Category Archives: Film Review

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE (2018) – a movie that came out at just the right time in my life! 

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE (2018) is the story of Bart Millard, the lead singer of the band MercyMe. He also wrote the song of the same name that inspired the movie. I remember when the song was released in 2001 as it immediately became a huge hit. As a person who attended church regularly and listened to contemporary Christian music, I heard it often either on radio or when other people would sing it at church. There was no getting away from the song as it was so popular. I really liked the song, but to be completely honest, it wasn’t especially meaningful to me. I just really liked it as a beautiful song. Fast forward to March of 2018 when the movie came out. 2018 was probably the most difficult year in my life, and I was needing hope. I saw I CAN ONLY IMAGINE at the movie theater, and its message of redemption and reconciliation provided glimmers of hope for me when my life had gotten really dark.

The movie provides us snapshots of Bart’s early life.  We see him at church camp where he meets the girl who would go on to be the love of his life, Shannon. We see him as a boy dealing with the fact that his mother has left the family because she was no longer able to deal with the abusive behavior of his dad, Arthur (Dennis Quaid). We also see how that abuse has extended to Bart himself. We see him as a high schooler (actor John Michael Finley) playing football in Greenville, TX, to try to please his dad. When he gets injured playing football and turns to the school’s music program, we see him hide the fact that he got the lead in the school production of “Oklahoma” because he knows his dad will make fun of him. Arthur is the kind of man who never has a nice word to say to his son. When he does find out about Bart performing in the musical, he tells him that it “sounds like a good joke.” It all boils over when the two get into a fight before Bart heads to church one morning, and Arthur smashes a plate over his head. Bart leaves for good, he thinks.  

With his love of music and great singing voice, Bart joins a band in need of a singer. Now we get snapshots of this portion of Bart’s life as the band hits the road and performs at different places, trying to sell as many of their homemade records as possible. Through sheer determination, Bart is able to convince Scott Brickell (Trace Adkins) to take over management of the band. After traveling with the group for a while, Brickell believes that they have a shot at making it in Nashville, so he secures the band, now known as “MercyMe,” a showcase in front of a group of top record executives. Unfortunately, the executives aren’t that impressed, with one even going so far as to tell Bart that he’s just not good enough. With those words bringing back all of the doubt that his father had instilled in him, Bart decides to quit the band. Sensing that Bart needs to resolve his family issues, Brickell asks him to take some time for himself. Bart asks the band to give him some time so he can go home for a while, not knowing what might be in store for him.

When Bart returns home, he finds his dad Arthur acting really strange… he’s being nice. He makes his son breakfast and then tells him about a project he’s hoping they can work on together, which is the restoration of his old Jeep. Bart doesn’t know what to make of this and even confronts his dad. Arthur tells him that he has become a Christian and even goes so far as to ask Bart for forgiveness for the way he has treated him in the past. Bart refuses to forgive him and gets in his dad’s truck to leave. While looking for the keys, Bart sees papers in his dad’s truck that reveal a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Discovering this information allows Bart to soften his heart towards his dad, and he even begins the process of forgiveness. The two men would be inseparable up to the point that Arthur passes away. Bart would say of his dad during this time that “he went from being a monster to the man I wanted to be.” At the funeral, Bart’s grandma (Cloris Leachman), who he called Me Maw, tells Bart, “I can only imagine what your dad’s seeing right now.” Ultimately inspired by his Me Maw’s words, as well as his own journey of grief and healing with his dad, Bart would write the lyrics that would turn into the most-played song in the history of Christian radio as well as the best-selling Christian song of all time (linked just below).

