Discuss Winchester '73
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Fantastic characterisations
posted by FergooseSTAFFMOD on January 19, 2021 at 5:59 PM
I'm not so big on westerns generally, particularly the depiction of 'native' Americans, but this was a real cut above and probably the best Anthony Mann film I've seen. Pretty much the top billed 10 actors/characters were all memorable without being over the top. Particularly Wilco and the Indian trader, but many others were a delight to spend time with and I'd struggle to think of a film where so many characters made such an impact with such limited screentime.
I'm not a huge Jimmt Stewart fan, and he was solid in this, but he wasnt even in the top 3 most memorable characters in this film and the central story is arguably one of the film's less strong points. But all in all it was a very nice way to weave a story around the titular gun.
8/10
Reply by Jacinto Cupboard
on February 9, 2021 at 3:57 AM
I think the conceit of the gun passing thru so many hands in what feels like a couple of days in order to capture a handful of sort of self contained stories doesn't work here. I don't have a problem with the concept; I thought a similar idea worked really well in The Red Violin. Two of the guys already have repeating guns they can literally shoot a hole in a postage stamp with, another is a notorious quick draw with a hand gun, yet another is a coward with no use for it. As a MacGuffin it's almost foolish.
I disagree with you about Stewart tho. He's really pretty good here, and most of the rest of the cast are just hams, with the exception of Geer and Mitchell.
I like westerns and I appreciate this is well thought of. But I also accept the bar is often set pretty low for the genre. There are things going on in this movie that fans of the genre would probably give a pass to, things that people more generally would rightly regard as dumb.