Westerns: Outlaws and Outsiders"I find that a desire to paint the landscape involves a wish to hear more of the stories that take place within the landscape - stories which may not only be heard in country towns and read in journals of explorers, but which persist in the memory." – Sidney Nolan The myth-haunted, arid landscapes of Sidney Nolan depict the harsh Australian climate, outlaws, deserts and historical themes. His legendary characters, such as Ned Kelly and Burke and Wills, have parallels in the Western film genre. The Western emerged in the earliest years of Hollywood filmmaking with stories that centred on the life of semi-nomadic wanderers and outsiders, usually cowboys or gunfighters, at the time of the annexation of the “wild west” during the so-called Indian Wars. As the political climate of the US changed - and, with it, attitudes to the land, mythology and indigenous peoples - the Western was reinvented. Revisionist Westerns began to be produced in the US in the 1960s, revitalising the genre at a time when its popularity had waned. The perspectives were no longer limited to that of the white settler. Filmmakers of other countries and cultures, notably the Italian “Spaghetti Western” epitomised by Sergio Leone, were attracted to the genre. Like Nolan’s paintings, Westerns can show the discordance of the land, people, history and mythology. They communicate a gothic, even surreal, aesthetic - a sense of space, distance, enigma and transcendence.
This series presents Westerns as they were intended to be seen - on the big screen - and is a rare opportunity to reassess the genre. - Wednesday 24 October 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 28 October 2pm
High noon
Dir: Fred Zinnemann 1952 (US)
85 mins 16mm B&W Rated PG
Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges
Zinnemann’s existential Western is a taut thriller about a lone, embattled marshal who has been abandoned by his fellow-citizens of Hadleyville. He waits for the noon train to bring back a man he sent to prison, now seeking revenge. The atmosphere is intensified by Cooper’s splendid performance, Zinnemann and writer Carl Foreman’s decision to depict the action in “real time”, and the virtuoso editing by Elmo Williams. Seen on its release as an attack on America’s growing, silent majority, Foreman (also an uncredited producer of the film) was later blacklisted in Hollywood after he was summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities during the era of the McCarthy trials.
- Wednesday 31 October 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 4 November 2pm
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Dir: John Huston 1948 (US)
124 mins 35mm B&W Rated PG
Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston
Director, John Huston, and actor, Humphrey Bogart, together made some of the most memorable films in Hollywood's long history. In this distinctive Western, Bogart plays Dobbs, a drifter who has landed in Tampico, Mexico. As a gringo without a job he is ostracised by both his fellow gringos and native Mexicans. After a run of bad luck, he establishes a prospecting partnership with two acquaintances and sets out on a quest into the Sierra Madre Mountains. Filmed partially on-location in Mexico, the sun-blasted high chaparral landscapes were shot in startling black and white by cinematographer, Ted McCord. The film won three Oscars on its release: two for director, John Huston, and one for his father, Walter, who plays Bogart’s wise old sidekick.
- Wednesday 7 November 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 11 November 2pm
The gunfighter
Dir: Henry King 1950 (US)
84 mins 16mm B&W Rated PG
Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott
World-weary gunman Jimmy Ringo, played by Gregory Peck, is haunted by the dead-weight of his notorious reputation. Constantly pursued by glory-seeking young men challenging him to one more duel, Jimmy would prefer to reconcile with his abandoned wife and live in peace. Observing the Aristotelian unities of pure tragedy, the action takes place in one dusty town in the space of a few tense hours. An entire cycle of “aging gunfighter” Westerns owe debt to Henry King’s tough, bleak film, elegantly photographed by Arthur C. Miller.
- Wednesday 14 November 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 18 November 2pm
The searchers
Dir: John Ford 1956 (US)
120 mins 35mm Colour Rated PG
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter
Considered his masterpiece, John Ford, the most celebrated director of Westerns, made The searchers in the later part of his career. At age 62 he saw things more darkly. John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a bigoted outsider driven by racist furies. His relentlessness, as he undertakes an impossible five year search to find his niece who has been taken captive by Chief Cicatrice (Scar), borders on the pathological. Ford’s dark vision transforms Monument Valley into an interior landscape as Ethan, a loner, hated and feared by his own people, pursues his odyssey. In his first wide-screen movie, Ford and cinematographer, Winton C. Hoch, fill every frame with panoramic, painter’s-eye compositions and subtle imagery in rich Technicolor.
