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"I have a great deal of respect and admiration for people who put themselves on the line."
Major Owens
I'm not an actress, at least not since I got divorced many years ago. (That was supposed to be a joke.) I'm not a professional reviewer. I like to call myself an author. One thing is for certain; however, I'm a big admirer of Robert Duvall. After I had the experience of being an extra in his movie Seven Days in Utopia (click here to read more about that), I decided to do my own personal Robert Duvall Film Festival. I've had a lot of fun re-watching old favorites and finding new ones. I hope you enjoy reading these reviews as much as I enjoy watching the films and writing about them.
"[Robert] Duvall has appeared in more films ranked in the AFI's top 100 list than any other actor: six to be exact...." The Huffington Post, January 4, 2012 If you'd like to do your own Robert Duvall Film Festival, your local public library is a good place to start. Don't limit yourself to Netflix; you'll miss some. Half.com has incredible prices on dvds & vhs tapes. Amazon.com is always an excellent bet. If you don't like to shop the internet, big chains like WalMart & Target carry lots of Mr. Duvall's films--probably more than you realize. I find myself saying, "He was in that too?!!!"
(A note: This is a webpage I have done just for my own pleasure and to share with others. Mr. Duvall is not affiliated with it in any way and will probably never even see it. But I'm glad you stopped by.)
These are in no particular order and only a small sampling of Mr. Duvall's films. (It is a work in progress!) Click on a movie title to jump to that movie.
Robert Duvall plays one of his ancestors, General Robert E. Lee, in this movie about the American Civil War that concentrates mainly on one of my distant relatives, General Stonewall Jackson. It is the true Civil War aficionado's dream. The battle scenes were almost too realistic for me. In one that is deeply moving, Northern soldiers are forced to use the dead bodies of their fallen comrades for protection while on the awful plains at Fredericksburg.
If you would like to see the difference between a great actor and one who is merely adequate, look closely at the following scenes:
Heretofore, Mr. Duvall has played General Lee as calm and unperturbed, even in the heatof battle with bullets flying and shells crashing around him. He lets us catch a tiny glimpse of a deeper emotion when General Lee surveys a battlefield and says, "It is good that war is so terrible, or else we should grow too fond of it."
But now, when General Lee receives word that General Jackson, who has been wounded, is much worse, Mr. Duvall slowly reveals to us the true man. At first he tries to hold in his emotions, saying he will not go to Jackson. But then, he lets his true worries about the war appear, and he tells the soldier giving him the news that surely God will not take Jackson from them when they need him so badly. Shaken, almost crying over his most trusted general, he tells the soldier to give Jackson his regards. Mr. Duvall has us, the audience, practically bawling with General Lee over this deeply felt crushing blow.
Compare this scene to Jackson's deathbed scene when in a delirium, General Jackson shouts orders at soldiers and then suddenly calms and says "Let us cross the river and rest under the trees on the other side." It should be one of the most poignant scenes in the whole movie, but under a lesser actor, it falls disappointingly flat.
Despite minor flaws, (although Mrs. Jackson is so lovable, it is easy to see why the General would fight off ten million Yankees for her, the rest of the women in the South aren't portrayed as particularly inspiring) Gods and Generals is the perfect movie for Civil War re-enactors and history buffs.
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I loved this movie the first time I saw it and liked it even more twenty years later. Robert Duvall's role is much moreinteresting than Tom Cruise's rather one-dimensional pretty-boy one, but they play off one another beautifully. Mr. Duvall is the old pro--he builds the race cars while Tom Cruise is the newbie driver. It's a part Mr. Duvall plays so, so well and one his fans love to see him in--the irascible older and wiser man with a not-so-secret heart of gold.
[During a pit stop]
Robert Duvall: All right. While we're still under a caution, I want you to go back out on that track and hit the pace car.
Tom Cruise: Hit the pace car?
Robert Duvall: Hit the pace car.
Tom Cruise: What for?
Robert Duvall: Because you've hit every other goddamned thing out there, I want you to be perfect.
Don't be put off if you're not a racing fan--it's still a great, uplifting story. (It also has a super-young Nicole Kidman and somewhat sane Randy Quaid in it.) If you are a racing fan and haven't seen it, run out and buy Days of Thunder or rent it! Not only is it a good movie, it's fun to see what stock car racing was like (exciting) before it became "Nascar" (boring).back to top
Sometimes when something gets labeled a classic, people tend to shy away from it. For example, I have neverseen Citizen Kane, even though it is sometimes touted as the best film ever made. Something in me rebels against it. I've never been able to see what was so great about any Woody Allen movie, either.
However, To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic that I love. Instead of calling it that, maybe I should just say it is a really, really good movie that will hold your interest throughout. I confess I sometimes get upset when I feel I am passed over for jobs I might easily have gotten if I was the right color or had a Hispanic sounding name. Or when a few black students cheated in my college classes and some professors looked the other way because they were afraid to call them down and perhaps have to answer to a dreaded "discrimination" charge.
To Kill a Mockingbird reminds us that it wasn't always this way, and there is a reason why the pendulum now sometimes swings too far in the other direction.
Putting the racial issue aside, the main reason I enjoy this movie is the interaction between the children and the mysterious neighbor we never see until the end of the film, "Boo Radley." Horton Foote, the Texas screenwriter, saw Robert Duvall in a play and realized he would be perfect for this difficult part. During the movie, suspense is built up around this strange man, and even when we finally do see him, he never says a word. It's an extremely thorny part for any actor to play, to keep from letting us down after all that expectancy, and to show us what the character is really like without a smidgen of dialogue. Gregory Peck is good as the sympathetic Atticus Finch, but Robert Duvall is great as the fragile spirit, Boo Radley.back to top There are few movies that are much better than the books they are based upon, but off the top of my head, I can think of three starring Robert Duvall. Early in his career, the original True Grit, one of his latest movies, Seven Days in Utopia, and this one, The Eagle Has Landed. (To Kill a Mockingbird runs neck to neck with the book, I think. When my son was required to read it in high school, because he wasn't all that diligent of a student, I made sure he watched the film first.)
In The Eagle Has Landed, Hitler conceives a plan to kidnap Winston Churchill. Viewed as a flight of fancy from a leader sinking deeper into insanity, the buck is passed until it reaches Colonel Radl, played by Mr. Duvall. Himmler steps in and orders Radl to go ahead with the mission.
Max Radl is the most complex and sympathetic character in the movie, even if he is a Nazi. A loyal German, he is ambitious, but at the same time wary of his government. Explaining the plan to a subordinate, he says, "A wink from a pretty girl at a party results rarely in climax, Karl. But a man is a fool not to push a suggestion as far as it will go." Yet later, at the end of the movie when things fall apart, he tells the subordinate to leave immediately; he will be excused as only following orders, but that he (Radl) knows he was fitted for his casket a long time ago.
None of the other characters generate much sympathy, not the German commando leader, Michael Caine, and certainly not the Irish rebel played by Donald Sutherland. It's easy to spot Mr. Duvall; he's wearing an eye patch and he's is the only one playing a German who actually sounds and acts like one. Even Donald Pleasance, who usually plays such a good bad guy, falls short of convincing us he's Himmler.
Nevertheless, if you like movies about WWII, The Eagle Has Landed is a good one to watch. It's full of action, has a twist at the end, and is much more interesting than the book. Robert Duvall's performance alone as a man doomed by the intrigues of an evil bureaucracy make it worth watching.back to top
The Chase is a good example of why people shouldn't pay too much attention to critics. I co-inherited a house and have spent the last week cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Last night, a friend and I painted until it got so dark, we couldn't see anymore. I came home, plopped into the tub, and soaked and scrubbed enough dirt and paint off me to fill an outhouse hole. All I wanted to do was recline on the sofa, zone out, watch a movie, and I didn't care how bad it was.
Wrong! One of Robert Duvall's early films, The Chase is about the people of a corrupt small Texas town. Greedy, drunken, racist, immoral, religious fanatics, you name it, they're it. Marlon Brando, the good guy sheriff, clearly loving showing his face made-up puffy and bloody; Jane Fonda, sticking out that pouty lower lip; Robert Redford, occasionally forgetting how well he photographed and remembering to act, Miriam Hopkins, screaming her head off--they are so over the top, it was delightful! Robert Duvall played an unusual character for him, a wussy bank employee with a sexy promiscuous wife. (I think they made her wear pasties to keep her nipples from showing when they popped out of the tight low-cut dress she wore most of the film.) Mr. Duvall has us alternately feeling sorry for his character, and then wanting to slap the hell out of him and yell, "Be a man, for goodness sakes!" In his last big scene, when he tells the rich, powerful man of the town (there's always a rich powerful man, this time, it's E.G. Marshall) something lousy about his son, my mouth dropped open. Mr. Duvall nervously laughed and giggled--unexpected, but really just like what a spineless wimp would do!
The Chase is a campy, fun, fun, movie to watch. Maybe the critics didn't like it back then, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even if Robert Duvall was a wuss in this one!back to top On the other end of the spectrum is a film that critics loved, but I didn't. It won four academy awards, and millions of other people who probably have better sense than I do really liked this dark satire about television. Fay Dunaway is skeleton thin and as shallow as a hastily dug grave; Peter Finch walks around acting crazy; William Holden walks around acting like William Holden, but Robert Duvall is good as the super ambitious and bad at the core Frank Hackett. "We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network, and we have to take whatever we can get."
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Before I watched Four Christmases, I realized Robert Duvall could play very humorous roles. But in the back of my mind, I wondered if he could play something that was just straight belly-laughing comedy. Oh ye of little faith! What a doubting Thomas I was! As the grouchy dad, he had me laughing so hard, I was afraid I was going to wet my panties. His character is not lovable; he doesn't have a heart of gold, but he is so hysterically funny, he makes watching this otherwise mediocre film worthwhile. The scenes at his house where he's screaming at his son for making one goof-up after another are the best in the movie. And his lines are the funniest. Or at least they are delivered the funniest.
