MONTE WALSH

US, 1970, 98 minutes, Colour.
Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, Jeanne Moreau.
Directed by William A. Fraker.

Monte Walsh is a strange kind of Western. It is almost the opposite of the conventional action film. It rather evokes and explores a mood of the West and the mood is rather melancholic. The West is a depressing West. The cowboys are heroes in their own field with the wild stallions, but they are ageing. Money and jobs are scarce and some of them have to learn how to settle down and become storekeepers. The golden-hearted prostitute is also ageing and dies. A number of people die and the film leaves Monte where it found him, but he has to make his way and wander in a world from which all his friends, except his horse, have gone.

Lee Marvin, out of Cat Ballou and Paint Your Wagon style, is more subdued than usual, as are Jack Palance and Jeanne Moreau. Direction is by veteran director of photography (e.g. Rosemary's Baby) William A. Fraker. He shows us a sandy, frontier West which is harsh and rarely beautiful. It is probably a more realistic picture of the day-to-day life in the West than that given in the conventional Western. Fans will find it rather dull. But if it is compared with other 'disillusioning' Westerns like The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Ride the High Country, Death of a Gunfighter, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, it will be found interesting.

1. Is this the usual picture of the West that we are given? What is similar? What are the differences?

2. What is the significance of the film opening and ending with Monte Walsh wanting to wrestle with a wolf (but not doing so)?

3. Why is this area of the West so depressed and jobs hard to get?

4. What does the film have to say about ageing cowboys?

5. Comment on the picture of work with horses and station life that the film presents. It seems very ordinary but real.

6. Even the prostitute with the heart of gold is ageing in this film. Why did Monte Walsh never marry her? Did she want to be married? Why?

7. Why did Monte's partner retire and marry? Was that the wisest thing to do even though he is eventually shot?

8. Why did the conditions of work in the West turn men bad and into killers? Did they have much choice?

9. What is the role of death in the film?

10. Nothing much happens in the film and the whole atmosphere is melancholic. Do you think this is a realistic portrayal of this kind of frontier life?