- Wednesday 21 November 12pm
Sunday 25 November 12noon
Rancho Notorious
Dir: Fritz Lang 1952 (US)
89 mins 16mm Colour Rated PG
Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy
A man, obsessed with avenging the murder of his fiancée, falls in with a gunslinger (Ferrer) and a crime queen (Dietrich) and gradually becomes indistinguishable from the men he is hunting. Fritz Lang’s brooding revenge Western was constrained by a meagre budget from producer Howard Hughes, restricting shooting to studio sets. Lang made this artificiality work in his favour, imbuing the visuals with an expressionistic, surrealistic quality that gives the story a lingering resonance.
- Wednesday 21 November 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 25 November 2pm
3:10 to Yuma
Dir: Delmer Daves 1957 (US)
92 mins 35mm B&W Rated PG
Glenn Ford, Van Heflin
To gain the money he needs to supply water to his drought-stricken land, a small-time rancher, Dan Evans (Heflin), decides to escort a notorious outlaw, the charming and deadly Ben Wade (Ford), to the state penitentiary in Yuma. Dan is trapped in a seedy hotel by Wade’s gang as he awaits the 3:10 train. Adapted from a short story by Elmore Leonard, the film alternates between the psychological drama played out in the claustrophobic setting of the hotel, and the agony of the parched land. The locations in Arizona are shot in stunning black and white by cinematographer, Charles Lawton.
- Wednesday 28 November 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 2 December 2pm
The misfits
Dir: John Huston 1961 (US)
124 mins 35mm B&W Rated M
Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift
John Huston’s morose anti-Western, set in modern Nevada, teams a jaded divorcee (Monroe) with an embittered rodeo loser (Clift) and a rootless aging cowboy (Gable). United by their shared dissatisfactions, the three are persuaded to go into an unhappy partnership to capture wild mustangs and sell them for dog food. Superbly shot in black & white by cinematographer, Russell Metty, the mustang round-up sequence was to influence many subsequent Westerns. This was the final film for Gable and Monroe before their deaths.
- Wednesday 5 December 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 9 December 2pm
Yojimbo (The Bodyguard)
Dir: Akira Kurosawa 1961 (Japan)
110 mins B&W 35mm Rated MA15+
Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono
In Kurosawa’s extraordinary, boisterous film, the exemplary anti-hero, Toshiro Mifune, plays a nameless samurai who drifts into a small, desolate town where two rival merchant families are fighting for control. Realising he can make some money and have some fun, he ruthlessly sells his services as a swordsman-for-hire to both factions, then sits back and watches the enemies destroy each other. With a dusty town in the middle of nowhere and an outsider who wanders in and then wanders out, Yojimbo can be viewed as Kurosawa’s wry commentary on the American Westerns which were extraordinarily popular in Japan at this time. The story of the lone wolf, the wanderer with a weapon, who rides into town to play off two warring factions, became the subject of Sergio Leone’s 1964 film, A fistful of dollars, which revolutionised the genre and created a new form: the Spaghetti Western.
- Wednesday 12 December 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 16 December 2pm
A fistful of dollars
Dir: Sergio Leone 1964 (Italy/Spain)
100 mins 35mm Colour Rated MA15+
Clint Eastwood, Gian-Maria Volonté
Based on Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, Leone’s first Spaghetti Western set a fashion in surly man-with-no-name heroes, desolate landscapes, and cynical, lack-of-values ideology. In Leone’s version of the story, Clint Eastwood blows into a Mexican border town named San Miguel that is being torn apart by feuding families – although for budgetary reasons the shooting locations were in Spain. With an emphasis on extreme violence and stylised, balletic gunfights, Leone transforms the Western into a brutal, baroque opera, catapulting the unknown Eastwood to stardom and changing the face of the genre.
- Wednesday 19 December 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 23 December 2pm
A professional gun
Dir: Sergio Corbucci 1968 (Italy/Spain)
105 mins 35mm Colour Rated MA15+
Franco Nero, Jack Palance
A spate of Spaghetti Westerns followed the success of Leone’s Dollars series including the flamboyant work of Sergio Corbucci. At once violent, witty and political, the story of A professional gun follows a group of revolutionaries fighting the government during the Mexican revolution. Alongside them, in uneasy alliance, is a mercenary who supplies them with advanced weaponry and tutors the rebels and their leader in the practicalities of revolution. Inspired by a Franco Solinas story (screenwriter of The battle of Algiers) with a rousing score by Ennio Morricone and beautiful widescreen photography by Alejandro Ulloa.