As Howard, the grumpy dad: "Boys, I don't want to speak ill of your mother on Christmas, but she's nothing but a common street whore."
The rest of the movie is, well, not quite as good. No amount of makeup can hide how hard the usually adorable Reese Witherspoon looks; I kept getting the impression that the guy playing the lead character should really be turning wrenches somewhere; and parts of it are kind of stupid. It's not a Christmas classic for the whole family, but it's still a funny movie and one that any of us who comes from a dysfunctional family can identify with. Besides that, it has Robert Duvall playing it straight and being hilarious while he's doing it.back to top I have to admit I am not one of the most patient of people, although I'm better now than I used to
be. When my son was an infant and his father told my parents how patient I was with him, I thought they were going to fall on the floor in shock. I don't like movies that are slow; I like for things to move along. In addition, I've never been able to get into any of William Faulkner's work. When I started watching Tomorrow, based on a short story of his, I thought, "oh no, this is going to be slow," and I did not have high hopes for it.
I was wrong, as I so often am. This movie is like riding Amtrak, once you get over feeling that you have to get somewhere quick at a certain time, it is a thoroughly enjoyable ride.
Robert Duvall plays a simple country man. He finds a young pregnant woman who has been abused all her life and invites her into his home and his heart. It is one of the sweetest, most touching movies I've ever seen in my life. I had to struggle to keep from weeping through most of it.
Shot in black and white, the film depicts the raw poverty of the South during that time period. If you think it is exaggerated, I assure you it's not, and it fits the description of many of the places my father lived in growing up. Mr. Duvall's accent, his clothes, his manner, they are all right on for that place and time.
Be sure and watch the extra section on the DVD. It shows an entertaining interview with Robert Duvall and Horton Foote, the screenwriter. Mr. Foote was from Wharton, Texas. If you've ever been to Wharton, you'll understand what the apostle Nathanael meant when he said, "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Horton Foote probably got down on his knees every day and thanked God for sending Robert Duvall to act in his work. In Tomorrow, Mr. Duvall melts the coldest heart in the audience.back to top
Childhood ear infections left me with hearing loss in one ear, and now that I'm growing older, it frightens me that everyone is beginning to mumble! If my hearing goes, there goes my libido too, because I think a deep rich voice is one of the nicest attributes a man can have.
Robert Duvall lends his distinctive voice as narrator to this PBS special about the first family of country music, The Carter Family. ("Wildwood Flower," "Keep on the Sunny Side," "Will the Circle Be Unbroken")Driven by a man born with the shakes, the group consisted of A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and his sister-in-law Maybelle. If you saw Ring of Fire, the movie about Johnny Cash, then you know about this family. Johnny
married Maybelle's daughter, June. (June, a natural actress and comedian, was perfectly cast as Robert Duvall's mother in The Apostle.)
While A.P. was scouring the countryside collecting old songs that he later put in arrangements, Sara was having an affair with his cousin. She eventually left A.P. and their children, breaking their hearts and the act, and spent the rest of her life living in a trailer park in California. Maybelle continued to perform with her three daughters. The documentary gives A.P. well-deserved kudos for the work he did in preserving the music of the South, but it spends too much time on Sara's voice and not enough on Maybelle's musical ability. Regardless, it is an entertaining video with a super narrator.back to top THX 1138 is set in the future where everyone is forced to take drugs to control their emotions and to participate in mindless consumerism. Robert Duvall stars as THX, an ordinary man whose mate gets him off drugs so they can have illegal sex and love with one another.
It's fascinating watching Robert Duvall portray a man who's been deadened to feelings slowly coming alive. He does it physically, with very little dialog. It's almost unbelievable that someone with such a distinctive, expressive voice can also project thoughts and emotions so well without words.
Written and directed by a then 24-year-old George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, THX 1138 was an experimental film that didn't take off. Nevertheless, it has its moments. Near the end, I got so wrapped up in the movie, I felt like yelling, "Run, THX, run!" There were parts I disagreed with, such as portraying religion as a mindless social panacea. (I believe having a relationship with God is the only way a person can find his or her true self.) But there were other aspects of the film I agreed with, especially the concept that the prisons we find ourselves in have no walls. THX suddenly begins to walk out of the prison whiteness that surrounds him, and he escapes.
THX 1138 is a must see for every hardcore science fiction fan. The rest of us can enjoy watching Robert Duvall deftly portraying with few words a man waking up to the possibilities of life. Plus he looks cute naked with his head shaved.back to top Tender Mercies and Crazy Heart are both about alcoholic country singers.
(Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't want to know the ending.)
In Tender Mercies, Robert Duvall plays Mac Sledge, a down and out drunk who gets stranded at a motel after trashing his room. Broke, he agrees to work for the pretty motel owner, Rosalee, to pay back what he owes. Rosalee, a widow, has a young son, and she sings in the church choir. She asks nothing of Mac except that he not drink at the motel. Mac quickly falls in love with the quiet Rosalee, begs her to marry him, and after waiting to be sure, Rosalee agrees. The love between the two deepens, and Mac begins to go to church, turning his life over to God. But Mac misses his music, and he wants to earn money for his wife and stepson. All sorts of complications ensue, but Mac is true to Rosalee, and she tells him she thanks God for His tender mercies in sending Mac to her.
In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake. He falls in love with a young reporter, Jean, who is divorced and has a small son. They fall into bed, have a hot romance; it all goes south, forcing Bad to seek help. He goes to his friend Wayne, a recovering alcoholic, convincingly played by Robert Duvall. Wayne introduces Bad to God through the 12-step program, and Bad tries to get back with Jean. Jean has become engaged to someone else in the meantime, but at the end of the movie, we know that Bad has found himself and won't slide back.
Both of these movies are first-rate with great music, and both actors won Oscars for their work. Mr. Duvall is stunningly good as Mac Sledge. There is not a second he is not true to his character, and his performance knocked the wind out of me the first time I saw this movie; I was that moved. Jeff Bridges is good--you can almost smell the alcoholic stench on him, but he has a tendency to sometimes mumble his lines. (Yes, I know I can't hear all that well, but he does mumble!)
Tender Mercies is realistic and romantic; Crazy Heart is more just realistic. The people I spoke to who had seen both films said the same thing; they liked Tender Mercies better. But watch both of them; they are excellent movies that show Robert Duvall's incredible range of abilities as a lead actor and a supporting actor.
(Tender Mercies has been my favorite movie for years, but I haven't seen Lonesome Dove yet. Maybe I'm subconsciously saving the best for last!)back to top The Godfather I & II are so well-known, I feel presumptuous saying anything about them. Generally regarded as two of the best films ever made, they are intensely disturbing movies about the evil seemingly good people can sink into. Robert Duvall plays Tom Hagen, a man of German-Irish descent who was taken in by a Mafia family as a boy. Tom becomes a lawyer and the family advisor. Mr. Duvall's performance of an otherwise nice man, whose misplaced loyalty submerges him into the depths of iniquity, adds a bedrock of chilling realism to these movies. The scene in which he calmly tells a movie producer in a roundabout way either do what we say or this and this will happen to you is one of the best in both movies and impossible to forget. Because of a dispute with Francis Ford Coppola, Mr. Duvall does not appear in Godfather III and it shows; the movie fails, being a poor imitation of the first two. I haven't read Mario Puzo's book, but the films are universally considered far superior.
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Captain Newman, M.D. is pure Hollywood, entertaining and sometimes schmaltzy. It's set in an army hospital in 1944. Gregory Peck does his sympathetic guy as the head psychiatrist; Tony Curtis does his funny guy as a hospital orderly; Bobby Darin does his troubled tough guy--you get the picture. Robert Duvall plays a young soldier who was shot down behind enemy lines and forced to live in a cellar for 13 months to survive. His catatonic state baffles everyone, and Mr. Duvall's performance as a disturbed young man adds a note of realism often missing from the other actors. It is a good movie, nevertheless, and surprisingly enough is often very funny. I had a cousin everyone liked, but WWII had left him jumpy, skittish, and blinking constantly. The most decorated soldier in the war, Audie Murphy, kept a gun under his pillow the rest of his life. Captain Newman, M.D. portrays what happens to many soldiers in a compassionate and understanding way. Mr. Duvall's performance is a powerful part of that.
back to top When I first saw this movie advertised, I thought, "Do I really want to watch a movie about a guy who goes crazy and starts shooting people?" Then I saw a couple of clips on YouTube, and they were so funny, I decided, "what the heck, why not?" I'm glad I did. This may not be Robert Duvall's best film, but I love the character he plays in it, Detective Prendergast. He steals the show, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if I heard Michael Douglas never wanted to work with him again!
Michael Douglas is a mentally unbalanced man who will not accept that his wife has divorced him. Robert Duvall is a cop on his last day of work before a retirement that his beloved, but shrewish, wife has maneuvered him into taking. Although Michael Douglas ostensibly stars, his character is so one dimensional, essentially just a crazy man with a gun; that the movie quickly becomes Robert Duvall's. His character unfolds at the right pace, with just the right amount of nuance. (Mr. Duvall never gets maudlin, and I really don't understand how he did it, but when his captain asks him, "how's the kids?" and he replies that he doesn't have any, that his little girl died, I got all choked up.) Although the movie tries to project some sort of deeper meaning into Michael Douglas's character's actions, it fails and he's still just a nut shooting people. The ending, along with the rest of the movie, belong to Mr. Duvall. We, the audience, find satisfaction that this nice, sane man has found the direction in life that's right for him. There is a lot of violence and foul language; it's not a feel-good movie, but it has wonderfully funny jabs of humor in unexpected places. Don't be put off by the grim subject matter on the surface; Falling Down deepens into a really good film.
back to top Robert Duvall either gravitates toward difficult parts, or, because of his ability, he is sought after to play them. He so skillfully misdirected me in this thriller, I did not see the ending coming.
