Kino releases three Clint Eastwood westerns on blu ray

Kino Lorber has released three more Clint Eastwood westerns on blu ray, adding to those already released, with more scheduled to come out. The three that became available on October 27th present Eastwood transitioning into stardom and beginning to explore his ability as a director. Each of these are sold separately, not as part of a set, and the link to purchase each one follows their respective review.

TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA

At this point in his career, Clint Eastwood was in transition. Once again making films for Universal after having been under contract with this studio as an overlooked small-time actor a decade earlier, Eastwood fluctuated between his own projects and those he was cast in by the studio. While Hang 'Em High and Coogan's Bluff afforded him some creative input, being cast in movies like Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes did little or nothing to advance his career. While he was filming Where Eagles Dare, Clint Eastwood was contacted by Elizabeth Taylor with a script that producer Martin Rackin planned to do at Universal. The screenplay was by Budd Boetticher, known as the director of such top drawer Randolph Scott films as Seven Men From Now (1956) and Buchanan Rides Alone (1958). Eastwood was attracted to the project after reading an early draft of the script, and agreed with Taylor to co-star with her. Eastwood gave the script to Don Siegel, who expressed an interest in directing. Producer Rackin had the right idea to fashion the script more akin to what made Eastwood successful, and to use Don Siegel as director. Two Mules For Sister Sara is an example of solid, entertaining cinema. Everything is established and defined in the opening scene. Hogan, a drifter (Eastwood) sees a woman (Shirley MacLaine) with her clothing ripped away, about to be raped by three men. He fires a shot to stop them, and they respond by inviting him to join in the festivities, even indicating that they have whiskey. Shots are fired, and one of them grabs the woman as a human shield. Hogan, remaining at a distance, is shown sitting against a rock, seemingly ignoring the man as he lights a cigar. He then pulls out a stick of dynamite, casually lights it with his cigar, and tosses it toward the man, who lets go of the woman and runs away. Hogan shoots the man in the back, walks at an even pace to the dynamite, and removes the fuse. Siegel's filming of the opening scene is a part of why it works so well. He never lets us get any closer to the action than Hogan's vantage point, only eliminating the distance after the first shot is fired. Once one of the men grabs the woman daring Hogan to fire again, Siegel cuts to a medium profile shot of the drifter sitting majestically against the rock, lighting a cigar with complete aplomb, confusing the gunman (Siegel quickly cutting away to that reaction). Once he pulls out the stick of dynamite and casually lights it with the cigar, we realize his method of defense. The panicked gunman flees. It is a particularly powerful opening and sets the tone for the remainder of the movie. The woman is Sara, a nun connected with helping Mexican revolutionaries in their battle against the French. Hogan must curb his behavior around the nun, with some similarities to the dynamic between Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (1951) or perhaps Hepburn and John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn (and the Lady)(1979). This fits in with director Siegel's theme of having to adapt to immediate circumstances outside of one's comfort zone. It also exhibits an unlikely partnership, something Siegel would also revisit, as would Eastwood, in subsequent movies. Initially, Sara is submissive toward Hogan, who assumes his role as the alpha male leader. Sexual tension is discernible throughout the duo's relationship during the movie's opening scenes. At regular intervals, the nun reveals more and more about herself to the puzzled drifter. She smokes his cigars, drinks his whiskey, and refers to her buttocks as an ass. When he asks where she heard such language, she claims a fellow nun taught it to her. Two Mules for Sister Sara concludes with a battle scene that is effectively shot and edited.

Two Mules for Sister Sara remains a good western film in the evolution of Clint Eastwood's work in the genre. There are many elements it contains that would later inform his own self-directed movies in this genre. Clint Eastwood won the Laurel Award for Best Action performance. Shirley MacLaine was nominated, but did not win. The extras on Kino’s blu ray include an audio commentary by filmmaker Alex Cox (“Straight to Hell,” “Repo Man,” “Sid and Nancy”) and a candid interview with Clint Eastwood, as well as some TV and radio spots. The blu ray can be purchased at this link: Two Mules

JOE KIDD

Perhaps what most stands out about Joe Kidd is its conventional narrative structure. While the western films Clint Eastwood had done up to this point tend to challenge the genre’s standards and basics, Joe Kidd is quite ordinary. While considering different projects as his next film, Eastwood was given the script for Joe Kidd by producer Jennings Lang. Originally called The Sinola Courthouse Raid, Eastwood was impressed that the script was written by novelist Elmore Leonard, whose western novels were often turned into movies, including Hombre (1967) and 3:10 To Yuma (1955, and, later, a 2007 remake). The director chosen was John Sturges, whose past westerns included Escape From Fort Bravo (1953), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), The Law and Jake Wade (1958), Last Train From Gun Hill (1959), and his masterpiece in the genre, The Magnificent Seven (1960). With a screenplay by Elmore Leonard, a director like John Sturges and an actor like Clint Eastwood in the title role, Joe Kidd delivers. Eastwood establishes his title character very quickly. He is not intimidated by his surroundings or the people who inhabit his immediate world, as in his usual western movie persona. He also exhibits a compulsive violence that is sudden and jarring, as Harry Callahan might have displayed. With little effort and an economy of movement, Joe Kidd controls his environment. Through most of the film, Joe Kidd is caught between two factions. First, he listens patiently as Luis Chama (John Saxon), and his people storm the courtroom, hold the judge at gunpoint, and makes a statement about how white landowners have taken over land that rightfully belongs to the Mexican people, but a fire destroyed any evidence proving that. In a bold movie, Kidd takes the judge out of the courtroom as the argument goes nowhere, and helps him escape danger. Chama and the peasants he's gathered decide to wage a war against the landowners. The conflict between land grabbers and the Mexican people is a classic western movie conflict. Both writer Leonard and director Sturges were certainly up to the task of creating a strong film from this idea. The plot, with its two rival factions, vaguely resembles A Fistful of Dollars, except here Joe Kidd takes a more definite side in the battle rather than playing the two against each other. Sturges was a no-nonsense director who had his ideas set and ready when he showed up for filming each day, and, as a result, got along famously with Clint Eastwood, as this was the actor’s preferred method of working. Leonard's script was often rewritten by the producer, but the screenwriter would then cross out the producer's corrections and put back his own ideas before presenting it to Eastwood and director Sturges. Joe Kidd, in comparison to Eastwood’s other westerns, it is perhaps his most conventional as well being one of his most interesting. The extras include an audio commentary by Alex Cox, an interview with actor Don Stroud, as well as some images and TV spots. The blu ray can be purchased at this link: Joe Kidd

