ZACHARIAH

US, 1971, 93 minutes, Colour.
John Rubenstein, Barry Melton, Patricia Quinn, Don Johnson, Country Joe Mc Donald, Dick van Patten.
Directed by George Englund.

Zachariah is a somewhat surreal experience. While the film is set in the 19th century American west, replete with gunfighters, it is also about music groups and electricity and electrical guitars. The 19th century with a 20th century touch!

Zachariah is a 20th century antihero, rather in the vein of the late 1960s. The film emerged in the aftermath of action in the Vietnam War and the peace movement as well as the hippie movement. In this sense, it is a picture of the mentality of the times but now appears somewhat dated and very eccentric.

The film uses the conventions of the west as well as the conventions of rock concerts to make its point about peace, violence and relationships. The film stars John Rubenstein as Zachariah and features a role early in the career of Don Johnson.

The film was directed by George Englund who is better known as a producer (Shoes of the Fisherman). He directed comparatively few films but made the significant The Ugly American with Marlon Brando in 1963 and Signpost to Murder in 1964. His subsequent career included several telemovies including A Christmas to Remember.

1. The purpose of this film, Western, musical, look at the traditional western? For what audience was it made - 1970,71? Now? A film of its time?

2. The theatrical background of the screenplay, improvised script, theatrical sketches and parodies etc.? Musical concerts?

3. How well did the film use the Western setting for contemporary issues of making love and not war, the difference between the generations, seventies' values?

4. The importance of the music, the electrical musical equipment and electricity in the 19th century? The 19th century with a 20th century touch?

5. The film's use of colour, Western settings, the ranches, the mountains and the desert, the town and its artificiality?
The continued contrast of naturalness and artificiality? The environment as a comment on the American West and its heritage?

6. Audience involvement in the conventional structure of the film, the ranch, the family, heroes, the arrival of the gun and its leading to violence, the taste for adventure, Western gangs, the old man as a recluse, the contrast with Belle Starr, Matthew and his involvement in violence, the inevitable shootout? how did the film use these conventions, for what purpose were they changed, how were they parodied, even condemned?

7. What kind of person was Zachariah? How sympathetic, a 20th century anti-hero in the 19th? The traditional background in the ranch, his work and his friends, the mail order gun and his fascination with the gun? His ambition to be a gunfighter? His name? What did he experience as he went through the West? Was he a strong or a weak character? The encounter with the gangs, with the old man trying to persuade him not to be violent, the involvement with Belle Starr and sexuality, the men in the town and violence? His looking for his identity through his adventures? Relationships and friendship? His friendship with Matthew, losing him, the confrontation? The meaning of his life, its futility? What did he learn ultimately from the old man? As a character of the West, a type?

8. The character of Matthew? The potential for good, the fascination with violence, sharing Zachariah's ambition to be top gunfighter, involvement with the gangs, his shooting of Job Cain, the inevitable confrontation with Zachariah? as the Western hero gone to the bad?

9. The contribution of the members of the gang, Job Cain as the black gunfighter, Belle Starr an the sex symbol with her Wild West style, the old man of the desert and his window? What did Zachariah experience with him out in the desert at the end? The contribution of the musical groups in the country?

10. How effective was the parody of Western figures?

11. The irony of the final confrontation, the build-up to violence, the fact that the two men could not be involved in violence, their reconciliation and going off at the end? The film's comment on man/woman relationships, men/men relationships?

12. Many commentators saw the film as a 20th century fable about the West. How accurate in this comment?