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One-Eyed Jacks is a film I reviewed by chance, and which has completely turned around my opinion of its lead actor and director, Marlon Brando.
Generally, when I review films, I put in a request, they arrive through the post, I watch them and post my review online. For this one, I hadn’t requested it, but I had a bit of a gap as others I’d requested aren’t due out for a while yet. In addition, I’d never rated Marlon Brando, particularly in Apocalypse Now when his bit is the only duff part of the film (except the Redux version when you can add the French Plantation chaps and chapesses). Plus, I found the entire Godfather trilogy overlong and mediocre.
However, as I get older I’m drawn more towards Westerns than I was when I was younger, very much enjoying How The West Was Won, which even BBC2 has shown in its correct – and very extreme – 2.89:1 widescreen aspect ratio.
Plus, for a film set in the Mexican desert, I was watching it while the humidity was at its highest for June! And in Manchester, where it usually rains!
Beginning in Sonora, Mexico, in 1880, Rio (Marlon Brando) and Dad Longworth (Karl Malden – The Streets of San Francisco) are two bank robbers who fall foul of a bunch of ‘rurales’ (i.e. Mexicans, who hate their guts). They’re surrounded, and with only one horse between them,
Okay, you could argue that, like with the 1902 song, Two Little Boys, you could say that both should try climbing aboard, but clearly Rio and Dad knew that eight years after this film was made, the song would be popularised with a No.1 single for Rolf Harris, and they couldn’t have that, so one stayed behind to fend off the enemy whilst the other set off to find two horses. For Brando’s character – his name is Rio and he flounders on the sand as he drew the short straw, Dad doesn’t come back, and Rio’s carted off into the slammer for five years until he performs a prison break with Chico Modesto (Larry Duran).
So, Dad Longworth becomes the baddie of the piece and Rio plays along cool as a cucumber, not letting in on the fact that once he’s tracked him down, in Monterey – where Dad is the Sheriff, and their Fiesta is over and a new day begins, he’s going to stroll into the bank and blow his old friend away. Well, that’s the plan, but in a film lasting almost two-and-a-half hours and which only sags slightly for around five minutes in the middle, anything is possible.
Add to this, the fact that all of us have been disrespected or screwed over by a best friend at some point in their life, and who wouldn’t want retribution? Hence, in a film packed with lots of tension, I quickly settled into this.
Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the film, plus the presentation and extras.
Rio: “No, dickhead, I’m holding a glass. It’ll hurt.”
Brando does, indeed, give a commanding performance and also uses improvisation in parts of the dialogue. I’ll list some of my favourites but it’d be interesting to know if these were scripted or not: At one point he’s telling a smart-arse deputy, “I’d say you were shy of a few manners”; and soon after escaping from jail, “A man can’t stay angry for five years… can he?”. Plus, since he can’t forget: “I’d have to die to forget that”.
In addition, in comparison to Brando, I can see how Leonardo Di Caprio has been widely influenced.
It’s also obvious and interesting how this film has inspired more modern works, such as when a certain individual strolls into a bank, and the teller asks if he’s making a deposit, the pacing is leading me to expect the robber to echo Jeremy Irons in 1995’s Die Hard With A Vengeance when he said, “No, I think we’ll go straight to the withdrawal” and his sarky “Not hardly” reply feels not far off that.
Also, some of the exchanges between Brando and Malden, or Brando and the men he later consorts with, feel like they wouldn’t be out of place in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, but then at times that does feel like a then-modern Western as characters square up to one another.
One of the saddest things I’ve learned following watching this, is that Pina Pellicer, who played Louisa, took her own life just three years later, aged just 30.
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high definition, and there’s a slight amount of grain that I usually see on Arrow’s restorations, but it still looks bloody good for a film that’s 56 years old.
The audio is in DTS HD 1.0 (mono), and has no issues with dialogue, gunfire etc. The film tells the visuals with stunning landscapes and tension by the bucketload.
There are some superb extras on this release beginning with…
- Introduction by Martin Scorsese (2:55): Mr Scorsese, who supervised this 1080p transfer from the original Vistavision negative – restored in 4K, as part of their Film Foundation work, talks about Brando’s meticulous attention to detail, even waiting for “the right waves” to appear before they shot a beach scene. Now, any chance of a 4K Blu-ray release? I always feel that’s a missed opportunity now that the format is gaining a foothold, but Arrow haven’t produced any such releases.
- Cinefile: Marlon Brando – Wild One (53:43): Subtitled after one of his films, this is a Channel 4 documentary, first broadcast on August 11th 1994, covering the man’s work and including interviews with many luminaries including Francis Ford Coppola, Anthony Hopkins, Dennis Hopper and Martin Sheen. This, like the two interviews which follow, are presented in 4:3.
I hadn’t seen this before, but found it fascinating.
- Francis Ford Coppola on Marlon Brando (44:30): Shot for the Wild One documentary, this is an extended interview with Coppola, who directed Brando in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, and contains previously-unseen footage.
- Arthur Penn on Marlon Brando (44:49): And the same goes for Arthur Penn, who directed the man in The Chase and The Missouri Breaks.
- Theatrical Trailer (4:44): This is extraordinarily long for a trailer. If you haven’t seen the film, then *don’t* watch this before you see the movie. It does try to oversell itself, bigging itself up with “A new concept in greatness”. Okay, so it was true to its word, but it reminds me Universal tried to sell their 2017 reboot of The Mummy with the notion that it would kick-start a whole ‘Dark Monsters Universe’ (attempting to copy Marvel and DC/Warner’s franchises) and, not only was it a terrible film, but it only took around $30m in its first weekend, based on a $125m budget, so this Universe has started to implode already.
Sadly, this was also the only movie directed by Brando.
- Audio commentary: with Stephen Prince, author of Savage Cinema: Sam Peckinpah and the Rise of Ultraviolent Movies, and which was recorded exclusively for this release.
While I received just the disc for this, the finished product also contains a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacob Phillips, and the first pressing includes an illustrated collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Jason Wood and Filippo Ulivieri, Karl Malden on Marlon Brando, Paul Joyce on Marlon Brando: The Wild One and an excerpt from Stefan Kanfer’s Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando.
The main menu features a short piece of the theme music set to clips from the film, there’s a bog-standard 12 chapters and subtitles are in English.
One-Eyed Jacks Special Edition is out now on Blu-ray/DVD Dual-format, and check out the full-size cover by clicking on the packshot.
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FILM PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
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| OVERALL | 8 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 141 mins
Year: 1961
Distributor: Arrow Films
Released: June 12th 2017
Chapters: 12
Cat.no: FCD1522
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS-HD 1.0 Master Audio
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.85:1 (Vistavision)
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Marlon Brando
Producer: Frank P Rosenberg
Screenplay: Guy Trosper and Calder Willingham
Music: Hugo Friedhofer
Cast:
Rio: Marlon Brando
Dad Longworth: Karl Malden
Louisa: Pina Pellicer
Maria Longworth: Katy Jurado
Bob Amory: Ben Johnson
Deputy Lon Dedrick: Slim Pickens
Chico Modesto: Larry Duran
Harvey Johnson: Sam Gilman
Howard Tetley: Timothy Carey
Redhead: Miriam Colon
Carvey: Elisha Cook Jr
Mexican Rurale Captain: Rodolfo Acosta
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
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