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

“High Plains Drifter” is Clint Eastwood's second feature film as a director, and first self-directed western. Immediately upon the opening scene, we can spot how his strongest directorial influences -- Sergio Leone and Don Siegel -- inspired his own directorial style. Wisely choosing the keen eye of veteran art director Henry Bumstead who presents a desolate area where a makeshift town is operating, Eastwood films himself from several angles, the central character trotting in on horseback, the town's backdrop providing an eerie negative space. Eastwood's edits are quick, but still revealing. The reaction of the onlookers who stare at him indicate that a stranger riding through is both unusual and unwelcome. There are shots from the stranger's vantage point. There are close-ups of single figures as well as groups, introducing us to those who will be a part of the narrative. The sound track offers only the blowing winds. This quiet, carefully paced opening is jarringly interrupted by the sound of a whip crack and the noise of a horse-and-wagon riding off. That sound fades into the wind as the stranger patiently ties his horse to a hitching post. The strength of this opening sequence nicely displays Eastwood's creative artistry as a director. This ride through town offers so many different angles, that Eastwood had to arrange several setups to film the scene according to his vision. There is no distraction, nothing disconcerting about his method. With cinematographer Surtees and editor Webster, Eastwood provides a nice, evenly flowing opening that offers the precise tension necessary for the effectiveness of the narrative. The lack of music and dialogue in this opening also sets up the eerie tone that persists throughout the entire film. This tension extends to the saloon the stranger enters upon hitching up his horse. Three men indicate his presence is unwelcome. They make a threat, he brushes it off, with the same level of dismissive sarcasm that was by now a fixture of his screen persona, has his drink, and leaves. The stranger settles into a barber shop for a shave and a bath. The three men enter and surround him as he sits lathered in a barber chair. In another characteristic reaction, he reveals a gun tucked under the barber's apron and easily blows the men away. The narrative is described as the stranger is bathing. The sheriff comes in and explains that those he shot were hired killers to protect the town from the Carlin brothers, who have just been released from prison. These men swore revenge on the town for their being sentenced. The sheriff indicates the stranger will not be arrested for the murders if he agrees to take their place and protect the town. In order to entice the strangers, the sheriff indicates he can have anything he wants without having to pay.There are several elements to consider as the narrative is established. First, the power given to the stranger has some similarities to Eastwood's supervision of this production as its director. The stranger reinvents the town according to his personal vision, having everything painted red, changing the town's name from Lago to Hell, has a man's barn dismantled to make picnic benches, and has the entire hotel evacuated so he can operate from there. This causes friction from Belding (Ted Hartley), the owner of the barn and hotel, but the stranger maintains his stoic composure, despite much of the town wondering about why he wants to put together a massive barbecue to welcome the Carlin brothers to town. As a final act, the stranger makes a town midget he has befriended, Mordacai (Billy Curtis), the new sheriff and mayor

When Clint Eastwood first read the story treatment for High Plains Drifter he was intrigued by the supernatural element and the offbeat approach, realizing it was influenced by the sort of European western that he had helped establish. Arranging a joint production between his company Malpaso and Universal studios, Eastwood hired Oscar winning screenwriter Ernest Tidyman, who'd been awarded for penning the script for The French Connection.

High Plains Drifter takes issue with the hypocrisy of the western hero stereotype in a manner that is even more explicit than Eastwood’s “Dollars” trilogy for Serio Leone. The hero is supplanted by the anti-hero. The stranger expresses little as he rides into the small mining town. It is a full six minutes before he speaks, despite being in the movie from its very outset. The people are suspicious, guilty, ashamed, and openly hostile. There are no good guys here. The good guy was brutally murdered as the town watched. This is what rises from that incident. The townspeople are as much the villains of the film as the Carlin brothers. Most of the film deals with a warped perspective on social realities, and Eastwood's approach to this mindset has clearly been an inspiration to later filmmakers like Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino, each of whom also use dark humor within a dramatic context that deals in behavioral extremes and a revisionist approach to conventional ideas. Kino’s blu ray is filled with extras, including an audio commentary by filmmaker Alex Cox, interviews with actors Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan, and William O’Connell, the documentary “A Man Called Eastwood,” and several TV and radio spots. The blu ray can be purchased at this link: Drifter

All three of these films are among Clint Eastwood’s best in the western genre, and are filled with interesting extras. They are each recommended most highly.

Portions of this review have been taken from my book The Clint Eastwood Films