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Category Archives: Lockdown Edition

Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)

Posted on March 23, 2020 | Leave a comment

Support Your Local Sheriff
Directed by Burt Kennedy
Written by William Bowers
1969/US
IMDb link
First viewing/Netflix rental

Joe Danby: [about his father] He’s got a heart as big as the whole outdoors, but he don’t have one brain in his poor old head.

The charisma of James Garner and the superb cast of supporting actors made me think I might be in for good Lockdown viewing. I was right.

In the Old West, a town springs up around a gold discovery by Prudy Perkins (Joan Hackett). Prudy’s father Ollie (Harry Morgan) becomes mayor. The town has not had a sheriff for years. The result is rampant lawlessness. In addition, Pa Danby (Walter Brennan) and his brood of boys control the only road into or out of town and extort an exorbitant toll.

Then Jason McCullough (Garner) rides in to town. He says he’s from Back East and is en route to Australia. The town fathers don’t have to twist his arm too hard to get him to accept the sheriff’s star. He soon deputizes local stable cleaner Jake (Jack Elam) and settles into board with Ollie and Prudy. Prudy is smitten at first sight and there is a romcom sub-theme throughout.

The Sheriff doesn’t waste much time before arresting Joe Danby (Bruce Dern) for killing a man. A combination of the Sheriff’s smarts and Joe’s dimwittedness keeps him confined in a cell without bars. Eventually, Pa Danby comes to get his boy out of Dodge.

I was so thrilled to see Walter Brennan again. He just takes everything he is in up a notch! Everybody else does what they do best. The cast makes the movie fun and several of the jokes make it genuinely funny. A feel-good film for the Lockdown.

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Yesterday, I also watched The Gay Divorcee (1934) which I have previously reviewed on this blog. I’ve seen the film several times over the years and it never fails to enchant.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Posted on March 21, 2020 | 10 comments

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Written by William Goldman
1969/US
IMDb link
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Butch Cassidy: I couldn’t do that. Could you do that? Why can they do it? Who are those guys?[/box]

Launching “Flickers in Time: The Lockdown Edition” with this beloved classic. It’s a blend of Old West and a thoroughly modern cinematic sensibility that really shouldn’t work as perfectly as it does.

Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) are the leaders of the Hole in the Wall gang of bank and train robbers. Butch is the more laid-back one and Sundance has the hotter temper. They love to banter with each other. We witness several robberies. These are generally amusing and successful. In their last train robbery, they manag to earn the eternal wrath of the railroad owner, who forms a posse that relentlessly pursues the pair.

In the meantime, we are introduced to schoolmarm Etta Place (Katharine Ross). She is having an affair with Sundance yet also seems to form a perfect couple with Butch. Eventually, the heat gets too close for comfort and all three decide to try their fortunes in Bolivia.

This film is firmly tied to a moment in which the bad guys became the good guys so long as they were against the Establishment, love was free and Burt Bacharach topped the pop charts. Yet it holds up extremely well. Qualifies as a recommended lockdown view for its wry optimism, fantastic cinematography, charismatic and beautiful actors, witty dialogue, and, yes, its bouncy score. A true classic.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced; Best Cinematography; Best Music, Original Song (“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”); and Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical). It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; and Best Sound.