Movies that feature relationships between dads and sons always get to me, and I’m not even sure why that is. My dad and I have always had a great relationship. We were inseparable when I was growing up. My dad was my coach in sports, we always worked together on his projects, and he loved to take us fishing. My dad has always shown unconditional support and love towards me, and he continues to do so to this day. Maybe it’s my appreciation for my dad that leads me to this sort of emotional response when those relationships are presented on screen, but I think it’s even deeper than that. There’s a scene near the end of I CAN ONLY IMAGINE where Arthur shares his conversion experience with his son that always makes me cry like a baby. It seems that same day that he smashed that plate over Bart’s head, Arthur listened to his son sing at church on the radio and decided to turn his life over to God. Watching Arthur admit to his faults and become a man who shows great love and kindness to Bart is a beautiful sight to behold. And watching Bart accept that love and show that forgiveness may even be more beautiful. As a deeply flawed Christian myself, I think that’s why this movie means so much to me. I never tell other people how they should live their lives. In my opinion, each person has their own journey, and their lives will be based on their own decisions and actions. But it’s my personal belief that God is in the business of making things that seem impossible, possible, and He does it all while showing unconditional love and forgiveness. I can honestly say that when I’ve been at my lowest points in my own life (here’s looking at you 2018), it has been the process of turning things over to God that has opened me up both spiritually and emotionally to opportunities for meaningful, life-changing connections with other people. This movie tried to tell me that, and my own life is proving it out.

Check out the trailer below:

Welcome Home, Soldier Boys (1971, directed by Richard Compton)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Talk about embarrassing!  When Lisa told me that today was Joe Don Baker’s birthday, I decided that I would review Speedtrap, as 1977 car theft movie that Lisa and I watched last week.  But, when I took a look at the imdb to double check the name of the character that Baker played in Speedtrap, I discovered that I had already reviewed it!

Instead of talking about Speedtrap a second time, I’m going to recommend one of Joe Don Baker’s early films.  In Welcome Home, Soldier Boys, Baker stars as Danny, the leader of a group of Green Berets who have just returned from Vietnam and can no longer find a place in society.  Danny, Kid (Alan Vint), Shooter (Paul Koslo), and Fatback (Elliott Street) go on a cross-country road trip.  After they kill a prostitute (Jennifer Billingsley) who demanded more money than they were willing to pay, they visit many sites from their youth.  They go to a high school basketball team.  They spend some time in a sleazy motel.  (Geoffrey Lewis plays the desk clerk.)  They get into a fight with a mechanic (Timothy Scott) over the price of some auto repairs.  After being cheated by one too many people and realizing that no one cares about the sacrifices that they made for their country, they put on their uniforms and violently take over a small town, leading the National Guard to show up to take them all out.

Welcome Home, Soldier Boys is a pretty ham-fisted anti-war allegory and the plot sometimes meanders too much for its own good.  With its road trip violence, its a dry run for director Richard Compton’s far more cohesive Macon County Line.  The movie still packs a punch, due to the efforts of the cast and the violent ending.  The movie is full of familiar characters actors, who are all convincing in their roles but it really is dominated by Joe Don Baker’s hulking intensity.  Danny is the dark side of the amiable country boys that Joe Don Baker would play in so many other movies.  Danny is angry but, as a stranger in a strange land, he’s sometimes sympathetic.  Ultimately, Danny wants the respect that was given to the returning soldiers of the previous generation.  Instead, he comes back to country that doesn’t want much to do with him or his friends.  Returning from serving overseas and still trying to deal with the things that he saw in overseas, Danny feels lost in and rejected by his home country.  It’s one of Baker’s best performances.

Behind The Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie’s Angel (2004, directed by Francine McDougall)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Looking for a new hit, television producer Aaron Spelling (Dan Castellanata) comes up with the story of “three little girls who went to the police academy and who were assigned very hazardous duties” but who were taken away from all that by the mysterious Charlie.  The show is conceived as a star vehicle for Kate Jackson (Lauren Stamile), with fashion model Jaclyn Smith (Christina Chambers) and actress Farrah Fawcett-Majors (Tricia Helfer) playing her partners in investigating and solving crimes.  Kate wants to make a feminist statement.  Jaclyn wants to be a good role model to the little girls who sneak out of their room to watch the show.  Farrah wants to be a star without losing her possessive husband, Lee Majors (Ben Browder).  The critics hate the show.  Studio president Fred Silverman (Dan Lauria) and showrunner Barney Rozenweig (Michael Tomlinson) are embarrassed by it.  But Spelling has a hit and the actresses become stars.  But when Farrah decides she wants to leave after one season, the show’s future is put in doubt.

