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Cowboys & Aliens
Blended genres have been a staple of the film industry for many years. Typically it concerns fairly compatible types of movies like comedy in conjunction to drama, romance and even horror. In the case of the aptly titled ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ two of the traditionally most popular genres; science fiction and the western. Both of these types of movies have been in constant use since the dawn of the cinematic age over a century ago. There have been cases where the western style and structure were used within the context of Sci-Fi such as the cult classic ‘Outland’, a clever retelling of the iconic western ‘High Noon’ only set on a moon of Jupiter. In the case here, ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ it is not just setting a typical horse opera in a science fiction driven universe it proposed to achieve a direct head on crash of the two types of movie. The filmmaker has taken on the role of a cinematic quantum physicist, attempting to use his camera as a sort of particle collider. Just like the real thing in CERN, the experiment attempted here met with limited success only partially reaching its goal. The main source of difficult encountered was the prerequisite demands of having the construct both a workable western and a suitably adventurous Sci-Fi. Now, the difference between the two are not as great as you might think at first, in the heyday of Science fiction flicks, the fifties, many of the writers, directors and actors had previously worked on war movies and, westerns. Much of this was a natural side effect of the old studio system they had the tendency to make sure all of their contract employees were always busy. The up side of this is many exceptionally talented people got to apply themselves to a variety of different kinds of movie. As such there was a general merging of techniques and styles. In this movie the filmmaker seemed to set out to keep the underlying elements distinct. Again it comes down to the arduous task of making two different films come across as a single, coherent entity. The result is a strongly enjoyable movie that just failed to reach its full potential. If that had happened this would have been a truly amazing film. The film begins with a crossover to another standard genre, the mystery. Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) awakens in the isolated Arizona territory of 1873. There are two things that Jake finds extremely disconcerting. First of all he has absolutely no memory. He can’t recall his name or any detail of his life prior to regaining consciousness. Then there is the matter of the strange metallic object encasing his wrist. It is made of a strange metal and of a design like nothing of this world. He also has an odd injury on his side but all things considering that is the least of Jake’s concerns. He sets off on foot but after coming three bandits trying to waylay him Jake now has clothing, guns, a horse and a dog. Jake travels to the outpost town of Absolution where is wound is crudely stitched up by the rough and ready local preacher, Meacham (Clancy Brown). Like most movie frontier towns this one has a lawman, Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) who is barely effective against Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), the uncontrollable son of the richest, most powerful man in the territory, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Jake lends a hand by knocking out the hoodlum permitting the sheriff to take him into custody. If this sounds very familiar to you there is a good reason. It is a direct lift of the opening setup for one of the better examples of the traditional western, ‘My Darling Clementine’ only Henry Fonda was able to pull off the reluctant hero much better than Craig. The plot remains identical to the point where the father rides into town with his nefarious ranch hands to extract the wayward son. Complicating things Jake is recognized as a wanted gunman but eludes capture thanks to the beautiful Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde). Just as the confrontation begins the sky is filled by a strange, unearthly craft that strafes the main street. Metallic tentacles much like those used in Spielberg’s remake of ‘War of the Worlds’ dart out to pull a number of townsfolk up into the craft. At this point the bracelet on Jake’s wrist springs to life shooting a bolt of light that brings down one of the alien crafts. The principle characters form the traditional plot device, the motley crew posse and head off to track the extraterrestrial invaders. The story meanders around attempting to infuse as many tropes as possible from aliens harvesting humans and mounting an assault on the mother ship on the Sci-Fi front to rampaging Apaches to stolen gold represent the traditional cowboy and Indian flick. The film is competently directed by actor/director Jon Favreau who has been re-establishing his career among fans of comic book movies. This is no longer a camp genre intended for light entertainment. His movie, ‘Iron Man’ stands firmly as one of the best films of its year and among the best movies to take on the serious story of a man’s search for redemption. Favreau is undoubtedly one of the best filmmakers on the scene today although this experiment does not represent the quality he has demonstrated in the past. The movie is ambitious in scope and a great popcorn flick but it lacks the emotional depth of ‘Iron Man’. The casting is excellent with Ford and Craig fitting nicely to a western setting. The use of western standard, Keith Carradine, lends a much needed western flair to counter balance the well known high tech characters associated with the two other male leads. The always gorgeous Ms. Wilde took an hiatus from her stint on television’s ‘House, M.D.’ to expand her film career and does more than provide eye candy here, the young woman’s acting ability adds significant to the movie. While all these factors contribute to the overall enjoyment quotient of the flick it is not enough to rescue it from the inherent identity crisis that holds the production back. Universal's Second Screen Posted 11/16/11 |
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