| RATING: | 60% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
Original comedy-western that fails to completely integrate its various plot elements with any genuine character-development or thematic exploration.
A tragedy of men who have lived beyond their times and cannot see clearly that the lawless period of the Wild West is now over and that they have nowhere else to go. Yet at least they had a good time while it lasted.
That a schoolteacher like Etta Place should take up with a band of outlaws is explained as her wanting to have fun because her life is so boring. But this is never explored in an interesting way except for the fact that the film glamorizes outlaws and contains the very real sense that the entire audience for this movie lives the same empty life; yet wanting their final destruction to be avoided. The only way the eponymous characters know how to live is to finally die - "gloriously" - in our imaginations, as their endless running from the law inevitably leads nowhere.
Where the film also fails is in its sense of balance. The first half is too funny for its own good and we never really take the characters and their terrible predicament seriously enough. The second half is much better balanced and we begin to see clearly the essential emptiness of their lives that can only have one outcome. The movie is constantly running the risk of teetering-off into farce when the serious elements return to put us back in our place as an audience.
Yet, this entertaining film has rarely been bettered for its combination of apparently-incompatible visual elements. There is comedy, tragedy and musicality. Actors who, even by the standards of Hollywood, are impossibly beautiful, play the three principal characters - who are, of course, beautifully photographed and well directed. The timing from non-comics is excellent and adds to the tragedy rather than detracting from it. The music is as anachronistic as the dialogue and Katherine ROSS is miscast - too young and not tough enough.
Uniquely, these leads form a kind of Marx Brothers for a more modern generation and the obvious personal chemistry makes their relationship believable.
There are also pleasant surprises here. The most romantic scene ROSS has is not with her boyfriend, but Paul NEWMAN: The rape scene that is not a rape scene. Robert REDFORD’s character cannot swim while being a rough, tough killer. These are both funny and tragic and never lose sight of where the film is finally heading.
To get the character balance between comedy and tragedy right is very difficult and this is one of the rare Hollywood movies that manages it, thanks mostly to the script and the playing of NEWMAN and REDFORD. An elegiac tragedy that is to be applauded, despite its numerous flaws.
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