This was one of NBC’s Behind The Camera films and the only one to take us behind the scenes of a “drama” program.  (The other films looked at Diff’Rent Strokes, Mork and Mindy, and Three’s Company.)  This is probably the best of them, though “good” and “best” are both relative terms when it comes to these movies.  As with all of the films, there’s too many inside jokes about the network execs, with Dan Lauria stepping into the shoes of Brian Dennehy and Saul Rubinek as Fred Silverman.  But Dan Castellanata did a surprisingly good job as Aaron Spelling and the three actresses playing the Angels were all convincing, especially Christina Chambers.  The film’s main villain is Lee Majors, who is blamed for forcing Farrah to leave the show and who is portrayed as yelling, “Her name is Farrah Fawcett-Majors!”  It’s low-budget and doesn’t offer much that isn’t already known but at the cast keeps the story interesting.

MacGruber (2010, directed by Jorma Taccone)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

A nuclear warhead has been stolen and Captain Jim Faith (Powers Boothe) knows just who to recruit to track it down.  Former CIA agent MacGruber (Will Forte) agrees to come out of retirement, so he can save the world from Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), the man who blew up MacGruber’s fiancée (Maya Rudolph) on the day of their wedding.

MacGruber re-assembles his old team.  Sure, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) no longer wants to be a part of the adventure and MacGruber refuses work with Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) but he still brings together a collection of men who look like they eat carburetors for breakfast.  And then he accidentally blows them up.  MacGruber’s assembling a new team!  While mentoring Dixon and falling in love with Vicki, MacGruber seeks his revenge on Cunth.  He also makes peace with his past by having sex with his fiancée’s ghost on her tombstone.

Based on the SNL skit that was itself based on a one-joke premise, MacGruber is a surprisingly entertaining action comedy, mixing frequently crude humor with heartfelt pathos.  MacGruber works because, even while it makes fun of action movies, it still respects the rules of the genre.  The jokes and the bullets fly with equal power.  MacGruber is an idiot but he’s also the only man who can save Washington from Cunth’s plot and Will Forte does an admirable job of delivering every bizarre line of dialogue with a fully committed straight face..  Val Kilmer plays Cunth as being a classic action villain, right down to his dismissive attitude and his long-winded speeches.  Kristen Wiig is both sexy and adorably awkward as the love interest.  And Ryan Phillippe does a surprisingly good job as the the one person who seems to understand how crazy MacGruber really is.  Every good comedy needs a good straight man and Ryan Phillippe proves himself to be more than up to the task.

MacGruber is full of quotable lines and scenes that are so out-there that you might need to rewind and confirm that you actually saw what you just did.  There have been a lot of bad Saturday Night Live movies.  MacGruber is one of the good ones.

Smoky Canyon (1952, directed by Fred Sears)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

There’s a $2500 dollar reward out for the masked bandit known as the Durango Kid but little do the residents of Timber Rock know that the Kid is actually Steve Brent (Charles Starrett), a Treasury agent who puts on a mask whenever he needs to go undercover and discover what the bad guys are doing.

A range war has broken out between the sheep farmers led by Jack Mahoney (Jock Mahoney) and the cattlemen led by Carl Buckley (Tristram Coffin).  To broker a peace and discover which side is the most to blame, Brent works for the cattlemen while the Durango Kid sides with the sheepmen.  It turns out that Buckley’s to blame here.  He’s using the war to thin out his cattle so that an Eastern beef syndicate can keep prices high.  When Mahoney gets too close to the truth, he is framed for the murder of Mr. Woodstock and it’s up to the Durango Kid to prove that Mahoney is innocent.  Meanwhile, Carl wants to blow up an entire mountain so that it will really thin out his cattle herd.

This is a typical Durango Kid movie, entertaining if you like B-westerns and probably boring if they’re not your thing.  It has all the usual gunfights, horse chases, and dynamite explosions that are promised by every Durango Kid film.  Starrett was always one of the most convincing cowboys on screen, even if his use of the Durango Kid alter ego didn’t always make sense.  All the usual members of the Durango stock company show up, all playing different characters than they did in the previous Durango Kid film.  Mahoney gets to play one of the good guys for once and his spirited girlfriend is played by the lovely Dani Sue Nolan.  Smiley Burnett shows up to provide comic relief.  This time, he’s a singing tour guide.  He sings a song called It’s Got To Get Better.  Let’s hope so.

THE BLOOD OF HEROES (1989) – Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen play in the Jugger Super Bowl! 