The night I watched this movie, gusty winds beat against the screen door, and dark, ominous clouds rolled across the sky. I got so scared, I felt grateful I had my dog for company, even if it is a race to see which one of us is the biggest chicken.
In The Gingerbread Man, a cocky lawyer becomes involved with a troubled young woman who is nude in much of the movie, which throws him and the audience off-keel. (With women, it's a comparison thing. Her breasts are prettier than mine; I wish my stomach was that flat, etc. etc. I don't have to tell you why it throws men off.) Robert Duvall plays the young woman's crazy father, with long nasty hair and horribly filthy feet because he goes barefoot and doesn't bathe. But there is more than greasy hair and grimy feet to his character, and the film winds us deeper and deeper down a troubled road.
I don't want to explain why Mr. Duvall's role is tricky for fear of giving the ending away. All I will say is that he can even make his feet be creepy. Anyone who enjoys mysteries and thrillers will like The Gingerbread Man. But don't watch it alone on a dark, spooky night.back to top The Betsy is unadulterated soap opera trash, but it's one of
those movies that even though you know it's bad, it's so engrossing you can't stop watching it! They said Sir Laurence Olivier did it for the money--he was trying to make sure his family would be well provided for after his death. And that Robert Duvall did it because he wanted to work with Sir Laurence, probably to prove he was just as good, if not better, of an actor, which he did, but he wouldn't let his parents go see it. (It has nudity.) No telling why Tommy Lee Jones did it. I used to work in a convenience store on a highway in the middle of farmland, and the farmers would come in and sit behind the counter to talk to us. One day two old farmers were talking about a raunchy woman who lived nearby, and one said to the other, "Marvin, we can't talk about her, she's Swedish." He explained that it was a creed with the Swedes that they should not talk bad about one another in
public, so since Tommy Lee is a Texan, I guess I won't talk about him. :)
Nevertheless, if you are in the mood for a good trashy movie chockfull of the world's best actors, or if you want to see Robert Duvall looking buff in short tennis shorts showing off big muscular thighs, rent or buy The Betsy.
back to top I was hesitant about watching The Sixth Day for several reasons. A: I don't like science fiction all that much. B: Although I admire Arnold Schwarzenegger for finding his niche and making appealing movies, I don't race out to watch them. And C: I didn't want to watch Robert Duvall playing some mad scientist.
I needn't have been so reluctant. The Sixth Day is pure, good entertainment. It has lots of shoot 'em up, racing through the streets action, but it is balanced by family love. Although it is set in the future, it has enough special effects to satisfy any science fiction fan, but it doesn't go overboard and bore the rest of us.
In it, Arnold is a man accidentally cloned and out to be destroyed by the men who made the mistake. Mr. Duvall plays the scientist who invented the cloning process. What he meant to be for good has now been corrupted by an evil billionaire partner. The scene Mr. Duvall plays with his dying wife is so touching, we're ready to forgive him anything. The one where he confronts his evil partner is also emotionally charged, and when he's shot...well, I just hope he didn't suffer whiplash in real life from it. Robert Duvall can even play someone getting shot and killed instantly better than anyone I ever saw.
The movie has all sorts of twists and turns that keeps it interesting, and believe it or not, it ends well. In addition, it presents the issues about cloning in a rational way. I enjoyed this film so much, that after I watched it and my son came home and wanted to see it a few hours later, I watched it again. Now that's a good movie!back to top
Every person I know who has seen Second Hand Lions, male or female, old or young, likes it tremendously, and yet, it is one of the most underrated of films. I adore it, even though Michael Caine's attempt at a Texas accent almost drove me bats the first time I saw it. (It didn't seem to bother anyone else.) Robert Duvall's Texan is so good, however, there have been times when I heard him speaking in his natural voice that I caught myself thinking, "But that's not how he really sounds!" My friend Connie, who was a high school art teacher for many years, used to reward her students for good work and/or good behavior by letting them watch films two or three times a year. She said this was the only movie she showed that held their attention throughout. After the first couple of minutes, she never heard a peep out of them until it was over.
In it, a young boy, Walter, is dumped off for the summer at his uncles' house in the country by his beloved, but irresponsible, mother. The two uncles, played by Robert Duvall and Michael Caine, aren't overjoyed to have him, and Walter has a terrifying time at first. He settles in, but soon begins to wonder if his mysterious and eccentric uncles are really on the up and up. When his flighty mother returns to fetch him with a new boyfriend, Walter must decide if he should trust people by what they say, or by what they do.
This film has an abundance of humor, mystery, and action. I loved Mr. Duvall's fight scene in the store--it's fun to watch. Don't miss out by not seeing this movie. It's like going to a friend's house for supper thinking you're going to get hamburgers and being served prime rib instead. Yum!back to top
When I was growing up, my mother would drop my sisters and me off at the Eltex Theater, and we would watch movies all Saturday afternoon. Of the countless films I saw in that comfortable old "picture show", there is only one that can I recall in vivid detail, and that is the original True Grit.
Young Mattie's father is murdered by dastardly Tom Cheney. Bent on revenge, she looks for a man with "true grit" and finds Sheriff Rooster Cogburn (played by John Wayne) to take her into Indian Territory. They are joined by Texas Ranger La Boeuf (played by Glen Campbell), who is also after Cheney. But Tom has joined up with Rooster's arch nemesis; outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper (played by Robert Duvall). As their adventure leads them deeper into danger, Mattie, Rooster, La Boeuf, and even feisty Lucky Ned, prove they are all imbued with "true grit."Skip to the last paragraph if you don't want to know the ending.
This movie has so many good things going for it besides the heart of an exciting story. The scenery is gorgeous--the colorsbeautiful, down to the blue of Mattie's shirt and the creamy yellow of Robert Duvall's. A wonderful sense of family is created. At the end, starchy Mattie has experienced love from a dashing young man. Lonely Rooster, deserted by his wife and son, has earned Mattie's love and admiration. La Boeuf has died exactly as his romantic soul yearned for--rescuing a young maiden from a horrible death. And Lucky Ned goes down in a blaze of outlaw glory. "Well, Rooster...I'm shot to pieces."
A director once said of John Wayne, "When Duke was at his absolute worst, he thought he was the best. And he would try to do things that were just embarrassing...." Don't get me wrong, I am a John Wayne fan, but I agree with this director. In True Grit, he holds that tendency in, or else he was reined in by the director, but he is at his best in this movie and won an Oscar for his performance. Much has been made of Glen Campbell's performance, but even though he isn't a good actor, he brought a likable personality to the role, unlike Kim Darby who was vaguely irritating. Glen Campbell has joked that he was so bad, he made John Wayne look good and won him an Oscar. I don't think that is the case.
Herein lies, I think, one of Robert Duvall's best attributes as an actor. He is so excellent at what he does, he manages to make other actors look better than they are. His performance as Lucky Ned is so rich with nuances--he wants to be kind to Mattie, but he can't because she stands in his way. Although an outlaw himself, he is contemptuous of his cohorts and exudes the feeling of being beleaguered by idiots. Hmmm, that last part may not have been acting. Regardless, whatever emotions he transferred to the screen are brilliant. Would Rooster have looked nearly as good with a run of the mill Lucky Ned? Of course not. It was the interplay between Robert Duvall and John Wayne that won "Duke" his Oscar.
If you have seen the newer release of True Grit, then you realize they are basically two different films with the same premise. Although I enjoyed the new version at the time, after a year, I can no longer recall it in great detail, except that I disliked the ending. But who can forget or not be thrilled by Robert Duvall telling Mattie in that distinctive voice of his, "I never busted a cap on a woman or nobody under sixteen. But I'll do it," and "Well, it's enough that you know I'll do what I have to do." Or the absolute best scene in the movie when he booms, "That's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!" and he and Rooster race toward each other across a beautiful meadow, blazing it out. Lord have mercy! That was electrifying!
I was 14 years old when I first saw this movie, and I will never forget it. I sat entranced, my adolescent brain in turmoil. A person wasn't supposed to like the bad guy better than John Wayne! I knew Lucky Ned was going to have to pay for being bad, but Ididn't want him to die! (Teenagers are so dramatic. It bothered me much worse to see Lucky Ned dying than it did to watch La Boeuf give up the ghost.) My little girl brain was trying to grasp what my big girl brain sees clearly now, that it was Robert Duvall who was lifting this film out of the ordinary and making it into something special. Besides, what 14-year-old girl wouldn't think Robert Duvall was one handsome dude?
If you haven't seen this original version of True Grit, by all means buy or rent it. It is without a doubt one of the most entertaining westerns ever made and a darn good movie. I loved this film when I was 14, and I still do.
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I had a hard time getting a handle on this film that is part comedy and part satire. It is about a lobbyist who pushes smoking, and Robert Duvall plays "The Captain," the Southern owner of a huge tobacco conglomerate. I couldn't figure out if they (the filmmakers) were against smoking or against the people who try to dictate what others should or should not do. I finally realized they weren't "against" anything. They were ridiculing all of it. And it is a funny movie. It does have a lot of bouncing up and down sex and uses the "f" word over and over and over. Because I live with my son, I dislike watching films like this with him because it embarrasses both of us. I was glad he wasn't at home when I saw this one. My father could have the most magnificent temper tantrums where he cussed, ranted and raved, threw things, etc., what my mother and aunts used to call a "Mundine Fit." (Well, actually, it was pretty terrifying.) But his generation did not commonly use the "f" word. I've said it; I've written it, but because of the way I was raised, I feel uncomfortable hearing it repeatedly.
