1978 Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex-suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her neighbor, Frank Athearn. As Ella and Frank fight back through stampedes, jealousy, betrayal, and sabotage... they eventually find love.
Aufstand der Aufrechten, Arriva un cavaliere libero e selvaggio, Eine Farm in Montana, Llega un jinete libre y salvaje, Le Souffle de la tempête, Приближается всадник, Ha eljő a lovas, Raízes da Ambição, 跃马山庄, Přijíždí jezdec, Przybywa jeździec, 컴스 호스맨, მხედარი მოდის, Arriba un genet
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Holy Arizona and Colorado! Have you ever looked so good!!! I get that this film has a pensive nature to it but hey when doesn't your mind take a slower pace in the country to ruminate and hell if you have watched any of Pakula's earlier films he is never in a hurry to get you there nor give you the full details unless you notice the small side eye glances that infer a hint of understanding. Again Alan works with his well oiled and super team of Gordon Willis who really just captures so much beauty in interior shots as exterior shots that it hurts the heart and Michael Small giving another illustrious score. Sure it's slow and one…
What if THE GODFATHER were a Western?
That must have been the thought going through the heads of the heads over at United Artists who green-lit this talky, somber Western that, of course, uses a crime narrative to talk about BIGGER THINGS!!! Like America!!! Cinematographer Gordon Willis brings his chiaroscuro lighting routine to a genre that is not known for low-level lighting and the results are magnificent. This truly looks like no other color Western. Fonda, Robards and Caan are all terrific but the film belongs to Richard Farnsworth whose turn in a supporting role is unforgettable.
Although the first half hour is so laden with exposition you'd think someone was reading you a book, and the conclusion of the picture feels rushed, there's much here and, in some ways, this anticipates HEAVEN'S GATE and THERE WILL BE BLOOD is a number of interesting ways.
Die schönen Bilder von Gordon Willis und die in Summe guten Schauspielleistungen, machen die etwas dröge Handlung nicht ganz wett. Warum das Finale, bei aller inszenatorischen Langsamkeit, dann so gehetzt daher kommen muss, will ich nicht so ganz verstehen.
Disillusionment In Sun-Drenched 1970s American New Wave Cinema: A Watching Brief
It's a real shame that Alan J. Pakula wasn't able to craft a career, outside of his 'Paranoia Trilogy', that was especially interesting.
It seemed that outside of the pervading theme of those films he had little interest in whatever else it was that he was making. Comes a Horseman is a very trying film indeed on the patience, one of those films that's well acted and earnest and clearly doesn't do anything especially wrong. But its methodology and pace are totally uninvolving and Pakula really seems to have no passion for it at all.
The intrigue of a western set in 1945 should have made for a unique perspective on the genre. Instead it's just featureless and downright tedious.
Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (8) challenge.
Despite having some great actors, a top-notch director and a stunning location, this film never quite rises above ordinary, which I blame primarily on the original script by Dennis Lynton Clark. He set the story toward the end of World War II, which isn't the "normal" time period for a Western about cattle ranching, but then not much is really made of the relatively modern situation. In fact, there's an open-range lawlessness here that smacks more of 1845 than 1945.
Jane Fonda stars as hard-nosed Ella Connors, a single woman running a Colorado ranch left to her by her deceased father. Helping out as her foreman is an old-timer…
Atemperado neo-western desarrollado en las praderas de Montana durante una época ciertamente insólita, la de los últimos lances de la Segunda Guerra Mundial; época en la que, dicho sea de paso, el género estaba aproximándose a su edad de oro.
Viniendo de Alan J. Pakula, no sorprende que Comes a Horseman se detenga a mostrar con especial afecto la vida del Marlboro man (y woman, en este caso), reivindicando la ética del pequeño ganadero y del asalariado frente a sus tres bestias negras: el latifundista, las petroleras y el capital.
La presencia del trío protagonista, al que hay que sumar un arrebatador Richard Farnsworth; el oficio de un J. Pakula que sabe cómo sugerir las cosas derrochando clase, y esos cálidos interiores que Gordon Willis se sacaba de la manga son los grandes activos de un film lastrado por cierto esquematismo, un score más bien discreto y un final que sabe a poco pese a haber estado cocinándose a fuego lento.
Em honra do centenário de Richard Farnsworth, aqui no papel que lhe rendeu sua primeira indicação ao Oscar.
Na verdade esse é um belo western, apesar de uma cena mais drástica aqui e alí (dentre as quais uma que matou um dublê) e uma vilania tinindo do Robards, é um filme bem contemplativo e gostoso de ver.
Blu-ray rip YTS.
There's some darn fine ropin' n ridin' in this ranching western-drama.
It takes its sweet time to do and say anything. Part of the appeal is the sense of the outdoors, the lifestyle and ruggedness required to survive. Movies have a habit of romanticising things, and although the land is stunning, the cattle work is depicted as dangerous and hard. I thought about my job working on a computer. Next to seasonal cattle ranching, it can hardly be called work.
It's shot by Godfather lenser, Gordon Willis who gets lots of outdoor wide shots to give us the required breadth of the American frontier. Michael Small's score mixes adventure with melancholy as Fonda's character is revealed to have a traumatic…
Red Dead, but just the cattle herding missions. One of those random Alan J Pakula joints I didn't know existed until stumbling across it on tubi. I'm surprised the rating isn't higher though. Sure, it is a slow simmering western set nearing the end of WWII. It's a romance that doesn't actually happen till 94 minutes in. But it is that solidly done lead up that pays off so well later. Fonda and Caan and fucking Farnsworth (who is devastating) doing some great work and rough ass horse back riding. Jason Robards was a perfect bastard and he gets to do it in a great slow, menacing way that all boils up in the final twenty minutes.
Part of me…
Jason Robards does this sinister thing in Alan J. Pakula's COMES A HORSEMAN where he looks Jane Fonda dead in the eye, grits his teeth, yet makes his threats sound absolutely neutral & it's super effective. He's also the king of microagressions in an early scene where directs a fake amused smile at James Caan that downshifts into a frown & tells you who he is in like 2 seconds flat.
