so.
Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get.
I had in mind McCrea's later comment on the trail that he aimed to enter his "house justified."
shareAlso I think the point concerning McCrea's comment at the dinner table, which one commenter writes is meant to show his satisfaction with his knowledge of the Good Book, supports my position. The other quote, by the father, can be taken in a humorous vein. But I wouldn't say any Bible quote in a 1962 movie is meant to be a "howler."
shareFinally, had Elsa taken heed of her father's injunction, she would have been spared the horror of her wedding, her father would not have been murdered and McCrea would not have been killed. So maybe there was wisdom in that howler .
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