{"id":16947,"date":"2017-11-07T13:34:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T18:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16947"},"modified":"2017-11-07T13:34:18","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T18:34:18","slug":"br-lawman-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16947","title":{"rendered":"BR: Lawman (1971)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0September 19, 2017<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Western<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A no-nonsense Marshal gives 4 suspects wanted for murder 24 hours to surrender before he commences a brutal manhunt.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Isolated Stereo Music Track \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a> and www.twilighttimemovies.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

As more of Michael Winner\u2019s films emerge on Blu-ray, it\u2019s not hard to pick up on the director\u2019s attraction to tales of disrupted lives and outright nihilistic finales, but what makes Lawman<\/strong> more unique than Winner\u2019s career hit Death Wish<\/strong> (1974) is how whole lives are ruined by the visitation of one man who\u2019s supposed to represent the law.<\/p>\n

Lawman<\/strong> is sold as a tough marshal tasked with rounding up four men wanted for the death of an old man during a heady night of drinking, smashing windows, and looting shops not set afire, but right from Marshal Maddox\u2019s arrival in Sabbath, things go badly.<\/p>\n

Arriving with a dead man draped over his horse, he\u2019s a quiet, cold imperialist expecting action at the softest demand, but he doesn\u2019t realize the town\u2019s culture is one of watching where one steps, respecting the existing pecking order, and just minding one\u2019s business. When Sabbath\u2019s Marshal Cotton (Robert Ryan) informs cow baron Vincent Bronson (Lee J. Cobb) that the four men are under his employ, his first reaction is to reason \u2013 with words, money, whatever \u2013 but Maddox, dubbed \u201cthe widow maker,\u201d will have none of it, expecting the four \u2013 irrespective of whoever claims zero involvement – to appear by noon the next day, or else.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s unusual about Gerald Wilson\u2019s scenario is that none of the characters are inherently or classically evil: Vernon Adams (Robert Duvall) is an average worker with a wife and kids, concerned about his family\u2019s welfare while he\u2019d be away during a trial\u2019s indefinite period; tough-talking Hurd Price (J.D. Cannon) is just a schmo who\u2019s \u2018kind and decent\u2019 to the town\u2019s former prostitute Laura Shelby (Sheree North); the other men \u2013 Harvey Sternbaugh (Albert Salmi) and Jack Dekker (Ralph Waite) are the quartet\u2019s nastiest members, but they\u2019re loyal to the Bronson family, with Sternbaugh going back decades with patriarch Vincent.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s minor rivalry between Cotton\u2019s son & heir Jason (John Beck) and up-and-coming lieutenant Crowe Wheelright (Richard Jordan, in his film debut), but it never develops into a dominant conflict because the main figure is Wheelright, a cocky wannabe gunslinger who learns from unlikely confrontations with Maddox that there\u2019s a time and place to draw a gun; the pair\u2019s scene eating fish by a river is a pivotal learning curve in which Wheelright soon realizes his enemy can become a teacher, an indirect ally, and a nemesis if and when circumstances change.<\/p>\n

Maddox\u2019s background is kept vague, but he shares a history with Laura, and although they share a night, whatever dreams the tired marshal has, settling down is an impossibility. Winner orchestrates so much emotional and physical carnage that the idea of a quiet retirement is ludicrous, and he accentuates that hollow dream in the finale where practically everyone dies when a moment\u2019s hesitation may have prevented the worst of it.<\/p>\n

As grim as Winner\u2019s films tend to be, certainly during the early 1970s, his Hollywood productions are packed with an astonishing cast of stars and superb character actors; even the smallest roles, such as Joseph Wiseman (Dr. No<\/strong>) as a whorehouse owner who plays cards as time ticks on a working skull clock.<\/p>\n

Lawman<\/strong> features multiple generations of aging stars \u2013 Lancaster playing an anti-hero, Ryan (Inferno<\/a>, House of Bamboo<\/a><\/strong>) the weathered but patient peacekeeper, Cobb (Captain from Castile<\/a><\/strong>, The Exorcist<\/a><\/strong>) the aging patriarch who wants to keep his modest empire intact for his son \u2013 and new stars, especially Duvall (The Chase<\/a><\/strong>, The Godfather<\/strong>), Jordan (The Yakuza<\/a><\/strong>, Logan\u2019s Run<\/strong>), Waite (The Stone Killer<\/strong>, The Waltons<\/strong>), and to some extent, Beck (Rollerball, Audrey Rose<\/a><\/strong>). The town elders and merchants are a bit clich\u00e9d, but they represent the impulsive mob; amateur heroes who meddle and acquire courage when in group form with loaned rifles.<\/p>\n

A pleasing plus in Winner\u2019s film is Laura not smacked around and raped \u2013 his depiction of women is pretty shoddy (and would get worse during his Cannon years) \u2013 but the European version reportedly contains an alternate scene in which North appears nude (not included in the transfer supplied to Twilight Time). He also seems to relish a gritty veneer and shooting on location; Robert Paynter\u2019s cinematography is gorgeous, but there\u2019s no gloss or rich colours to the film\u2019s palette.<\/p>\n

TT\u2019s disc features a trailer and stereo isolated score track of Jerry Fielding\u2019s outstanding music \u2013 one of his best, if not a worthy follow-up to his masterpiece for Sam Peckinpah\u2019s The Wild Bunch<\/strong> (1969). It\u2019s is a bit coincidental that Winner would make his own violent western with Wild<\/strong>\u2019s composer and<\/em> co-star Ryan, but the filmmakers and their visions are very<\/em> distinct. Where Peckinpah allows characters to have \u2018down-times\u2019 and eat, drink, and have merry evenings with women, Winner has everyone in a constant state of fear; Maddox isn\u2019t afraid of anyone, but Lancaster plays the character as a man whose time is running out, and although he isn\u2019t killed in Lawman<\/strong>\u2019s finale, he\u2019s headed for an ignominious death, perhaps at the hands of a Wheelright variant.<\/p>\n

Fielding\u2019s knack for grasping character conflicts and psychologies and layering them with unusual theme variations and orchestrations gives the film extra depth, and it\u2019s perhaps a key reason the composer \u2013 a Peckinpah regular \u2013 also maintained a fruitful association with Winner. Fielding was adept at accentuating the flaws within characters that may have appeared as hints, quiet gestures, or were wholly unexplored until the final score was recorded and layered into the film mix.<\/p>\n

Gerald Wilson\u2019s filmography is surprisingly compact, but he\u2019s seemed in sync with Winner\u2019s grim worldview, and perhaps influenced it to some extent, as the two collaborated on Lawman<\/strong>, the brutal Chato\u2019s Land<\/a><\/strong> (1972), Scorpio<\/a><\/strong> (1973) with Lancaster, The Stone Killer<\/a><\/strong> (1973), Death Wish<\/strong> (1974), and later Firepower<\/strong> (1979), arguably Winner\u2019s worst film of the decade.<\/p>\n

Julie Kirgo\u2019s liner notes touch upon Ryan\u2019s fine performance of an aging hero losing chunks of his soul yearly, and Cobb, a longtime Fox contract star who\u2019s very touching as a man fully aware the fights and bloodshed that aided in building his empire was perhaps too great.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the saddest aspect of the film\u2019s story is the original victim \u2013 the murdered old man. He\u2019s neither a statistic nor a minor local footnote for the town record but a \u2018mere mention,\u2019 and disallowed by Wilson any backstory (but allotted a single odd-angle shot by Winner that\u2019s below perfunctory), his function is merely the spark that brings Maddox to life, giving the flute playing wanderer a purpose in an otherwise miserable life.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2017 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a> —\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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