Posted on by Bradley Crain

As an obsessed Rutger Hauer fan of the early 90’s, I was working my way through the man’s back catalogue of films when I came across THE BLOOD OF HEROES (1989) on the shelves at my local video store. With its post-apocalyptic setting and its strange sport of jugger, I’ll admit that it was not the kind of film that I’m most drawn to. I generally preferred watching Hauer taking down the bad guys in movies like WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE (1986) and BLIND FURY (1989), which was released the very same year. However, it was a relatively recent Hauer film, so I rented it, cautiously optimistic that it would be entertaining. At the time, it was not my favorite Hauer film, but I remember an 18-year-old version of myself thinking it was okay. I’ve watched it a couple of times over the last 30 years, and even own the DVD, but it’s not one that I pull off the shelf very often. I decided it was time for a fresh viewing. 

In the bleak, desolate, futuristic world of THE BLOOD OF HEROES, Rutger Hauer plays Sallow, the leader of a team of juggers. They go from town to town challenging the local team in a sport where you win by placing a dog skull securely on a stake. It’s an extremely violent game consisting of two teams with five players. Four players basically beat the crap out of the opposition with clubs and chains, in hopes that they can provide protection to their one player, the “quick,” who can get the skull on the stake. We meet Sallow’s team who consists of Dog Boy (Justin Monjo), Mbulu (Delroy Lindo), Big Cimber (Anna Katarina), and Young Gar (Vincent D’Onofrio) as they enter a town ready for a match. They win, but Dog Boy, their quick, has his leg broken in the process. Luckily for them, the opponent’s quick Kidda (Joan Chen), who was at least partially responsible for Dog Boy’s gruesome injury, is available to head towards the next town with the ragtag crew! She turns out to be a hell of a player, who’s willing to do whatever it takes to win, including biting an ear off when it’s required. This is what I call dedication. During the course of the story, we find out that Sallow used to be a professional jugger who played in “The League” in the underground cities where the rich, aristocratic people live and treat their champion juggers “almost” like one of them. He got banished when he engaged in a forbidden relationship with one of the overlord’s daughters. With his team of juggers, especially the super talented Kidda and Gar, Sallow leads them to the big city where they will challenge the professionals. For Sallow, it’s a shot at redemption. For the others, it’s a chance to be noticed by the League, which will lead to a much more luxurious life, when they’re not bashing their opponents brains in of course. I may have exaggerated a bit in my headline when I referred to this challenge as the “Jugger Super Bowl,” but it’s still kind of a big deal! 

After rewatching THE BLOOD OF HEROES again, while it’s still not my favorite kind of film, I can confidently say that I enjoyed it very much this time around. Most of that joy stems from watching Rutger Hauer in his prime. He’s such a charismatic actor and that even comes across in such a grim setting. I also like his character type, that of the disgraced former hero searching for redemption against a system that had previously discarded him. There’s usually much satisfaction to be had with this type of character, and this movie delivers on that premise. Joan Chen is very good as the new addition to the team who dreams of escaping her town and becoming a jugger star! She and Hauer really carry the film. The rest of the cast also added to my enjoyment of the movie. For me, It’s a lot of fun watching actors like Vincent D’Onofrio and Delroy Lindo in relatively early roles in their long and distinguished careers. I really enjoyed seeing Australian actors Hugh Keays-Byrne and Max Fairchild, both veterans of the MAD MAX series, appear near the end of the film when they make it to the city. Max Fairchild is especially impressive as one of the League juggers and former friend to Hauer. I wanted to give one more shout out, and this one goes out to actor Gandhi MacIntyre, who plays the team manager and doctor in the film. He has a very likable presence and made me smile on multiple occasions. The movie’s pretty serious and dark, and Gandhi’s sense of humor is a welcome presence. 

THE BLOOD OF HEROES is written and directed by David Webb Peoples. To date, it’s the only feature length film that Peoples has directed. In my opinion, he does a fine job. He certainly creates an interesting world, with huge contrasts between the barren, rocky outside landscapes and the overcrowded, underground cities. This is not a world I want to live in, but Peoples brought his vision to the screen, albeit within clear budget limitations. Considering it’s from the same guy who wrote BLADE RUNNER (1982) and UNFORGIVEN (1992), the story is pretty simple. And this is fine by me. The story of redemption for some, and of the dream of newfound glory for others, is a story that all of us can relate to at some point in our lives. At this point in my own life, I can relate to both! The movie features some ugly and violent images, but I found myself emotionally pulling for the ragtag group of underdogs in the big game at the end. It’s also pretty cool that Peoples made up his own game when writing the screenplay, albeit a game I would never want to play. The game Jugger, a less violent version of the game introduced in the film, is currently played all over the world. 