You'll have to use your own discretion whether or not you want to watch this movie. You may love it. Like I said, it is humorous. But the only thing I felt was really worth my time was looking at Mr. Duvall dressed like a Southern gentleman and hearing him say the word "idee" for idea. I haven't heard that in years, and I enjoyed listening to that "Southern talk" more than anything else about this film.back to top My son said, "I don't like sports, but I like movies about sports." There are a lot of us out here like that. I played softball when I was
young at recess in grade school, and even though I liked it, I was such a horrible player, sometimes the boys would just let kids get to the base rather than throw the ball to me and go through the torment of watching me fumble to get it or maybe have my glasses knocked off or something. In high school, our dimwit gym teacher had team leaders take turns picking who they wanted on their team. I was not only the last one chosen, every girl refused to have me on her team, and the teacher finally forced the group of athletic black girls to take me. You should have heard their highly vocal comments about that. You would think after that experience, I would be so traumatized against baseball, I'd never want to watch a movie about it, much less enjoy it. But I liked The Natural. (It is based on a book by the same name, which was based on a real incident, but after reading a description of the book on wikipedia, the movie sounds 100% better.)
Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) has an innate talent for baseball. The girl next door, Iris (Glenn Close), loves and encourages him. Roy goes off to play ball, but gets sidetracked by a bad woman. Sixteen years later, he's again trying to fulfill his dream of being a great player. Max Mercy (Robert Duvall) is a sportswriter who can make or break players, and he's not squeamish about how he does it.
The first time I saw this movie, I got so upset watching Mr. Duvall play such a turd. I kept thinking, "He's not like that in real life! He's really a very nice man." Now, I'd never met him, didn't know anything about him, so I don't know why I would think something like that. For all I know, he could have been a turd back then and still be one, but I don't think so. Later, after I matured a little more, I was able to enjoy his performance. It's about the only thing keeping this film from having just saccharine sugary characters on one side and cardboard bad guys on the other.
Nevertheless, it is a fine movie. Watch The Natural even if you hate baseball. When Roy is involved with people he shouldn't be involved with, things go wrong for him. And that's something almost every one of us has been through and can identify with. And try to remember that just because Robert Duvall can play such a realistic jerk, doesn't mean he really is one. It's called acting!back to top Most women when they become single mothers, unwittingly take on a vow of poverty. There were times I worked three jobs trying to support myself and my son. Many times, we did not have enough money to rent a movie, much less see one in the theater. But somehow I found the cash to see The Apostle--twice. I didn't consider it wasted money then, and I don't now.
Robert Duvall plays Sonny, a Pentecostal or Holiness preacher, who although flawed, is completely sincere in his faith. He has built a church, but while he is gone on the revival circuit, his wife has an affair with the youth minister, and they wrest control of the church away from him. Devastated that his wife wants a divorce, Sonny begs her to stay and keep their family together. Drunk, he goes to his children's ballgame and tries to force his wife and family to go back home with him. They scream and cry; the youth minister tries to stop him, and Sonny attacks him with a baseball bat. He goes on the run and starts over, building up another church, knowing all the while that one day the police will come for him.The straightforward script, written by Mr. Duvall, fills the screen with pathos and humor. It keeps us in suspense, wondering what will
happen to Sonny and what he will do next. The interaction between Sonny and his devoted mother is sweet and funny and adds tremendously to the story. When Sonny is rejected first by his wife, and later by another woman he has begun to care for, it stabs us in the heart to see him in so much pain just as it would the mother he adores. The deep friendships Sonny makes along the way add even more facets to this imperfect, yet utterly appealing, character.
Mr. Duvall's energetic and phenomenal portrayal of a Pentecostal minister is so powerful that people tend to forget he also produced and directed this film, in addition to writing it. Besides its fascinating and realistic depiction of the Pentecostal religion, it captures the beauty and essence of East Texas and Louisiana and its rural inhabitants. Many of the people in it were either unknowns or not professional actors, yet Mr. Duvall elicited completely believable performances from them. Billy Joe Shaver is a country singer and songwriter in real life, but unlike Glen Campbell in True Grit, he gives an excellent rendition of Sonny's redeemed best friend. I remember hearing a buzz at the time about Mr. Duvall's choice of Farrah Fawcett as Sonny's wife, but she wowed critics by being exceptionally good. June Carter Cash isn't someone who would normally come to mind to be cast in a movie as someone's mother, but if somebody had told me she really was Robert Duvall's mother, I think I would have believed them. When Sonny discerns a redneck's real reason for wanting to raze his new little church and prays with him (Billy Bob Thornton), I cried, the scene is that good.
The nucleus, of course, is Robert Duvall's extraordinary depiction of a man who craves the love of God and of people. That is why I would recommend this film to anyone, even if he or she is a staid, backsliding Methodist like me. No matter what happens in Sonny's life, no matter what sin he commits or trouble he brings on himself, he still reaches out. The Apostle is a timeless classic that I don't think could ever be reproduced.
back to top John is a middle-class worker whose factory job has been cut back to 20 hours a week. His wife has had to take a job as a waitress, and the family car has just been repossessed. But they love each other, and they are getting by. At a ball game, their son suffers a heart attack. Rushed to the hospital, they are told he needs a heart transplant to live. John is not worried--he has insurance, right? It's not enough, however, and he and his wife resort to everything they can think of to come up with the money. Time is running out, and John feels forced to do something desperate to save his son. He takes over the emergency room, holds hostages, and demands his son be put on the list for a new heart.
Robert Duvall plays the experienced cop, Lt. Frank Grimes, who is sent in to handle the situation. Sympathetic to John's plight, henevertheless has a job to do. Unfortunately, his glory hungry boss steps in and after making fun of his abilities, makes Frank step down, and he takes over. When he goofs up and the tide of public opinion goes against him, the boss has to ask for Frank's advice and decides to put him back in charge so he can take the flack.
The character of Frank Grimes is easily the best and most likable in the movie, and the one most of us can empathize with. (As much as we feel for John, it's a stretch making us feel sorry for him when he takes hostages. We still do, but it's kind of difficult.) Frank feels sorry for the boy and his parents; he tries to be honest with them and still do the best job he can for the captives. Unfortunately, some of the other actors have a tendency to ham it up. As arrogant as James Woods can sometimes come across, he isn't quite convincing as a heart specialist. And while Anne Heche makes a wonderful bitch, she's about as believable as a hospital administrator as my Aunt Tuttie. Mr. Duvall, however, plays his part pitch perfect, and it is the little things about his performance that gives it so much interest. When taking John into the courtroom, for instance, he elbows a bystander and growls, "Get back." It's a funny moment, yet at the same time, it illustrates his frustration with the circumstances.
John Q. is blatantly pro-government health care, and the message is pounded at us relentlessly. This is an explosive topic, and I don't think, regardless of what this movie propounds, that there are any easy answers. No matter what your views on health care, watch this movie anyway and enjoy it for what it is--a good story about a father who will do anything for his son and a compassionate cop willing to bend, but not break, the rules.back to top I think I had to watch Bullitt three or four times before I finally figured out the convoluted plot, but it didn't matter because Bullitt is so good even without understanding all the details. Most people remember this movie mainly because of the remarkable chase scene on the streets of San Francisco. I think the sale of Mustangs skyrocketed after this film came out.
Steve McQueen plays Frank Bullitt, a policeman assigned to protect a mob informant. (Are all cops named Frank? I don't care; I like that name and once had a Bassett Hound named Frankie.) Robert Vaughn plays the ambitious politician who asks Frank to protect the witness. This is one of Robert Duvall's early roles, and he plays the cab driver who picks up the witness and is later questioned by Frank.
Although popular during his career, I don't think anyone would ever accuse Steve McQueen of being a fine actor. We know that heis going to be the brooding, moody hero. We know that Robert Vaughn is going to be the oily, smooth-talking troublemaker. We know that Simon Oakland is going to be the gruff, tough guy. And in Bullitt, they play those types well. Robert Duvall is the unknown element here. Is he a good guy? Is he a bad guy? Is he part of the mob? He's so enigmatic, we're not at all sure at first, and this mystery adds savory flavor to the pot. It's enjoyable watching Mr. Duvall look over his shoulder and tell Frank, "Two, he made two phone calls," and wondering "Is this guy really a cab driver? Maybe he is. Or maybe not!"
Even though Bullitt was made several years ago, it is not one of those films dependent on the times. It plays just as well today as when it first debuted. If you've seen it, you'll love watching it again. If you haven't, you're in for a treat.back to top Bull Meechum is an ace fighter pilot, but he admits he is a warrior without a war. He calls himself "the Great Santini" and expects his
family to obey his every order. "You're looking at Bull Meechum now," he tells his subordinates, "and this is the eye of the storm!" He and his family love one another, yet there is constant conflict as he bulldozes his way around. He expects his family to be perfect Marines, clashing with his oldest son as the boy grows into manhood. Robert Duvall is outstanding as the troubled Bull (another difficult role!). He has us loving this guy sometimes, and other times has our foot itching to kick him in the balls.
It's entertaining; it's riotously funny in parts, (I laughed so hard over the mushroom soup incident, and the toilet paper part) yet it isn't a feel-good movie. It's a film that makes us think. And at first, I didn't know what to think about it.
