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August 21, 2008
Will Penny (1968)
Should I see it?
No.


Short Review: Not worth a dime.

Will Penny

Every time I see Charleston Heston in a movie, no matter if he’s a cowboy or gladiator, I keep waiting for him to bellow “Get your hands off me you damn dirty ape!” In some cases, the films would have vastly improved if he had done this.

Heston, before becoming a human political lightning rod, was one of the great Hollywood actors. I’ve never been a huge fan of his broad acting style. Usually, I find his performances to be forced and at times embarrassing. That said, the man commanded attention and whoa was he gifted with some pipes. The guy could read the instructional manual to my digital camera and make it sound like it was written by God himself.

Heston’s voice and larger than life presence couldn’t be put to less use in this film. Confused and insulting, this movie wastes more time than Al Franken’s make-up artist.

This story manages quite a feat. It’s as if writer/director Tom Gries sat down with two or three scripts, removed all of the cool scenes, and taped the rest together to make this mess. Gries attempts to break the western mold, not that this is really a western in the normal sense. He tries to deliver a realistic portrayal while steering away from traditional motifs. The film meanders a bit at the beginning and succeeds at being quite interesting. We are presented with a real man struggling with the very hard life of a cowboy. Heston plays the titular character, a tired, old cowboy who takes on the job of watching over a large ranch. He finds a mother and son squatting on the property. He lets them stay on the land. Before too long a crazed preacher and his minions, who Penny previously had a fight with, shows up for revenge. Prior to the preacher business, there's a realness to the beginning of the film that shows great promise. The striking beginning is then washed away by the stupidity of the rest of the film. When the main antagonist, Preacher Quint, is introduced the whole piece moves from being thoughtful and realistic to being retarded and then more retarded.

The unashamed anti-Christian portrayal by master over-actor Donald Pleasance as the wild-eyed psycho Quint is notable. Pleasance offers a number of almost unwatchable scenes involving his quivering denunciations of his enemies with fevered mini-sermons. The Christian as crazed loon is not uncommon to see in film, although its appearance seems to be on the decline, thankfully. The point is to combine the control and power of God and the frail emotionality of mankind…or something like that. Really what it is, is an attempt to be scary. A guy with a gun is scary. A guy with a gun saying something from The Bible is scarier still. Today, of course, a guy with a gun saying something from The Koran is just misunderstood and if you're scared you're probably a racist...but that’s a different subject isn’t it?

Christians will not have to be terribly patient to be offended and film lovers won’t be far behind. This is just a plain ol’ bad movie that offends because those who made it weren’t clever enough not to be so. The morality expressed in the movie exposes an immaturity that explains the rest of the piece. Don't waste your time.


Related Reviews:
Charlton Heston movies
Omega Man (1971)
Tombstone (1993)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Roger Ebert
Reel.com

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posted by Michelle Obama's Left Nut at 9:00 AM




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1 Comments:

Anonymous Satty said...

That was a nice review pal. I am running a contest on western movie reviews. I invite you to check this contest on my site.

August 21, 2008 at 9:58 PM  

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