Anyone notice how Robert Duvall kept pronouncing Chama's name as "chayma" with the long "a" and everyone else including Eastwood, pronounces it as "Chahma" with an "ah"sound. Don't know why - but this has always kinda bugged me.
shareIf the place name is Spanish, the correct pronunciation would be chah-ma, which many gringos may say chay-ma. I would think the former is correct rather than the latter, the Spanish way.
shareOh yeah...it's supposed to be annoying. Clearly, Frank Harlan hasn't one wit of respect for his opponent in the upcoming fight and his "gringo pronunciation" of Chama's name is his little inside joke. He's waiting for the first "politically correct" dude to try and call him on it, isn't he ?
It's a nice little additional bit that Robert Duvall does with the character Harlan, the ruthless, greedy land baron. I wonder if it was in the Elmore Leonard script that way, added on by director John Sturges or dreamed up by Duvall himself ?
That scene in Harlan's hotel room where Clint first comes across this gang of murdering mercenaries is unforgetable. One of my favorites. Me thinks I'll fire up the old DVD player right now and watch it again.
CmdrCody
Is there any part that Robert Duvall can't do?
Remember he was "Lucky Ned Pepper in True Grit and that crazy Colonel in Apocalypse Now. He has played good guys, bad guys, crazy guys and playing Ike, and the drunk washed up Country singer in Tender Mercies who gets a new lease on life with Tess Harper.
I am sure Duvall added that into his character.
Great list Steve. Can I add a few more characters the great man has played....
"Boo" Radley
Tom Hagen
Wehrmacht Colonel Max Radl ("The Eagle Has Landed")
Gus McCrae
Robert E. Lee
"Boss" Spearman
and perhaps, one of the most incredible and riveting performances: Josef Stalin.
CmdrCody
Y'know...I don't think he's done a BAD performance in ANYTHING he's done;
Heck he even played an Old Cuban Fisherman in a movie called 'Wrestling Ernest Hemingway'(I think?); Duval is a true "chameleon"...I don't think I've ever seen him 'phone in' a performance.
NM
He also played Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann in a film about the hunt for, and capture of, Eichmann.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae
and 'The Great Santini', another good Duvall film...
Eternasol
I'm on board with any thread that sings the praises of Robert Duvall. He is truly one of our finest actors. Three other films of his I enjoy that haven't been mentioned yet are The Detective (it's really Sinatra's film, but Duvall has a small role), The Outfit and Secondhand Lions.
shareAlso excellent in Falling Down, which I think is very under rated.
shareHe pronounced the word that way to get under Chama's skin, to make fun of it, to be a nasty fellow. You will notice he succeeds. That is what a great actor will do and not make a characterization rote.
Nothing is more beautiful than Turan Bey.
Duvall also shows his contempt for the Mexicans when he barely nods 'yes' when one of them asks if he is looking for Chama. I've always liked this little subtle mannerism. It's like Harlan barely nods because in his mind they don't have the standing to be asking HIM anything; HE's the one asking the questions.
shareYes, Steve-brink. I agree. He is a very versatile actor. He has played everything from crusty cowboys to sophisticated professionals, and he seems especially good at portraying southerners (Gus-cowboy AND southerner in Lonesome Dove, Hub in Second Hand Lions, Harry in Days of Thunder and on and on the list goes yet he was born in San Diego! His portrayals of southerners seems spot-on to me but I was also born in California (Pasadena) so I would like to hear from real southerners as to whether or not his portrayals are truly accurate. I've always found it funny that in Days of Thunder Robert Duvall's character of Harry makes fun of the Tom Cruise character being from California. yet in real life Duvall is a California native himself! Another historical figure who I have heard referred to as a "Southern Gentleman" was General George Patton yet he was also born in California (San Gabriel)! Anyway, yes, I'm certain that the way he says "CHAYMA" is intentional to his character of Harlan.
shareI can't decide if Duvall decided to do this because it would be "annoying" but I do agree that Duvall did it purposefully.
Personally, I think it was not so much an "inside joke" on his character's part but instead more of a believable dialect choice for Duvall's character.
Joe Kidd was set in the early 1900s, before New Mexico became a state in 1912. It would have been likely to have Texans in the territory of New Mexico. Texans have a long history of mispronouncing Spanish words. http://languagehat.com/pronunciation-wars-in-texas/
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/texans-spanish-place-names/
Duvall did a number of movies set in Texas. My father, a deeply Southern man, lived in Texas. He would mispronounce words, not intentionally. For example, he pronounced Jay Leno (whom he watched every night) "Lee-no." He meant no disrespect; this is just how my dad pronounced his name.
Duvall as a gringo mispronouncing the name for whatever reason is totally believable. Another reason Duvall is such a great actor!
Might have been a sign of disrespect. I recall the first George Bush use to call Saddam Hussein "SAD am" instead of soddum. I think he deliberately did that and I think that's why Duvall insisted on calling him CHAIMA.
shareI think its more realistic when some words are not pronounced the same by every person in the movie. That's real life. Some words, maybe even all words, are not pronounced the same by every person.
"We fight and then we fucc, that's our thing."
This movie is supposed to be set in New Mexico Territory.
Chama, is indeed pronounced "Cha-Ma". Accent on the first syllable.
Chama is also a village in northern New Mexico not too far from Tierra Amarilla where, in 1967, a land grant activist and his armed followers did take over the county courthouse, making citizen arrests of officials and killing a State Policeman. The documents related to Spanish and Mexican land grants did actually disappear in a fire in Santa Fe, the Territorial capital around 1900 or so. Many of those old families were pushed off their land by newcomers.
This movie is loosely based upon historical facts.