I do know if someone hurt my son, he would be history with me. But any pet expert will tell you that two unneutered dogs will fight constantly unless one of them is the acknowledged "top dog." They advise the owner to feed that dog first, let him out of the pen first, and in every way recognize him as the leader in order to avoid fights. In my fifty-six years, I have seen the same thing when it involves a woman with two men, no matter what the relationship. One of those men has to be the top dog, or there is going to be conflict.
In The Great Santini, on the surface it appears that Bull is definitely the overbearing top dog, with his wife as the loving, sympathetic character who has to deal with him. But he's gone all the time, and she depends on the oldest boy a lot. On his eighteenth birthday, she writes him a letter telling him the trait she admires most in a man is gentleness, and she is glad he is a gentle person. Well, that's fine and dandy, except her husband Bull is anything but gentle, and she is in effect telling the boy "I admire you more than your father."
So at the end of the movie, I feel sorry for the boy for being caught in the middle. I feel sorry for the mother for not realizing what she's doing. But most of all, I feel sorry for "the Great Santini."
This had to be a terribly hard part for Robert Duvall to play, to make a character alternately likable and obnoxious. Watch The Great Santini not just to be entertained, but to see the drama of human nature brought to life by an actor who does it to perfection.back to top
A Shot at Glory is about that--a small-time football team's shot at the play-offs in Scotland. Robert Duvall plays Gordon McCloud, the hard-headed, but beloved, team manager. When I first heard him speak, I thought they had a native Scot dub his voice, but then I realized it really was him, his accent is just that good. Unfortunately, he was about the only person I could understand in the whole film, except that everyone said "f**king" a lot, and I could understand that. But it might just be me. We watch the British mysteries on PBS (no cable at the Rose house), and my son is always having to translate the Scottish ones for me.
Gordon loves his team and his town, and the town is fiercely loyal to its team. Alas, the American owner wants to move it to attract bigger crowds. He makes a deal. If the team can win the championship, he will let it stay in the same small town, and Gordon will get to keep his job. Gordon has all sorts of complications in his life--he's estranged from his daughter and detests his son-in-law, a hotshot player who the owner hires in hopes of shooting the team to triumph.
It's a good movie, and in a way, it's an allegory of Mr. Duvall. Like the team, he has a solid base of fiercely loyal fans, too. And if a movie he is in doesn't score the winning touchdown, it doesn't faze us too much--we love him anyway. That's the message of A Shot at Glory--we battle, we don't always win, but love is still there.
One of my DRT sisters, Dorothy Gattis, read this webpage and saw that this film was not on it. She had it and gave it to me. I asked her what she thought of it, and she replied that it was good and she liked it, but felt the young man playing the hotshot son-in-law lacked pizzazz. "Robert Duvall really makes the movie," Dorothy said. And she's right.back to top
I think watching golf on television is one of the most excruciatingly boring things to do in this world, and although I have loved Jesus Christ since I was a little girl (even though you'd never know it by some of my actions), movies with religious overtones sometimes embarrass me. Seven Days in Utopia is anything but boring and never embarrassing.
Robert Duvall plays Johnny, an ex-pro golfer now living in Utopia, a small Texas town. The town is full of common people with their own quirky uniqueness, and nobody exhibits this trait more than Johnny. After, Luke, a young golfer, suffers a humiliating public defeat and meltdown during a tournament and lands in the town by accident, Johnny goes out of his way to help him. Johnny's unusual methods teach Luke to be a better golfer--but Johnny's real purpose is to help him become a happier person in the process.
Although the story revolves around Luke, it pivots on Mr. Duvall's character, Johnny. Bossy, demanding, sometimes hot-tempered,Johnny is also lighthearted and kind. He arrived in Utopia himself on a downward spiral of alcohol abuse, and a former student helped him pull his life together. Now he wants to give back what he received. Johnny's a decent man with enough flaws to be thoroughly likable, and these are some of the things that make him and this film so enchanting. When he unexpectedly turns up at Luke's big tournament, quietly nodding his love and approval, he has Luke, Luke's father, and us in tears. Seven Days in Utopia is a feel-good movie that has us rooting for Luke, but Robert Duvall is the one we love in this film.
I admit I am prejudiced in this movie's favor because I got to be an extra in it. Youwon't see anything of me except for a second of a side view, and no, I didn't meet Robert Duvall. I said hello as he walked by, but he literally waved me aside--which was a good thing, because if I had been required to say more, it probably would have came out as idiotic dribble. Nevertheless, every person I talked to who has seen this movie liked it, and the usual comment I hear is, "I love that movie!" It is based on a book, but the film is 100 times better.
Seven Days in Utopia is a great movie to own and watch with anyone except for perhaps the most cynical agnostic or atheist. It would be hard to restrain yourself from smacking them across the mouth for saying a word against this endearing tale of everyday people trying to help one another.back to top
George is an average, slightly lovesick, mechanic in a small town. An unexplained phenomenon happens, and suddenly, George becomes a genius. He finds himself surrounded by people who try to use him and friends who now look at him eschew. Robert Duvall plays George's witty and down-to-earth doctor, "Doc." (He moons George on his birthday. I don't know if it was Robert Duvall's butt or not, but it was a cute butt whoever it belonged to.) Doc has known George all his life and is one of the few people who doesn't begin to treat him differently. Doc tries to help George and eventually finds the cause of his meteoric rise in intelligence.
When I bought this DVD, the clerk ringing up my purchases, a college-age young man with an earring and wearing a stocking cap over his long hair, picked it up and said, "Wow, Phenomenon. This is a really good movie." I think I responded something nice, and we talked a little about the movie, but I secretly wondered what the two of us were going to have in common that might make me like it, too.
I found out. Phenomenon is for anyone who has found himself or herself in a situation that suddenly makes them different--a divorce, widowhood, losing a job. Almost everyone has been through some life-changing event that causes people they have known for years to suddenly start treating them differently. When Doc has to explain to George in the hospital what is really wrong with him, I got choked up, because Doc really cares for George. But when Doc gets mad in the neighborhood bar and starts yelling at George's so-called friends, "What did he ever do to you?!!! Was he trying to sell you something?!!! Did he expect something from you?!," it hit me hard. I started bawling so loud I embarrassed myself. I went outside, walked the dog and cried some more.
A little bit of John Travolta goes a long way with me, but Robert Duvall balances the movie and really drives the point home. His performance in Phenomenon will smack you in the gut. And the clerk was right. It really is a good movie.back to top
Christmas is a lovely time of year, but also stressful. Many times when I get worried or lonely, I'll start cooking the house down. On Christmas Eve, I filled the refrigerator so full of food; I had to stuff more into a cold garage to keep overnight. Christmas morning, I got up and cooked some more. At ten minutes till noon, my son informed me he was going to eat with his father at his other grandparents' house. "I thought I told you that," he said. I decided rather than pout, I would treat myself by watching Lonesome Dove, even if it was all by my lonesome. Later, a friend came over and cried about having to spend the day watching family members fight. My son came home, and we ate the food I had feared would be wasted. After such a trying day, we wanted to watch a movie and chose Deep Impact. "You want to watch an end-of-the-world movie on Christmas Day?" my son teased. We replied heckyes, it would take our minds off our piddling problems.
In Deep Impact, scientists discover that a huge meteor is on course to hit earth with disastrous consequences. It follows the efforts of NASA to divert devastation by sending a space shuttle to land on the meteor and plant bombs deep within it. Robert Duvall is the experienced astronaut who has flown six space missions and walked on the moon. He is to accompany a group of young people who resent him and feel his presence is only a P.R. ploy to give the public a familiar, heartening face. He's nice to them, but tells them upfront someone is needed who actually has experience, not just practice on a simulator. (Love the pearl snap shirt! It is so Houstony.) He's witty, but calm, and his presence is so reassuring, we joked that, of course, we would prefer having Robert Duvall in charge of saving the world instead of those young punks. We were kidding, and yet we weren't kidding. Mr. Duvall plays the part of the wise, knowledgeable man in this movie so well, it was comforting. (Morgan Freeman is good as the president, but he doesn't round out his character like Mr. Duvall does, and it lacks the same depth. Téa Leoni is good as a sympathetic woman, but not so believable as a go-getter reporter. Maximilian Schell plays Téa handsome father, but he tends to strike poses. Robert Duvall, on the other hand, is so convincing as a pilot, he makes Jim Lovell look like a driver for Greyhound. Hmm, maybe he flew planes when he was in the army or something.)
Later, in the special section, the screenwriters talk a lot of p.c. junk about how the movie is supposed to remind us how fragile our planet is, blah, blah, blah. Instead, Deep Impact makes us stop and think about how we would react in a catastrophe. Would we try to save our own skin by pushing people aside? Would we try to make amends to family we might have wronged? Would we loot and steal? Or would we be like Robert Duvall's character and be willing to give up our lives to save others? Because it raises these questions about selflessness in a compelling way, Deep Impact turned out to be the perfect movie for a Christmas evening. But you don't have to wait until Christmas to watch this entertaining disaster film; it can take your mind off your problems anytime.
When it was over, I looked up from my spot on the living room floor to my son and my friend and said, "See? I told y'all Robert Duvall would save the world!"back to top "[Lonesome Dove] is the best best-selling western DVD of all time." Texas Monthly, July 2010, "The Story Behind the Story That
Changed the West" by John Spong
So much praise has been heaped on this television mini-series, that anything I write is going to sound repetitive and hackneyed. But I'm going to say it anyway; because it deserves all the glory it gets, even from a puny little mouse like me.