One final thing I wanted to point out about THE BLOOD OF HEROES is the fact that an author named Danny Stewart has written a book called “Saluting the Blood of Heroes – Behind the Apocalyptic Film.” I just learned of this book while researching the film today for this review. It was published in July of 2024. I just love a world where a person is able to get a book published about the making of an obscure, low budget film from the late 80’s. I won’t be surprised if this ends up in my Amazon cart really soon. 

I’ve included the trailer for THE BLOOD OF HEROES (AKA – THE SALUTE OF THE JUGGER) below:

Renegade Girl (1946, directed by William Berke)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Missouri in 1864.  The Civil War is raging and the state is divided between those who support the Union and those secretly support the Confederate guerillas led by Willian Quantrill (Ray Corrigan).  The Union’s Major Baker (Jack Holt) is determined to track down rebel Bob Shelby (Jimmie Martin) and he enlists the Native American Chief Whitecloud (played by Chief Thundercloud) to help find him.  Whitecloud has a personal vendetta against the Shelby family and, when he finds Bob, he executes him in cold blood.  Bob’s sister, Jean Shelby (Ann Savage), is also a Confederate sympathizer and she seeks revenge.  Complicating things is that Jean has fallen in love with Union Captain Fred Raymond (Alan Curtis).

One of the many B-westerns produced by Robert L. Lippert and directed by William Berke, Renegade Girl packs a lot of plot into just 65 minutes.  The action is nonstop and fans of westerns will find all of the horse chases, gunfights, and threats of hanging that they could want.  The main thing that distinguishes Renegade Girl from other B-westerns is the fierce performance of Ann Savage as Jean Shelby, a woman who will not stop until she gets her revenge.  While the film’s portrayal of the Quantrill and Chief Whitecloud definitely goes against modern sensibilities, Ann Savage’s performance feels ahead of her time.  No one is going to stand in Jean Shelby’s way.

Chief Thundercloud’s real name was reportedly Victor Daniels, though his past is shrouded in mystery.  He claimed to be a Cherokee from Arizona, though he was listed as being Mexican on a marriage record that was filed before he started his film career.  As Chief Thundercloud, he was a mainstay in westerns from the 30s to the time of his death in 1955.  He was the first actor to play the Lone Ranger’s Tonto and he also played Geronimo in a 1939 Paramount film of the same name.  His final film role was a posthumous appearance in John Ford’s The Searchers.

Film Review: Mouse of Horrors (dir by Brendan Petrizzo)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As a horror fan, I always appreciate a good slasher film.  As dark and as disturbing as they can be, they’ve also helped me to face down a lot of my own real-life fears.  Watching a good slasher film can be cathartic.  You may be scared when you’re watching and, if you’re like me, you’ll probably put your hands in front of your eyes during the more graphic kills but, when the end credits roll, you feel proud of yourself for having made it all the way through.

Again, that’s a good slasher film.

A bad slasher film can be, if you’ll excuse the expression, absolute terror.

Mouse of Horrors is not a good slasher film.  It’s a film about Chloe (Natasha Tosini) and her friends who, after about 15 minutes of filler, finally go to the “fun fair.”  It turns out that the fair is not very fun because it’s home to Dr. Rupert (Chris Lines) and his two sons, one of whom wears a mouse mask and another of whom wears a bear mask.  They’re Mickey and Winnie, though they’re never explicitly called that over the course of the film.  (The Mouse is played by Lewis Santer while the Bear is played by Stephen Staley).  Dr. Rupert needs body parts so he sends his two sons out to collect them.  As you may have guessed, this leads to a lot of scenes of spurting blood, hacked-off limbs, and screams.  Mickey and Winnie do not speak but Dr. Rupert does.  In fact, the old man will not shut up.  Even if he wasn’t some old weirdo demanding that his sons hack up random people, Dr. Rupert would be an annoying old crank.

