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Paint Your Wagon | Year: 1969 Classification: Musical Directed: - Joshua Logan Actors/Actresses: - Lee Marvin - Clint Eastwood Bawdy Good Fun! Totally irreverent and unabashed Paint Your Wagon is bawdy good fun for the whole family! In spite of the critics' remarks about its morals or lack of them, I found the story to be true to life in the old west. In watching the documentary "Ken Burn's presents The West," one learns that many decent law abiding folk abandoned all sense of morality and manners once out on the American Frontier. The music as with all Lerner and Loewe films is excellent, especially the unforgettable song, "They Call The Wind Maria." Clint Eastwood sings beautifully and most probably could have had a nice singing career had he not gone to tough guy films and spahgetti Westerns. Lee Marvin and Jean Seberg compliment a fine cast of actors that make this musical very enjoyable and a believable picture of life in the Old West. Adapted by Paddy Chayefsky (remember "Marty?") the musical is filmed on location in a beautiful wilderness (supposedly) in California which is about to become a state. Reckless, raucous and full of good fun it makes Rogers and Hamerstein's "Oklahoma" look dull and tame by comparison. Like the song "With A Little Bit Of Luck" in the musical, My Fair Lady, Lerner and Loewe tend to celebrate the lesser (and more real) qualities of humanity with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. Thus so I dare say I enjoy Lerner and Loewe much more than Rogers and Hammerstein. A Fun Family Movie... Tough Guy Lee Marvin swaps his CAT BALLOU drunken gun fighter for the more sterling image as reprobate prospector Ben Rumson. Ben "pardners-up" with younger-than-yesterday Tough Guy, Clint Eastwood (Sylvester Newel: again a Man with No Name) to found decadent, "swamp of sin" NO NAME CITY....the fun is watching some good timing FUNdamentalists sing, dance and swindle their way to short-lived GOLD RUSH glory. THEY CALL THE WIND MARIA is the memorable, show-piece song vibrantly sung by Harve Presnell. Jean Serberg is the engagingly beautiful centerpiece of Marvin & Eastwood's polygamous "pardnership". Ray Walston is fine as Mad Jack who joins the two main dudes in a nefarious plot to (literally) undermine No Name by swindling its gamblers of their gotten & ill-gotten fortunes. My favorite "riff" is Ben mentoring young Horton Fenty... played with obvious relish and oblivious "lust" by TOM LIGON...in finer arts of smoking, drinking, "womanizing", and gambling. There is no violence and minimal, mild cursing in this film which unusually celebrates kindness and FAMILY values. Mayhem and raucous good humor mask this musical's not-subtle moral: GOODness is good; grace is kindness tested under fire and BS. Yes; there is a lot of BULL: a final BEN extravaganza plotted by The Pardners is the "Lord's Day Bull fight" ( Bull Liberation Leaguers would be on this El Toro pronto)! But, WHO GIVES A DAMN? PAINT YOUR WAGON: join the decadents of No Name; watch a great family film! An Old Favorite That looks Great On DVD! Ok, I've heard all of the criticism of this film, and I agree with some of it. It's overdone in places, and lacking in others, but overall, it's still a great story at its' heart,... and where else can you hear both Tough Guys Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood sing???? The story does fall apart toward the end, though, I do agree. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as a 'family' movie for kids,...It does have 'Adult' themes of Prostitution, Drunkeness,etc. I'd rate it PG-13, I think.<BR>And it's a damn long film, too--almost 3 hours--It could have been cut some for time. I have heard from various sources, including both Eastwood and Marvin's Biographies on the A&E Channel that the production was troubled from the start, and was a mess to film. Eastwood says that it's one of his LEAST favorite films because of the on-set difficulties with Marvin, & the Director, Josh Logan, and the location shooting.<BR>The settings are gorgeous, though. I believe they filmed the movie in the mountains of Oregon, which were inaccessible except by trucks, and the stars were flown in by helicopter.<BR>The late Great Ray Walston makes a great 'Mad Jack Duncan', and is one of many fabulous character actors to appear in this film. Overall, the movie holds up as a great musical Western, and I have fond memories of seeing the film when it first came out in 1969, when I was 5 years old and I played the Soundtrack Record Album over and over as a kid.<BR>I still know all the songs, and have the soundtrack album on CD!<BR>This film, along with 'OLIVER!', which came out in 1968, made me the fan of musicals (and movies in general) that I am today! Give 'Paint Your Wagon' a chance, even if you're not a fan of musicals! It's a good time Whoop-Ti-Yi Shivaree! Buy Paint Your Wagon at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Paint Your Wagon Search with the Priority Search Engine on Paint Your Wagon This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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