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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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ONE-EYED JACKS - The Only Movie Marlon Brando Directed

We bought our DVD of One-Eyed Jacks for a buck at Wal-Mart, without knowing anything about it. I was amazed to find out that Brando had only directed one film.

This is an action/adventure with romance, suspense, and plenty of double-crossing. It’s not much like the formulaic westerns that were made earlier, and although some say it’s ‘way too long, we didn’t find it so.

One big surprise was the performance of Karl Malden who was apparently a much better actor than what is remembered from The Streets of San Francisco

The material with the DVD said that this was a breakthrough for westerns because it didn’t have the black and white morality of ‘50s westerns, but involved a considerable ambiguity about the ID of the good guys and the bad at different times in the movie, and it wasn’t always clear just what would be the “right thing to do” at this point or that. But, I grew up watching Richard Boone, (a genuine descendant of Dan’l Boone, of Kentucky fame) in Have Gun, Will Travel, always one of my favorite shows. And one of the hallmarks of the show was the ambiguous ethical situations that so often faced Paladin…...on numerous occasions, this high-priced gun for hire turned on his employers when it became clear that he’d been working on the wrong side. We recently bought a DVD with some of the shows, including the first one, and it’s astounding how well that one (at least) holds up.

One-Eyed Jacks is recommended, but it seems to me that it was following a trail blazed by Have Gun, Will Travel. Enjoy them both!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/10 at 07:16 PM

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