Spikeopath
Shalako is directed by Edward Dmytryk and collectively written by J.J. Griffith, Hal Hooper, Scot Finch and Clarke Reynolds. Adapted from the book written by Louis L'Amour it stars Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Honor Blackman, Peter van Eyck and Alexander Knox. A Technicolor/Franscope production, music is scored by Robert Farnon and cinematography by Ted Moore.When a hunting party of European aristocrats are led into Apache territory by shifty guide Bosky Fulton (Boyd), it calls for a brave tough guy to try and get them out to safety. Enter Shalako (Connery).A difficult film to review since it undoubtedly has problems, yet with the right expectation level set it plays out a fun and robust Western. It's not nearly as awful as some would have you believe. Really.OK, it's a bit too off kilter for its own good, miscasting is all too evident, with Connery and Bardot particularly standing out, and there isn't enough quality of story to justify the near two hour running time. The Connery issue is sad because it isn't for lack of trying or charisma, a confirmed Western fan, Connery ventured into the genre having just left (temporarily) the James Bond franchise, he attacks the role of Shalako with relish. But he never once convinces in this time period and desperately tries to plug into the socket for some sparks in the "sign posted a mile away" love interest with Bardot. Although there's something sensual about observing Bardot blasting away with rifle in hands, it's just a little too out there, especially since she has make-up apparently done by Dusty Springfield. But if you can buy into the odd European group dynamic that Bardot fronts? Then it can provide some genuinely enjoyable genre passages.Dmytryk structures it soundly without surprises, however, the action sequences hold up very well. With flaming arrows piercing bodies and setting wagons ablaze, combat between rifle and bow is perky. The first Apache attack on the Adobe ruin compound that our odd group are holed up at, is resplendent with Apache leaps and energised attack and defence tactics. There's also a vigorous chase passage involving a coach, while the key battle in the final quarter, up on the mountainside, is well worth the wait. Elsewhere in the cast, Blackman is sexy, Boyd makes for a good scuzzy weasel and Knox gives the most believable performance. Outdoor photography is pleasing, with Almeria in Spain nicely made to look like New Mexico, and the theme music is wonderfully exuberant.There's other problems, not enough Woody Strode, unconvincing smooching, unconvincing mano-mano fight and the closure is hardly barnstorming. And yes, at times it is ridiculous. Yet there's still rewards there for the Western fan who is in an undemanding mood. 6.5/10
Kakueke
A group of arrogant European hunters takes to the North American West to pursue game. Apaches? Am I about to say, little do they know that they will have to encounter hostile Apaches? Nope. Actually, it is, once they find out there are hostile Apaches, the more they want to stay. That is the tone set by the group's arrogant leader, Baron Frederick Von Hallstatt (Peter van Eyck). He and his haughty group, a German and a bunch with supercilious British accents, do not want to yield to "savages," but desire to teach them a lesson, even though the Apaches have treaty rights on their side.Sean Connery plays Carlin, a hunter and tracker, but he is known as Shalako, a name given to him by the Indians. The tracker who leads the group, however, is Bosky Fulton (Steven Boyd). Rivaling Connery's celebrity in the film are those beautiful European actresses Brigitte Bardot (Countess Irina Lazaar) and Honor Blackman (Lady Julia Daggett). The Countess is supposedly being matched with the Baron, but she and Shalako later have eyes for each other. As for Lady Julia, she is married to Sir Charles Daggett, who loves her, but Lady Julia and Fulton have something cooking. The other leading couple is Senator Henry Clarke (Alexander Knox) and his wife Elena (played by the also-beautiful Valerie French). There are a few others in the Europeans' coterie, and Fulton leads a slightly larger group of American frontier types who escort them. Toward the start of the movie, when the Countess is hunting on her own, the Apaches kill the Countess' companion but let her and Shalako, who was passing by, go. This is after Shalako promises to tell the group to get off Apache territory. The group does not cooperate, and the Apaches attack the Europeans' encampment, and I will stop my narrative.By and large, the characters, including Shalako, are uninteresting. As the protagonist, he continues to make the right moves, in contrast to the loser Baron, but is given no character development and is not a compelling presence. Yes, Sean Connery is miscast and boring here. His character is not even worthy of the mediocre eponymous score. The Europeans have their boring and condescending say; sometimes, one gets the