a review of 大地惊雷

MANNVANUARY FOUR: Only catching up with this one now, and it's been easily 15 years since I saw the Coen Bros. remake in the theater, so I'm tempted to rewatch it for comparison's sake. As it is, this one feels like an uneasy yet compelling hybrid of the somewhat cornier "classic" mainstream Western and the grittier type that were emerging around this time from Peckinpah and Leone and such. John Wayne is usually a tough sell for me (not just based on what I know of his politics, but on the whole package), but I actually liked him here. I think it's because this film flips his usual persona -- the good guy who comes across as a huge arrogant asshole -- the other way around, and instead imagines him as a huge arrogant asshole who through the correct social pressure and craven self-interest can occasionally be coaxed into doing something good. Kim Darby does a fine job of embodying that pressure as the strong-willed and fastidious girl who employs him to find the man who killed her father; Although her character ends up (literally) falling into some disappointing damsel-in-distress tropes by the end, she's a memorable presence and clearly set the model for Hailee Steinfeld's take on the character in the Coen remake.