A few years ago, a Texas genius who can't resolve whether he wants to be loved or hated decided to write a story debunking the mystique of the West. Using the fissure in his personality, Larry McMurtry created two tough and rough Texas rangers, Capt. Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Capt. Woodrow Call. Gus is exuberantly in love with life. Woodrow is a workaholic unable to show his feelings or experience happiness. Gus is sometimes kind and often generous, but Woodrow's only attractive trait is his grudging affection for his old friend, Gus. Larry took this unlikely duo, and using every old tale that's been circulating around Texas for 100 years, wove a book that won a Pulitzer Prize. Instead of debunking the mystique of the West, Larry added another layer to it, and what a fascinating layer it is. Austinite Bill Wittliff was given the daunting task of turning a long book with a jillion characters and no ending into a television mini-series. San Saba native Tommy Lee Jones was cast as Woodrow; Robert Duvall was cast as Gus. Mr. Duvall's mother was from East Texas, so as Gus would say, he is Texan through the titty. The story follows Gus and Woodrow from their ranch in Lonesome Dove, Texas, on to a cattle drive to Montana.
When the mini-series aired, I was working nights in a convenience store by a highway out in the middle of nowhere. Every person who walked in the door was talking about Lonesome Dove, praising how good it was. (This was back in the days before pay-at-the-pump and the open container law.) There wasn't a TV, so my boss, feeling sorry for me, loaned me the book, which I loved. However, I was so pissed off at God for making me work in a convenience store at night 48 hours a week for $5.85 an hour and missing the mini-series in the first place, I refused to watch it when it came out on VHS. I know that is stupid, but I've never claimed to be the brightest lamp on the street. Of course now, when I finally did watch it, I feel like taking a cane and whipping my heinie for waiting so long.
So I knew the book was good and knew people loved the mini-series, but I really did not understand their adoration and devotion to it. When I showed up late at the last Texas Folklore Society meeting, my friend Margie elatedly told me what I had missed. She had been on a tour of the Wittliff Collection of Lonesome Dove at Texas State University in San Marcos and had her picture taken under the Lonesome Dove sign. I thought, "ooh-kay," I don't know what's so exciting about that, but she was thrilled.
Within the first three minutes of watching Lonesome Dove, I understood everything. The Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call on the screen are not the same as the ones in the book. Tommy Lee Jones adds nuances to the character of Woodrow that make him ten times more appealing and understandable. And Robert Duvall! Mr. Duvall must have reached somewhere deep into his being, took out a handful of something very special and dusted himself with a million sparkles. When he is on the screen, he vibrates with personality, and I half-expected to see sparks flying off him at any minute. His Gus is exuberant, lovable, rascally and full of feistiness balanced by true kindness and generosity.
Gus fusses at Woodrow for being unable to enjoy life and refusing to acknowledge young Newt as his son. When an old friend visits, he talks about the wonderful grazing land in Montana. Woodrow, perhaps worried that Gus is bored and drinking too much, decides they should take a herd of cattle to Montana. Gus agrees to go only because it will take him through Nebraska, where Clara, the love of his life who got away, lives. What follows is exciting, touching, cliffhanging interesting. Talkative Gus spouts one witticism after another--it has some of the best dialogue, if not the best, that I've ever heard in a film. Gus: "Well, I'm glad I ain't scared to be lazy." and "A man who wouldn't cheat for a poke don't want one bad enough." Woodrow: "You ever get tired of loafing I reckon you can get a job waiting on tables." Gus: "Oh, I had a job waiting tables once. Was on a riverboat. I wasn't no older than Newt, there, but I had to give it up." Woodrow: "How come?" Gus: "Well, I was too young and pretty and the whores wouldn't let me alone." It is like that through the whole series.
It's impossible to pick the best scenes because they are all good. When Gus and Woodrow are forced to hang an old friend, watch the expression on Mr. Duvall's face--I've never seen anything like it. Feel your heart strings jerking when Gus rescues a young woman after she has been brutally raped by Kiowas and Comancheros, and later when he comforts her. Get excited when Gus teaches a surly bartender in San Antonio a lesson in manners. Be thrilled when Gus has to rope Woodrow to keep him from killing a man who hit Newt. Have your heart broken at the end.
Gus believes all prostitutes to be women with hearts of gold, and as someone who has sold plenty of beer to them and theirpimps, I don't really believe this. However, maybe there is a little bit of a prostitute in every woman, (just ask one who's been on a date with a man she didn't like just because she wanted to get out of the house) and that's why we girls love Gus--he understands us and loves us anyway.
In Texas, Tommy Lee Jones is a popular, popular actor. The feelings for Robert Duvall, however, border on reverence. The women love and admire him; the men respect him, but are maybe just a little bit jealous of him, too. We love Lonesome Dove and Gus in particular because Robert Duvall's awe-inspiring portrayal of him brings our heritage to life with one of the most charming characters ever to hit the screen.
Mr. Duvall appears justifiably proud of his work in The Godfather and Lonesome Dove. The Godfather is about the evil ordinary people can sink into. Lonesome Dove is about the heights of courage and goodness ordinary people can attain, and for that reason, I think it is far superior to even a film like The Godfather. (Although my half-Italian friend, Yevonne, and I almost got into a fight about this on the way home from Bastrop yesterday.) It is impossible to imagine this mini-series without Gus or to picture any other actor other than Robert Duvall in that role. (Matt Damon? Brad Pitt? Don't make me laugh.) Robert Duvall is not Gus McCrae in real life. Gus McCrae in the film, however, is Robert Duvall. Mr. Duvall adds his own uniqueness to this character, blending and strengthening it so that he defines it to perfection. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Go to Archer City, walk into Larry McMurtry's bookstore and look high up on the wall where no grubby hands can reach it, and you'll see a portrait of Mr. Duvall as Gus.
I think the real reason we come close to worshipping Lonesome Dove is the incredible courage of these characters, especially Augustus McCrae, as played by the breathtakingly talented Robert Duvall. Lonesome Dove is not the perfect western. But it is by far the best and finest western ever made. The worst thing about it is that it ends. If you haven't seen Lonesome Dove in a long time, watch it again and be enthralled once more. If you've never seen it, for pity's sake, don't be a hardheaded numbskull like I was. Buy it and watch it! Don't rent it, because you will want to watch it again and again.
As for me, I think I will mosey down to San Marcos the first chance I get and have a look at that Lonesome Dove sign. Right after I hit myself one more time for being so stupid.back to top When my son was in middle school, I worked in a convenience store on Main Street just up the road from our house. It was low pay,
low hours and at night, but it was close to home in case he needed me. I would have supper waiting for him when he got out of school because he was always starving, then I would go to work while he watched TV. I closed the store at eleven and soon saw that after ten o'clock at night, the good people are at home and the creeps come out, even in a small town. So watching Colors, a movie about street gangs in Los Angeles, hit a little too close to home for me. I didn't want to be reminded of even the tiny bit I had witnessed many years ago.
Nevertheless, once I started watching Colors, it held my interest. Robert Duvall plays a seasoned cop who learned a long time previous to pace himself to keep from getting burned out. Sean Penn plays his rookie partner who wants to go after everyone great guns. The film shows the gangs in graphic detail, the violence, the drugs, etc. It's not a comfortable movie to watch, and the only hope it offers is to just keep on trying.
I've watched Robert Duvall play a policeman in several movies recently, and the amazing thing is that every one is different. In Falling Down, he's witty, slightly hen-pecked, with a somewhat sweet personality. In John Q, he has a compassionate "I'm sorry, but I have to do this," attitude. In Colors, he's a cop on edge just trying to hold on until retirement. When he blows up and confronts Sean Penn's character for acting like a gangster himself, he's so mad, his eyes have an almost crazy look in them. I was sitting on the couch and he scared me. I bet Sean Penn almost wet his pants. But when I watched this movie, I wasn't thinking, that's Robert Duvall up there--I was just seeing a cop trying to do a good job in a desperate situation. That's what Mr. Duvall makes us think about in all his movies--not himself, but the character he's playing. That's the reason we think, "Oh man, he's a great actor," first, and "Oh man, he's a big star" second.
Sean Penn is not a favorite of mine because he sometimes comes across as mean and sulky, but he's not too bad here. Bottom line: Colors is more of a guy movie--about as far away from a chick flick as you can get, but it's an absorbing film, nevertheless.back to top In an interview in the specials section of the DVD of Sling Blade, Robert Duvall calls it a unique film, an apt description of this odd movie that ended up being a hit.
Billy Bob Thornton plays Karl, a mentally slow man being released from a mental hospital after a lengthy stay. We learn that he had been abused as a child, forced to live in a shed behind his parents' house, sleeping in a hollowed out place in the dirt. His mothertreated him only slightly better than his cruel father, and when Karl saw a man he knew to be mean on top of his mother, he thought he was hurting her, and he killed the man with a sling blade. When his mother screamed at him and it became apparent she was a willing partner, Karl killed her, too. But after years in a facility, Karl is pronounced cured of any homicidal tendencies. He makes friends with young Frank and Frank's mother. But Frank's mother is involved in an abusive relationship with a drunken redneck boyfriend.
Robert Duvall has a cameo role as Karl's father. Karl goes back home and finds his father surrounded by filth and muttering to himself. He offers to mow his father's grass, but his father refuses to acknowledge that Karl is even his son. Karl tells his father he often thought of killing him but sees now he's going to die soon anyway. Mr. Duvall plays the father so unsympathetically, we wish he'd drop dead immediately, even though it is obvious he is alone and senile. It's a crucial part of the story, that we see and feel Karl's father's rejection of him, and Mr. Duvall hammers it home in one short and effective scene.