sense that director Edward Dmytryk deliberately has them muttering or whispering inaudibly to emphasize their emptiness, nothing to listen to anyway. Still, I like the movie, and the reason is its atmosphere. I am not aware of other movies in which Indians are fighting not white American settlers but aristocratic Europeans. Not only is the tension grounded more tightly because the supercilious Europeans add the level of snobbery to the typical superior attitude of whites, but we also know they are unfamiliar with Indians. Like the men, Lady Julia thinks the Indians are savages. She has the stereotypical terror of them one might think a member of 19th-century European nobility might feel. Such a group is not made up of people of the land in the sense of American whites, but people with a silver spoon in their mouth. Perhaps the tension in "Shalako" is comparable to the tension in some flicks in which well-to-do Europeans go to African jungles. Here, the backdrop is instead the wide open expanses of Western plains and mountains, shot well by the cinematographers, who do very well with the distance shots as well as the closer-up action scenes.Also, the story involves some intrigue, if uncomplicated, including the treachery of Fulton and Lady Julia. Honor Blackman is not a femme fatale Pussy Galore, but she is a traitoress of sorts. Some fairly graphic combat scenes are included, as was beginning to be the trend in the late 1960s in American and European films; Lady Julia screams in a gruesome scene involving a spearing, and in another, suffice it to say she is "handled" by the Indians. That is quite an intense one, worth seeing. However, as a final note, don't expect much from the ending, which as one might expect involves a face-off with the Indians. It befits the mediocrity of the overall script and characters, except it is perhaps worse.
aimless-46
Given its director (Edward Dmytryk) and its cast (Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot) it is rather odd that 'Shalako" (1969) is such an obscure film and that so many of the comments/reviews are totally negative. "Spaghetti" westerns (filmed in Italy or Spain) were quite the rage in the late 1960's and "Shalako" is about what you would get if "Hombre" (1967) had been given a mild "Spaghetti" treatment. While not even remotely on the level of Monte Hellman's stuff, "Shalako" is an entertaining and comprehensible western that most viewers will get into and enjoy until about the ¾ mark when the wheels fall off and it drags along to a less than spectacular resolution. Dmytryk was a veteran action director who occasionally ("Eight Iron Men" and "The Young Lions") even did a good job of directing actors for the camera. This was one of his last efforts and he seems to have stayed focused on the action and paid little attention to the performances themselves. Connery plays the title character, an experienced frontiersman who (like Paul Newman in "Hombre") is forced by circumstances into guiding a bunch of clueless civilians to safety. "Hombre" had Newman (a white man raised by Indians) in the moral dilemma of having to assist a group of people for which he has total contempt. Shalako ' s situation is simpler: he must extract a European aristocrat's hunting party who have ticked off the Apache's by coming onto their reservation and who have been betrayed by their cowboy hunting guides. Although he has little use for most of this group he has developed a grudging respect for a plucky countess (Bardot). There is decent chemistry in the early Connery-Bardot scenes but it does not sustain itself as the relationship begins to turn romantic. As in "Hombre" there is an interesting twist with the young wife (Honor Blackman) of one of the aristocrats deciding to leave her husband for the dangerous cowboy (Stephan Boyd) who has just placed the group at the mercy of the elements (and the Indians). Blackman is excellent in this part , the only really challenging role in the production. Dmytryk does an excellent job with his first three action sequences, including a surprisingly credible dawn attack on the camp of the hunting party and a more traditional stagecoach chase sequence. But as already mentioned, the film is extremely front-end loaded and he has dissipated all the tension before the climatic sequence even begins. "Hombre" on the other hand withheld its best sequence until the end and managed to pack some nice irony into its resolution. You won't find this in "Shalako", in fact the final 20 minutes are so listless your mind begins mulling over the plot holes. Like how did Boyd's character manage to walk all the way to the top of the plateau without being detected by the Indians? When you have to insert a detailed verbal explanation for something totally inexplicable (that has happened "off" camera) a competent editor knows that it is time for some major trimming and a focused director begins revising his script. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
