#80 on the AFI list of the best movies, made in 1969. Starring William Holden, one of my favorite actors. I think it's really, really interesting as maybe a transitional film, both in the movie business and in the career of Holden.
I'm not totally familiar with the evolution of the Western in American cinema, so I could be wrong about all this. I was a little surprised at the cursing in the movie. There was more than I expected, definitely more than I associate with "60's Western", but nowhere near what you get in a serious Western today. There was lots of blood, not just a guy getting shot and falling over. Lots of whores being visited whenever the shooting or chasing wasn't interfering. Some female nudity, which caught me off guard more than the cursing. The overall rough attitude of the movie really drives it forward for me. It seems like a bridge between the less graphic films before it and the ultra-graphic stuff of today.
The characters themselves are in transition as well. Outlaw gang pulling one last job before retiring to take it easy, life not going the way it used to. Particularly true for William Holden's character, the leader of the gang. Slowing down, tired of being chased, he just wants to do things right one more time and quit the business.
And speaking of Holden, he was 51 when the movie came out. A far cry from Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard and Sefton in Stalag 17, and The Bridge on the River Kwai, which were all made in the 50's. So he's a bit older as man and actor, but not as old and grizzled as he would be in Network in 1976. So you've got tradition and change out the wazoo, in the movies, within the movie, and in the acting. I'm guessing this was one of the things that got it ranked in the top 100.
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