- Sunday 30 December 2pm
For a few dollars more
Dir: Sergio Leone 1965 (Italy/Spain)
128 mins 35mm Colour Rated M
Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian-Maria Volonté
The operatic qualities evident in A fistful of dollars grew increasingly lavish in Leone's later films such as For a few dollars more, The good, the bad and the ugly and Once upon a time in the west. Along with the innovative score of Ennio Morricone, whose legendary collaborations with Leone on all four of the Dollars films underscored the director's defiance of Hollywood's Western traditions, For a few dollars more saw the beginnings of Leone’s characteristic use of mysterious flashbacks. The casting of Volonte (as the monstrous villain) and Van Cleef (as the Major) added complexity to the characterisations and plot.
- Wednesday 2 January 11.45am
Sunday 6 January 11.45am
The left handed gun
Dir Arthur Penn 1958 (US)
102 mins 16mm B&W Rated M
Paul Newman, John Dehner
Director, Penn’s (Bonnie and Clyde) first feature film, based on a script by Gore Vidal, marks a radical transformation of the legend of Billy the Kid. Instead of the stereotypical evil villain or romantic hero, Penn depicts Billy (Paul Newman) as an illiterate, introspective rebel-without-a-cause, emphasizing the psychology of the character over heroics or pastoral spectacle.
- Wednesday 2 January 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 6 January 2pm
The Missouri breaks
Dir: Arthur Penn 1976 (US)
126 mins 35mm Colour Rated MA15+
Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson
Nicholson plays a rustler who buys a ranch in order to disguise his illegal activities – and then grows to love the land and legitimate farming. Brando plays a self appointed ‘regulator’, a legalised killer, who is hired by the local cattle baron to catch Nicholson and his gang. An account of the declining fortunes of the West and its corruption by Eastern money, Penn takes an oft-told tale and creates a fresh, unique film of shifting tones and defiant eccentricity through the fascinating pairing of Brando and Nicholson and a rich trio of supporting characters.
- Wednesday 9 January 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 13 January 2pm
The good, the bad and the ugly
Dir: Sergio Leone 1966 (Italy/Spain)
180 mins 35mm Colour Rated: MA15+
Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
Against the backdrop of the American Civil War, three ruthless men search for a cache of gold hidden in a Confederate army graveyard. The "Good" is Blondie, a wandering gunman with a strong personal sense of honor. The "Bad" is Angel Eyes, a sadistic hitman who always hits his mark. The "Ugly" is Tuco, a Mexican bandit who's only looking out for himself. Each knows only a portion of information regarding the gold's exact location, and none are particularly inclined to share. Leone's cynical portrait of America during the Civil War is a subversive, operatic parody of Western genre conventions with a powerful score by Ennio Morriconi.
*Please note change of program - The long riders will not be screened, apologies for any inconvenience.
- Wednesday 16 January 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 20 January 2pm
Wild Bill
Dir: Walter Hill 1995 (US)
100 mins 35mm Colour Rated MA15+
Jeff Bridges, Ellen Barkin
In this sober tale, Jeff Bridges gives a bravura performance as the legendary gunslinger at the end of his days - haunted by the men he sent to their graves. Now a determined young man named Jack McCall (David Arquette) is in town to avenge his mother (Diane Lane), the only woman Wild Bill ever really loved. Filmed in rich, glowing yellows and browns, director, Walter Hill’s builds his story using the conventions of the traditional Western, but his fragmented narrative ultimately demolishes the Western myth. The result is a rich, disturbing and complex portrait of a man of action who suddenly finds himself ambushed by reflection and regret.
- Wednesday 23 January 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 27 January 2pm
Brokeback Mountain
Dir: Ang Lee 2005 (US)
134 mins 35mm Colour Rated
Set against the sweeping vistas of Alberta's Rocky Mountains, Ang Lee’s powerful film tells the story of two young men - a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy - who meet in the summer of 1963. They unexpectedly forge an intimate, lifelong connection which proves complicated, joyful and tragic. Based on an E. Annie Proulx short story, Brokeback Mountain offers a rare experience for the Western viewer with its nuanced, hyper-realistic depictions of a small Wyoming town in the 1960s.