Let’s give some credit where credit is due.  The Mouse has potential and physically, Lewis Santer does a good job of portraying The Mouse’s jumpy style of movement.  The Mouse mask is creepy, or at least it is at first.  Eventually, I got bored with looking at the Mouse and, by the time the Bear started fighting with the Mouse, I no longer cared much about looking at either of them.  Still, the killer is one of the most important parts of a slasher film and the Mouse had potential.  The setting of the carnival also had potential, though most of it went unused.

The rest of the film, though …. ugh!  Seriously, this was one of the worst edited films I’ve ever seen, including one scene where a day for night scene went totally day for a few shots.  The story dragged.  (It takes 20 minutes to get them to the fun fair when the film really should have started with them already there.)  I was never quite sure where the Mouse was in relation to anyone else in the film, negating any chance of generating suspense.  Why was the town suddenly deserted?  Why did everyone else at the fun fair suddenly disappear except for Chloe and her friends?  Why did the Mouse go the local pub to kill a bartender instead of just staying at the fun fair?  Does the Mouse walk around town with his mouse mask on?  How does he get away with that?  I’ve always been the first to say that enjoying a horror film requires a certain suspension of disbelief but the audience has every right to expect some sort of reward for playing along.  This film doesn’t offer that reward.

Get ready for a lot more films like this. Copyrights are expiring and everyone wants to either make a film based on their childhood nightmares or get revenge on their English teacher for making them read a book in high school.  This was not the first killer Mickey film and I doubt it will be the last.

Film Review: The Wild Robot (dir. by Chris Sanders)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

I don’t know if we fully recognize all the sacrifices parents make for their kids. A person takes on ownership of a whole little being (be it through birth, adoption or the Cat Distribution System) and somehow tries their best to keep it fed, protected, educated and loved, all while still trying to figure out their own lives. It doesn’t always work out. Some parents evade the responsibility, leaving their kids to horrible fates, while others rise to the challenge, often without fully knowing what they need to do. They’re not perfect, but parents can be pretty awesome at times, especially the ones who didn’t have to do the job. 

Dreamworks The Wild Robot may very well be the best Animated Feature this year. Nothing against Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 (which was also wonderful) or Flow (which looks wonderful and took the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature), but I spent a good part of this film sniffling. It’s a very simple, yet sweet story that moves at a very rapid pace. That’s understandable, given that it’s for children, but the story is accessible for just about any adult.

When a robot named Roz (Lupita N’yongo, A Quiet Place: Day One) crash lands in a forest, she studies her environment and tries to get to know the local habitat. The animals are naturally fearful of Roz, but she eventually begins to understand their dialects. While trying to phone home, Roz runs into some raccoon thieves and a rather large bear. The resulting chase causes her to accidentally crash into and destroy a goose nest, save for one egg. When the egg hatches, she finds herself having to take on a parent role for the gosling, though she’s not fully alone. Helping Roz out is a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal, Gladiator II), who lives by his wits and provides some wildlife know-how for survival, while keeping himself well fed. Also along to assist is Pinktail, a possum who has a litter of her own to handle. As she adjusts to her new sense of motherhood, Roz meets tons of other animals that warm up to her. She finds a new task in taking care of Brightbill (Kit Connor, Ready Player One) and preparing him to fly South for the winter.

Directed by Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch), The Wild Robot has elements for both kids and adults. The wilderness is a dangerous place, and the Circle of Life is rougher here than it ever was in Disney’s The Lion King (which Sanders also had a hand in). There are predators and prey, and the audience is made to understand this pretty quickly (though not as harshly as say, Watership Down). There’s a great deal of tenderness as well, focusing on Storytelling (which Roz learns), the friends and family we make along the way and some hardship in the way that Brightbill suffers some insensibilities with from other geese that he doesn’t quite fit in with. 

I feel The Wild Robot‘s strongest points are the music and the art direction. The film looks like an actual watercolor painting, especially when viewed in the largest format possible. The pacing for the plot moved a little quicker than I expected, particularly in the lead up to meeting Brightbill. Musically, Kris Bowers (Netflix’s Bridgerton, The Haunted Mansion) has a great soundtrack that adds some weight to the scenes. With Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross out of the running for Challengers, Bowers is my hopeful pick for the Best Soundtrack Oscar. 

