Short Snort Texas Norther
Goin' South (1978)
directed by Jack Nicholson
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Jack, looking more like Peter Fonda than ever, clearly gets a kick from the visual gag: a kid drinking at the local saloon; a bearded Hollywood star devouring a plate of boiled chicken; Texas sheriffs crossing the Rio Grande to capture a criminal who thinks they won't follow him into Mexico. Apparently he fell into directing this, but it proves what a little professional goodwill - Nicholson, by all accounts, is loyal to his friends - will get you.
For one thing, Goin' South looks like Days of Heaven, released the same year. Néstor "the Molestor" Almendros shot both of them, but he filmed Goin' South in Durango, Mexico, and Nicholson's fake Texas looks more like the real thing than Terrence Malick's Alberta does. The "famous" bit of stunt casting here is John Belushi as Paunchy Villa, but Mary Steenburgen, whose appeal I never really understood, is a great romantic/comedic foil for the runaway bank robber who can never sit still.
Most westerns make a stagecoach ride look like something comfortable, but in Goin' South it's more of a buck than an easy sway. A town full of men saved from the gallows by well-meaning widows and spinsters who marry them is the sort of premise guys like Jack Nicholson build jokes on, not feature-length films. But he was never better than when he was young (41 counts) and a little sleazy, and those jokes don't tell themselves.
directed by Jack Nicholson
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Jack, looking more like Peter Fonda than ever, clearly gets a kick from the visual gag: a kid drinking at the local saloon; a bearded Hollywood star devouring a plate of boiled chicken; Texas sheriffs crossing the Rio Grande to capture a criminal who thinks they won't follow him into Mexico. Apparently he fell into directing this, but it proves what a little professional goodwill - Nicholson, by all accounts, is loyal to his friends - will get you.
For one thing, Goin' South looks like Days of Heaven, released the same year. Néstor "the Molestor" Almendros shot both of them, but he filmed Goin' South in Durango, Mexico, and Nicholson's fake Texas looks more like the real thing than Terrence Malick's Alberta does. The "famous" bit of stunt casting here is John Belushi as Paunchy Villa, but Mary Steenburgen, whose appeal I never really understood, is a great romantic/comedic foil for the runaway bank robber who can never sit still.
Most westerns make a stagecoach ride look like something comfortable, but in Goin' South it's more of a buck than an easy sway. A town full of men saved from the gallows by well-meaning widows and spinsters who marry them is the sort of premise guys like Jack Nicholson build jokes on, not feature-length films. But he was never better than when he was young (41 counts) and a little sleazy, and those jokes don't tell themselves.
posted by NPK at 12:01 AM
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