- Wednesday 30 January 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 3 February 2pm
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Dir: Tommy Lee Jones 2005 (US)
121 mins 35mm Colour Rated M
Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper
In Texas, near the border of Mexico, an arrogant border patrolman, Mike Norton, accidentally kills an “illegal alien”, the Mexican cowboy Melquiades Estrada, and buries him in the desert. Melquiades's body is accidentally found one week later and reburied in the local cemetery. His best friend, the ranch foreman Pete Perkins, kidnaps the killer and forces him to dig up the body so Pete can fulfil his promise to bury Melquiades in his hometown of Jimenez. In addition to the conventional Western preoccupations with outsiders, vengeance and masculinity, the film is also a modern tale of race relations on the Mexico/USA border. Chris Menges' widescreen cinematography drinks in the rugged grandeur of the wild landscape, while Marco Beltrami supplies an excellent Western-tinged score.
Westerns: Trackers
Shaped around traditional themes of retribution, redemption and tragedy, Westerns are often stories involving journeys into the unknown. These archetypal mythologies have invited emulation by filmmakers of other countries and cultures. Part 2 of this series begins with a journey into Native American spirituality (Dead man) followed by a collection of Australian Westerns which present the lives of indigenous people and their relationship to settlers, pioneers and cowboys. Featuring the role of the Aboriginal tracker, this series screens in conjunction with the Michael Riley retrospective - Riley’s grandfather, Sergeant Alexander Riley, was one of the most highly regarded trackers in the NSW Police Force from 1911 to 1950. - Wednesday 6 February 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 10 February 2pm
Dead man
Dir: Jim Jarmusch 1996 (US)
122 mins 35mm B&W Rated R
Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer
In Jim Jarmusch’s “mutant Western”, Johnny Depp plays William Blake, an ill-fated accountant fleeing from trouble in a mean little Western town. Stalked by killers seeking revenge, he is befriended by a Native American called Nobody. During the course of the film, as William’s life slips away due to a fatal bullet wound, Nobody prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world. The dreamlike collision of poetic, black and white images (by cinematographer, Robby Muller) and representation of Native American spirituality make a unique and mesmerizing film.
- Wednesday 13 February 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 17 February 2pm
The proposition
Dir John Hillcoat 2006 (Australia)
104 mins 35mm Colour Rated R
Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce
Banyan is a newly established town in north-west Queensland, serving the needs of graziers and opal miners. But there's a war going on. Marauding groups of Aborigines are resisting the advancing settlers, and bushrangers are roaming unchecked. Police captain Morris Stanley (Ray Winstone), recently arrived from England, captures two brothers of the wanted Burns gang, Charlie (Guy Pearce) and Mikey (Richard Wilson) and offers to pardon them if they will kill their older brother, Arthur (Danny Huston). In his gritty, often grisly picture of 19th Century Australia, Director John Hillcoat explores the broad implications of a nation built on extreme conflict. Benoit Delhomme’s cinematography infuses the stunningly beautiful landscapes with mystical poetry while David Gulpilil lends his stature playing Stanley’s intelligent and capable tracker.
- Wednesday 20 February 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 24 February 2pm
The tracker
Dir: Rolf de Heer 2002 (Australia)
98mins 35mm Colour Rated M
David Gulpilil, Gary Sweet
In 1922 an Aboriginal tracker (David Gulpilil) has the job of leading a four-man expedition into the northern part of the Flinders Ranges in pursuit of a runaway Aborigine who is alleged to have murdered a white woman. Using the visual codes and typical character types of the Western - the Veteran (Grant Page), the Follower (Damon Gameau), the Fanatic (Gary Sweet) - director Rolf de Heer challenges our expectations by substituting a black tracker for the traditionally white hero.
- Wednesday 27 February 2pm & 7.15pm
Sunday 2 March 2pm
Wind
Dir: Ivan Sen 1999 (Australia)
35mins 35mm Colour Rated MA15+
Ralph Cotterill, Bradley Byquar
Set in 1850s Australia. In the cold, bleak terrain of the high country, a young black tracker and his commanding sergeant hunt down a suspected Aboriginal murderer. Ivan Sen’s (Beneath Clouds) metaphysical Western thriller depicts a man trapped between two cultures, his loyalties divided.
One night the moon
Dir: Rachel Perkins 2001 (Australia)
57 mins 35mm Colour Rated MA15+
Paul Kelly Kaarin Fairfax
One night the moon is a Western-tinged musical drama set in the outback in the 1930s. A young girl (Memphis Kelly) is so entranced by the beauty of the moon that she climbs out of her window to follow it. When her parents discover her missing they call in the local police to send out a search party - including an Aboriginal tracker, Albert (Kelton Pell). Music by Paul Kelly, Kev Carmody, Ruby Hunter and Mairead Hannan.
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