At the time of this writing, The Wild Robot is available to watch on Universal’s Peacock service. Just make sure you bring a box of tissues and if at all possible, call or thank your Mom afterwards.

CHATO’S LAND (1972) – Jack Palance leads a posse after Charles Bronson!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

One of the most enjoyable things about being a dad is introducing your favorite things to your kids. I taught my son Hank the sports of basketball, baseball, and golf, and even now there’s nothing we enjoy doing more together than playing a round of golf. Of course, as one of the world’s biggest Charles Bronson fans, I’ve introduced him to many films starring my cinematic hero. It seems that two movies have stood the test of time and have gone on to become two of his favorite movies. The fact that THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) is one of his favorites isn’t a big surprise as he’s always enjoyed playing video games set during World War II. The other, CHATO’S LAND (1972), was more of a surprise. A few years ago, when Hank was home from college, I asked him if there was a movie he wanted to watch. It could have been any movie in the world, and I was honestly a little surprised when he said he’d been wanting to watch CHATO’S LAND again. Needless to say, this dad was very proud. 

Charles Bronson is Pardon Chato, a half breed Apache who’s minding his own business and having a drink in the saloon, when a small-town sheriff decides to give him hell just for being a “breed.” Forced to kill the racist POS in self-defense, Chato heads out of town a day ahead of the posse led by the former confederate Captain Quincey Whitmore (Jack Palance). Whitmore may be leading the posse, but the Hooker Brothers (played by Simon Oakland, Ralph Waite, and Richard Jordan) are just as bigoted as the sheriff who was killed, and they set about bullying their neighbors into joining their hunt for Chato. A couple of the guys who go along because it’s “expected of them” are Joshua Everette (James Whitmore) and Gavin Malechie (Roddy McMillan). When the posse comes across Chato’s home and woman, some of the members decide the wise thing to do is rape her and tie her up as bait. This is clearly not going to work out well for the posse, even those who tried to stop the rape. Using his sneaky Indian skills and the help of a fellow Indian, Chato is able to create a diversion and rescue his woman, but his friend is killed in the process. With his friend murdered and his woman brutalized and raped, Chato is no longer willing to just run away. From this point forward, the hunters will become the hunted as he leads them all further into CHATO’S LAND. 

There are several things that I find interesting about CHATO’S LAND. This is the first of six films that director Michael Winner and Charles Bronson would make together. They would all be financially successful films with THE MECHANIC (1972) and the original DEATH WISH (1974) standing out as true 70’s classics. Charles Bronson’s last number one box office hit would be DEATH WISH 3 (1985), which would also be his final film with Winner. It should also be noted that the character of Chato would be an early precursor of the kind of character Bronson would go on to embody almost exclusively throughout the rest of his career, that of the quiet but deadly man of action. Chato only says 13 lines in the entire movie and most of those are in a Native American dialect. Chato doesn’t have that much actual screen time either, but his presence dominates every scene. He’s like the angel of death hanging over the entire proceedings waiting to strike, and Winner continues to build on this tension as the film moves towards its inevitable conclusion. It’s an incredible, physical performance that can only be delivered by an actor like Bronson. Finally, the film has an outstanding cast, a cast that Winner himself would call “as good a cast as I ever assembled.” In addition to Bronson, Jack Palance is excellent as the confederate captain who’s never gotten over losing the war, and who now finds himself losing the battle to control the men in the posse. James Whitmore and Roddy McMillan are solid as a couple of decent men who went along because they felt it was their duty to their neighbors, who now find themselves caught up in a bad situation with even worse men. And finally, Simon Oakland, Ralph Waite & Richard Jordan are the kind of men you love to hate as the ignorant and bigoted Hooker brothers. It doesn’t hurt your feelings at all to see those guys get what’s coming to them.

Overall, CHATO’S LAND is a very good western, dominated by Bronson’s presence in the same way that JAWS (1975) is dominated by a giant killer shark. It was also a hugely profitable film upon its initial release, guaranteeing that Bronson would continue to get starring roles in films backed by American studios. Bronson liked to work with the same directors once he felt comfortable with them, and his collaboration with Winner would prove to be extremely fruitful and help turn him into one of the biggest box office stars in America. Thanks, Michael!