Blake Edwards liked to whinge that MGM ruined his masterpiece, and certainly this happened a lot at Metro under the auspices of James T Aubrey. But the main complaint is that they took out 40 minutes of what was already clocks in at over two hours and feels very slow. Would the 40 minutes have helped? I don't think so. I think I saw the uncut version - it felt painful and went on forever.
This is a dull tale about two cow pokes (William Holden and Ryan O'Neal) who decide to rob a bank. They amble about a lot - an awful lot.
I like both Holden and O'Neal in other movies but neither are that memorable here and they seem like really weird friends. Karl Malden provides some much needed energy but he's not in the movie much. It is lyrically shot - so much so that I kept falling asleep. And even though the story is simple enough I struggled at times to follow it. Maybe I was bored.
2 comments:
I wish you really were Robert Aldrich.
Thanks Dale! But he lives on in his films :)
Post a Comment