There is a lot I liked about Sling Blade and some things I disliked. When I was a little girl, we used to ride bikes around our small town. One old lady took in stray dogs, and they would go crazy barking and chasing us when we passed her house on our way home. I was terrified and complained to my father. Knowing the dogs were merely excited and not vicious, instead of going to the old woman and demanding she pen them, he used the occasion to teach me a valuable lesson. He told me to stand up to the dogs and speak to them with authority, ordering them to get back and leave us alone. Although I am a big chicken and avoid trouble whenever possible, I learned that lesson works with bullies, too. It may get me killed one of these days, but so far it has gotten me out of a few tight spots where my back was against the wall and hard places were on either side of me. This movie disturbed me because it seemed incomprehensible to me that a woman would allow a violent man, especially one she had no legal ties with and wasn't supporting her in any way, to be abusive to her son. But my friend Yevonne, who helps raise her grandchildren, told me she has heard from teachers that this kind of situation is not uncommon.
Sling Blade is a mixed bag of empathy and father hatred. Karl justifiably hates his father. The homosexual friend of Frank's mother hates his father. Frank doesn't hate his father, but he has mixed feelings because his father selfishly chose suicide rather than work through his financial difficulties. In the end, when Karl sacrifices his freedom so Frank won't have to suffer what he did, we can't help but be filled with compassion.
After Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton returned the favor by doing a small, but similarly powerful, role in Robert Duvall's The Apostle--a film I like about ten or twenty or a hundred times better than Sling Blade. Nevertheless, watch both of them, and you can see Robert Duvall in diametrically opposite roles, playing both utterly convincingly.back to top
I had a cold and wasn't feeling well, but decided to watch We Own the Night. As I listened to the cursing, watched the nudity and sex, I grumbled to myself, thinking, "Jeez Louise! The crap I allow thrown at me just to watch Robert Duvall in a movie." My friend Yevonne called and asked what I was doing. I told her, and she said, "I didn't like that movie; it was filthy." (Yevonne has impressionable youngsters at home.) I said, "Girl, I'm telling you! I'm glad I'm old, and I'm going to die soon so I don't have to see what the world is coming to." Then I started laughing.
All kidding aside, once you get past the sex, the drugs, and the language, We Own the Night is a very good movie. And Robert Duvall is wonderful, wonderful in it and makes it all worthwhile. He plays the chief of police in a big city. One son is good and follows in his footsteps; the other son, Bobby, is bad and runs a raunchy nightclub. But a time comes when Bobby realizes he either has to turn good, or he has to totally embrace the dark side. Mr. Duvall plays the dad with just the right amount of toughness and tenderness so we fully understand and believe why one son might worship him and another might rebel. At the end of the movie when Bobby realizes how much his old man means to him, Mr. Duvall has made us feel the same way, too, and our hearts cry right along with Bobby.
Don't watch We Own the Night with your children, but do watch it. And if your teenagers want to see it, just turn a blind eye. It's a very good film about deciding which side of the fence you want to sit on.back to top My grandparents used to tell of a woman in town who had been in a terrible car accident and had to have a leg amputated among other
things. To ease her pain, she was given morphine, which she naturally became addicted to. Back then, there weren't any drug rehab facilities, and she was kept at home when they weaned her. I heard nightmarish accounts of how she would lay on the couch with her mutilated body, screaming and crying at the top of her lungs, begging for the drug. My grandparents put the fear of God into me with those stories, let me tell you, and I've been terrified of narcotics since then and avoid people who use them whenever possible.
Even though The Seven-Per-Cent Solution made me squirm, at least I didn't have to see anybody shooting up. In it, Dr. Watson (played by Robert Duvall) goes to see Sherlock Holmes after a long absence, finds him totally addicted to cocaine and in a wild and paranoiac state. Mr. Duvall's Dr. Watson is better than anybody's I've ever seen. He's not a bumbling idiot--but an intelligent man of action who conceives of a plan to cure Holmes by luring him to the great Sigmund Freud. As a previous cocaine user now cured, Freud is able to help Holmes. When one of his patients, a beautiful former addict, is forced into addiction again by mysterious thugs, the hunt is on. Even though the subject matter is serious, the film is at times humorous and tongue-in-cheek. The scene in the photo shows Dr. Watson ready to fight an anti-Semitic bully on Dr. Freud's behalf. It illustrates Dr. Watson's endearing personality in this film and makes us wish we had a friend like him.
If you like Sherlock Holmes, this is a good one to see because it is different, and it ends well. Although the guy playing Holmes is not at all appealing, and Laurence Olivier's Professor Moriarty is not too believable in the last scene they put him in, Robert Duvall's engaging interpretation of Dr. Watson makes up for it. He is the true hero of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. If only it could work out so well for everyone in real life.back to top
I can't horseback ride worth two cents and probably couldn't put a bridle on by myself to save my life, but I love westerns. I love looking at beautiful horses, love gazing at wide open spaces and love watching gritty-gutted men-folks in boots and hats. I like seeing a decent, kind woman in a long dress with a passion burning underneath her petticoat for just one man. I may blink and flinch, but I even like gunplay. If the western has a dog in it, that makes it even better.
Open Range enticingly offers all those things. Robert Duvall plays Boss Spearman, a tough cattleman driving his cattle through open country, fattening them up as he heads them to market. A childless widower, he has come to regard the three men who work for him as his family. When a greedy cattle baron threatens him, Boss would like nothing better than to move on. But the cattle baron isn't content with that, and he attacks Boss's men. It's no longer a question of the range, and Boss makes his decision to stand and fight. His top man, Charley, played by Kevin Costner, is with him all the way, even though it brings back haunting memories of a past life that Charley would like to forget. When Charley meets a pretty spinster, sparks are ignited, and Boss helps fan them into a flame. But nothing deters Boss from seeing that justice is done.
I'm not an actress or a director or a critic, so sometimes I can't understand or think of the right way to express why I believe something is so good. But Iwill say that I think Robert Duvall's timing is impeccable. When he makes the decision to stay and fight, he pauses for just the right amount of split seconds. Even though I had seen Open Range before and knew what he would decide, he played the moment so perfect, I still found myself holding my breath, wondering what he was going to do. The scene where he whacks one of the bad men with his rifle when they are around a campfire is taunt and exciting. When he goes into the jail where he is holding some of them hostage and offers them an unusual breakfast, I burst out laughing; the line is delivered so funnily and unexpectedly. When he rails at God for allowing one of his men to be killed, it was such a true moment, I totally identified with it. I've never cussed God or called him names, but I've cried "I hate you!" plenty of times.
My friend Connie from Tioga, who is not a Costner fan, said the best thing about Open Range was that Kevin Costner let Robert Duvall do most of the talking. That may be stretching things a bit, but as producer and director, Kevin did let Mr. Duvall take the lead and in doing so made a fine movie. In addition to being a really good western, Open Range has one of the very best gunfights I've ever watched. I had to restrain myself from diving behind the sofa pillows. I betcha you will too.
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The whole time I was watching The Road, I kept thinking, I must be dumber than I thought, because if this movie has some deep meaning, I'm just not getting it. It is based on a Cormac McCarthy novel that won a Pulitzer Prize, so somebody must have understood it.
A catastrophe that is never stated has befallen the earth. There are no plants or animals, only gangs of people who have become cannibalistic. A father and son follow the road south, trying to get to a warmer place where they might find food. They scavenge for what they need, but the father repeatedly instills in the boy the idea that they are "the good guys" and won't turn cannibal.
Robert Duvall plays an old man they meet along the way. I didn't understand the significance of his character either, except that he provides a much needed interlude and proves everyone else isn't bad. As usual, even though he is only on the screen about 10 minutes, Mr. Duvall outshines everybody and delivers the best line in the whole movie. (Or he just makes it sound like the best line.) The man asks him if he ever wishes he would die. "No. It's foolish to ask for luxuries in times like these," the old man (Mr. Duvall) replies.
It's dark; it's dreary; it's depressing, and it talks about suicide all the time. BUT, and here is a spoiler alert, at the end....when the man dies, his son whispers that he will always talk to him and never forget him. We understand by his subsequent actions that the boy has learned all the lessons his father tried so desperately hard to instill in him--to be wary of evil and always remain on the side of the good guys. The ending offers hope for mankind. That and Mr. Duvall's powerfully understated performance of a man who asks for nothing, expects nothing, but still shows a little boy kindness make The Road worth watching.
back to top In Geronimo: An American Legend, Robert Duvall broke my heart and probably made his dearly departed mother roll over in her
grave. Since the Indians can't be the bad guys, and the American soldiers can't be totally bad, somebody has to be so they made it the Texans. (And don't tell me Matt Damon's character was supposed to be from Texas; he couldn't even pronounce New Braunsfels right.)
Despite the traitorous and insulting words that fell from Mr. Duvall's lips and made me want to ram my fist through the TV, he gives the most realistic performance in this movie as an army scout with seventeen wounds and a deadly aim. "I know I'm rough in some of my ways, and I ain't the gentlemanly type." His character does show some sense. "But God made me who I am, and I figure it's them or us." It feels like pulling a splinter out of my breast with a pair of pliers, but I am forced to admit he makes this character the most interesting and true-to-life one in the whole movie. In addition, Mr. Duvall and Gene Hackman are the only Anglos who actually look the parts they are playing. Gene is good as the decent General Crook; however, I always get the impression in every one of his films that he might turn around and shoot the finger at me at any moment. I don't even want to talk about the others.
Geronimo: An American Legend is a sorry, sappy movie I wouldn't recommend to anyone except a masochist. And I hope after he made this, Mr. Duvall went to his mother's grave, fell down on his knees and cried, "I'm sorry, Mama! I didn't mean it!"
