the western

Stagecoach (directed by John Ford) is considered to be the classic western that brought back popularity to the genre. Most westerns made during that time period were low budget films made in a few days and were meant to be an opener in double features. It had everything one would think about a western. There was a southern bell, a comedic drunk, some Indian chases, love, and a big hero cow boy. Without Stagecoach westerns very well could have essentially disappeared off the scene and revisionist along with modernist and parody westerns may have not occurred in such mass. A good example of a revisionist western is Unforgiven (directed by Clint Eastwood) it too had much of what comes to mind with a cliché western but was much darker and cold. It also had a song that played sporadically through the film when the farm of William Munny (Eastwood) was shown at sunset. Unforgiven shows the not so glorious side of rebel coy boys and refrains from giving the audience a perfect ending with a love story and everything working out. John Wayne and Clint Eastwood both played the rebel cowboy in very different ways. The Ringo Kid (Wayne) was a good boy who wanted to bring the justice that the law couldn't give. William Munny on the other hand was said to be a drunk killer who'd had his ways changed by his wife. Munny also had twenty years on Ringo. He was a retired drunk killer who decided to go out on one last killing to be able to provide for his two motherless children.

film review #3

Some Like It Hot directed by Billy Wilder is renowned not only for its obscure and hilarious nature, but its picture perfect acting. The film focuses on three main characters. Joe and Jerry played by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are two musicians from Chicago who after finding themselves witness to murder by the mob book it out of town to find a new band. Problem is, the only band looking for a tenor saxophone and bass is an all girls band heading for Florida. So as not to become the next headline reading ‘Mob kills two witnesses’ the boys shave their legs, throw on a couple dresses and head on their way to Florida as Josephine and Daphne. Sugar Kane (played by Marilyn Monroe) who is in fact not a man in drag sings and plays the occasional ukulele for the band. When Joe (in drag) as Josephine falls for her, and a billionaire falls for Daphne (Jerry/Tony Curtis) it creates quite the ordeal. Add to that the fact that the mob is still looking for the two men and you’ve got yourselves the perfect screwball comedy.

It’s hard to imagine with a cast of Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon that they weren’t director Billy Wilder’s first choice of who should portray Joe, Jerry, and Sugar. Wilder first wanted Mitzi Gaynor for the role of Sugar Kane. After working with Monroe on The Seven Year Itch when the idea of placing her as Sugar, Wilder reportedly said, "I'll never work with Monroe again". He talks more about it in an October 1999 issue of Vanity Faire, focusing much attention on how difficult it was to work with her. “When I heard that she had read the script and she would like to do Some Like It Hot. I wanted to have Mitzi Gaynor or somebody like this. It's wonderful that Monroe wanted to do the part". As he had expected Monroe was a pain on the set, most days not showing up before noon. At the time of filming she was in a disappointing marriage to Arthur Miller, in the midst of an ongoing battle of addiction, and pregnant; making life for all else involved with the film that much more difficult. Aside from her princess status and attitude on set Monroe was known for her diverse acting skills. She could play daring vixen as well as naive not very bright showgirl, the one constant that remained the same was her voice and beauty which was played up to her advantage in every film she made. Some Like It Hot was among one of the last films Monroe completed before her death of a drug overdose in august of 1962. Her fame began as a child and continued on in countless films including The Seven Year Itch, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, There's No Business Like Show Business, and Don't Bother to Knock.