beware the flute-playing marshal...
if you're an evil-doer, that is... :-)
burt lancaster had already played some of my favourite film characters before he ever did this film (marshal wyatt earp, jim thorpe, gen. james scott, ned merrill, mel bakersfield and robert stroud, to name just a handful). now, i'm too young to have seen those films when they were made, but over the years i have seen them one by one. i just saw "lawman," and marshal maddox may be my favourite lancaster character yet. it's because he's a tightly wound man, trying to walk an even tighter straight-line, in a time when that was becoming tougher and tougher.
laura (sheree north) tells him, at one point, that "he's got nothing soft or forgiving left inside after all the years of killing..."
i say, however, look! the man plays a flute, for chrissakes! how many gun-toting western heroes have you seen doin' that, lady. guitars, yes...flutes, no.
his flute might be the one thing that keeps maddox tied to the human race (isn't it always music?).
i love the editing in this film, as the cuts are sharp and jarring; transitioning scenes with action (rather than with establishing shots) in a movie that's otherwise not an "action-packed" one. the cowboys in this story have seen a lot; and you can pretty much read about all of it in their craggy faces (and some of your favourite western/dramatic actors are here, too: duvall, cobb, salmi). the influence of the "spaghetti" western is fairly obvious. there's little dialogue or action wasted in it, either. and, of course, as a post-60s western, the characters - both the "good" and the "bad" - are complicated. there are none of those 'black and white,' john wayne-era caricatures here. and, when it looks like you're going to see a standard draw/gunfight at the end, something completely different happens.
the only thing that i can't believe (as a film student) is how many years it took me to see this movie! (l.o.l.)
it's not happy viewing...but, it's terribly real; and a profound cinematic experience.
gregory 121907