Support Your Local Sheriff

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Mark Bubien reviews

Support Your Local Sheriff
Distributed by
MGM

    Cover

  • Cert: G
  • Cat.no: 1001596
  • Running time: 93 minutes
  • Year: 1968
  • Chapters: 16
  • Pressing: 2001
  • Region(s): 1, NTSC
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono)
  • Languages: English, French
  • Subtitles: French, Spanish
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: Yes
  • Disc Format: DVD 5
  • Price: $19.98
  • Extras: Theatrical Trailer

    Director:

      Burt Kennedy

    Cast:

      James Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan, Jack Elam

    Writer:

      William Bowers

Undoubtedly the greatest philosophical and theological question that has haunted mankind throughout the ages has to be: Does God have a sense of humor? Well, maybe not the greatest. And maybe not even that philosophical… Hmm… Well… Be that as it may, I firmly believe I have found the final answer, the nail in the coffin, the bullet in the back as it were, regarding this colossal conundrum. I present Exhibit A: Support Your Local Sheriff.

If you’re not familiar with this particular Western… er, Classic… you’re most definitely in for a treat. En route to Australia, Jason McCullough (James Garner) passes through a small gold-rush town hoping to pick up a little extra cash (gold) for the trip. Upon arrival, he’s landed himself the job of Sheriff, deputized the town derelict, arrested the meanest, horneriest gunslinger in these here parts, and won the heart of the mayor’s beautiful daughter (Joan Hackett). And that’s all in the first five minutes!

If you think the term “Classic” may be pushing it a bit, there’s certainly a lot of other, more appropriate terms to choose from in describing this predecessor to Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles: silly, comic, fun, kookie… All in all, a very entertaining romp through the old west. And James Garner’s signature tongue-in-cheek mystique – honed in such vintage Television series as “Maverick” and “Rockford Files” – makes the movie a… well… I just can’t seem get away from this… Classic!

As a DVD, it probably won’t rank quite as highly as the movie itself. The picture shows a fair amount of grain, and vaguely desaturated colors indicative of both the film’s age and lack of restoration. That’s not to say it looks bad – it still beats the pants of even the best VHS – but it definitely could’ve used a bit of cleaning before going to disc.

Unfortunately, the sound quality fares much worse. Now a mono presentation is fine and dandy, especially since this isn’t the type of movie that a 5.1 remix, with sub 25hz. LFE and horses galloping past your head would add a stitch to. But still, I felt like I was playing an extended session of “find the remote” to keep up with the changes in the soundtrack volume. It was like there was no uniformity to the mix. Very annoying indeed!

Still, the movie quality outweighs these misgivings (and, heck, it is 16:9 enhanced), so it’d be a worthwhile endeavor. And speaking of endeavors, this seems like a good time to return to solving grand questions of the ages….

In college, I belonged to a church which had only one requirement for membership, and it had nothing to do with money! (College students are poor anyway, which is why you don’t see too many tele-evangelists on campus.) Before making a real, heartfelt and enduring commitment to this church, everyone had to sit through at least one session of Support Your Local Sheriff. And they had to like it!

Now, without a doubt, this whole situation must’ve made God laugh. I mean, if he didn’t think a bunch of bozos using a James Garner movie to weed out the weaklings wasn’t funny, then things like a gunslinger who shoots bullets through holes in washers, a prison without bars – that works better than most with – and a woman who rolls around in the mud, soaks her head in a bucket and climbs a tree to impress the new sheriff must certainly have left the Big Guy rolling in the aisles (er, clouds?).

And if this doesn’t guarantee you’ll find Support Your Local Sheriff hilarious yourself, well… I guess that’d be another one of those haunting philosophical questions for the ages.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Mark Bubien, 2001. E-mail Mark Bubien

Check out Mark’s homepage: www.storybytes.com.

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