Blah! That is the sound of me spitting, trying to get the taste of this movie out of my mouth. Even one of Robert Duvall's solid performances can't save this film that tries so hard not to offend anyone, it ends up rubbing everybody the wrong way.back to top Breakout is a movie made early in Robert Duvall's career. In it, he plays Jay, a wealthy young businessman with a beautiful young
wife. For some reason that is never specified, Jay's rich grandfather and the CIA want him out of the way. They have him wrongfully imprisoned in Mexico for murder, and the only scruples the corrupt grandfather has is that Jay not be killed. Jay's wife hires Nick (Charles Bronson), a sort of shade tree, jack-of-all-trades pilot, to break him out of prison. Nick and his friends fail twice, and meanwhile, Jay slowly sinks lower and lower, morally and physically. It's touch and go, and we wonder if this group of goobers bent on rescuing Jay will ever succeed.
Having Robert Duvall in this movie is kind of like having a Parisian Cordon Bleu chef preparing hot dogs at a high school football game, but the results are great. While Charles Bronson and the others put in some really corny acting, Mr. Duvall plays Jay's decline perfectly. He has us at the edge of our seats, wondering if he will make to the chopper in time. We are biting our fingernails when he walks off with the bad guy, holding our breath when he suddenly rouses himself and realizes something is wrong. The film gets better and better as it progresses, as we watch Robert Duvall's character dissolve from a confident young businessman to someone barely hanging on to reality.
Breakout is not an intellectual work. It's sort of "Shane" set in the 70s (the hero and the wife of the man he is trying to help develop a thing for one another, but the hero nobly does not pursue it), but it's still an all around good action movie with lots of funny moments and suspense. In other words, it does everything a movie is supposed to do--entertain us.
An interesting side-note: Even though Robert Duvall is wearing bell bottoms and sporting a head full of shaggy hair, he is instantly recognizable. I didn't even know who Randy Quaid was at first and never would have believed it if it hadn't been for his voice.I ran across Breakout in a used DVD store, and I'm really glad I did. It gave me a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the end of a long hard day. Ninety-nine percent of the enjoyment came from Mr. Duvall's super performance.
back to top Apocalypse Now is universally regarded as the best movie ever made about the Viet Nam War and one of the greatest films of all times.
One of my former customers once told me that when he returned from his duty in Viet Nam, he looked out the plane window and saw a group of people. He thought, "Oh wow, they've organized a parade for us." Instead, when he got off the plane, he was spit upon and had obscenities screamed at him by protestors. It signified a horrible time in our country. My personal life wasn't much better. I was still living with my parents who were waging their own war with one another. My older sister had checked out emotionally on the rest of us, and my younger sister had begun down a path that would eventually lead to her destruction. I knew I would soon have to leave home, and being a girl totally devoid of career aspirations, I didn't know what to do and was in a quandary. The only thing that terrible war in Viet Nam did for me was to help solidify the one goal I did make in my life--to have a happy home. Sometimes I forget that goal as I stumble around making mistake after mistake, but I still have it.
Consequently, I do not put myself in agony watching movies about Viet Nam. However, people kept telling me I should at leastwatch one section of Apocalypse Now--the part with Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore. In addition, this role permeates almost all discussion of the film in the media and contains two of the most quoted lines from any movie--"Charlie don't surf," and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." So one evening, I hugged the dog to give me courage and put Apocalypse Now (redux version) in the DVD player.
The movie begins with an emotionally damaged captain being sent deep into Cambodia to assassinate a Green Beret with a previously spotless record who has gone renegade. His first stop is to hand over orders to Lt. Kilgore to use helicopters to escort him to a place where he can then travel upriver to the renegade colonel's compound. He finds out that Lt. Kilgore is almost a law unto himself, too. The captain says of Kilgore: "He has that weird light around him that makes him think nothing will ever happen to him."
In order to cope with the war, or maybe because he is just that kind of guy, Lt. Kilgore has created a world where he is master. He has transferred his helicopters into a cavalry unit, wearing cavalry hats with crossed swords on them, playing Wagner full blast as they make a spectacular attack in helicopters with "death from above" painted on the front in red letters. Lt. Kilgore clearly enjoys what he is doing (hence his name, Kill Gore), but he takes care of his men, and they are devoted to him. He stomps around oblivious to danger, and in the middle of horrifying peril, he wants to surf the waves. The reality of what is going on around Lt. Kilgore and the way he reacts to it is mindboggling.
When I was in barber school, they taught us that male baldness is often caused from too much testosterone. After watching Robert Duvall in this role, I'm surprised the man has any hair at all. In real life, some men grab their crotches in a gesture of nervousness or insecurity, but when Lt. Kilgore grabs his, he's reining in the horses.I have never seen a part played in a movie by man or beast that blasts out so many male hormones. It's like being hit with a truckload of Viagra. No wonder this is the character people talk about so much!!!
I haven't yet brought myself to watch the rest of the film, and I may never do it. I think the film is an allegory of the way the soldiers were treated. "You wanted us to do this; you wanted us to become this, and now that we have, you want to kill us." If you can possibly do it, watch Apocalypse Now if you have not already done so. If you are a weenie like me, at least watch Robert Duvall's part as Lt. Kilgore. He creates an intensely fascinating character who has found his own extreme way of dealing with the horrors of war. You won't be able to take your eyes off of him while he is on the screen, and you'll never see so much masculinity exploding before you ever again. It's a once in a lifetime role with a once in a lifetime actor. Oh, the testosterone!back to top
The Stars Fell on Henrietta is one of those films I badly wanted to see at the time, but for one reason or another, I didn't get to. I imagine I was too broke. At some later point, I think I even drove through Henrietta during my travels, and I remember thinking how I wished I had seen the movie. It fell under my radar, but when I saw it on a list of Robert Duvall movies, I suddenly remembered it and my unusual longing to see it. Thank goodness for Amazon.com.
The Stars Fell on Henrietta is set during the Depression in West Texas. Robert Duvall plays Mr. Cox, a wildcatter, an independent oil driller who has had one continuous streak of bad luck. Something always breaks down at the last minute; some catastrophe happens to keep his dream from coming true. When he is almost as down as he can get, he runs across a farm where he can literally smell oil in the ground. It's owned by a couple barely hanging on to it. They can't spend the money to drill, even if they believed Mr. Cox. Mr. Cox, however, is not to be deterred. He does everything he can to come up with the money to drill, no matter how demeaning. When that doesn't work, he takes extreme measures, because he's just so sure oil is there.
Mr. Cox is a character impossible not to love. No matter how many times he gets knocked down by life, he gets up and tries again. "I'm a doable man," he grins. He's known the rich men; he's known the poor men, and he treats them all with dignity. But the most important thing to him is following that rainbow, hitting another Spindletop. I was especially touched by the scene in the restaurant, when having spent his last dime trying to talk a millionaire oilman into investing, Mr. Cox is cruelly laughed at. He sits, so disappointed. When the restaurant owner comes in and starts yelling at him, Mr. Cox explodes. Oh, how many times has something like that happened to the rest of us! It has to me. Later, when Mr. Cox resorts to extreme measures to get the money, I had to laugh, even though it's, well, kind of wrong; it's still funny and rather satisfying.
The Stars Fell on Henrietta is a delightful movie to experience on so many levels. The tale of a man's pursuit of a vision, a family on the brink of disaster saved by an unlikely character, the fight of the little man to succeed against great odds, they all add up to please us. In addition, this movie offers a beguiling look at the old-time wildcatter who has almost died out or been killed off by government regulations. When Mr. Cox is holding two dipsticks as divining rods, who can help but love him? When he gets blown down by a gasexplosion, I started crying because I thought he was dead. It's a heartwarming, uplifting film to watch with anyone of any age.
The only real criticism I have of this film is the music. It seemed bland and not quite in tune with the movie. But Mr. Duvall makes up for it, however, letting us love and admire Mr. Cox, inducing us to cheer him on and wish there were more like him still around. Robert Duvall's entrancing portrayal of Mr. Cox as a goodhearted and charming finagler will have you loving him and this movie, too.
I don't know why I had such a strong urge to see this film or why fate wouldn't let me watch it the first time around, but I'm so glad I didn't miss it entirely. Watch this great film about chasing a dream, and you'll be glad, too. (My dog and cat look just like the dog and cat in the movie. Mr. Cox's cat can find oil! Mine can find her feed bowl.)back to top
A very young and very skinny Robert Duvall stars in Lawman. He plays Vernon Adams, a small-time rancher who has accompanied a group of cowboys from a bigger ranch on a trail ride. They stop in a town long enough to get drunk and shoot it up, accidentally killing a man. The lawman of the town comes looking for them, but Vern refuses to turn himself in, even though he didn't kill the man. The lawman tracks Vern down; they shoot it out, and Vern is captured.
Lawman is not a fine western, but it's a good western. It has a good story; it has beautiful scenery; it has interesting characters. But it has a tendency to philosophize way too much. Fortunately, Mr. Duvall's character, Vern, doesn't moralize. He's a straight up and down kind of guy, and says flat out he didn't kill anybody, and if he goes back to stand trial, it would be too much time away from his ranch and his wife, and he could lose both. He's not a good guy in this movie--he wants to kill the lawman, but at least he doesn't go into self-doubts and long explanations that are boring to listen to.
Even at this young age, Mr. Duvall is the best actor in the movie, and it contains a lot of heavyweights like Burt Lancaster, Lee J. Cobb and Robert Ryan. After being captured, when Vernon begs his friend's common-law wife to set him free and give him a gun, he totally has that lean, hungry look of a desperate man barely keeping the wolf from the door.
Lawman is a good movie to watch when you are hankering for a western, but are tired and don't feel like investing heavily into your emotions on something too wonderful like Lonesome Dove. Plus it's fun to see Robert Duvall in one of his early movie roles and note that he is one of those men who just gets better and better as he grows older. Personally, I like men the same as I like my steaks--aged with a little fat on them, but Mr. Duvall's sinewy appearance here works very well for this trouble burdened character.back to top
Come again soon! Home / Resume / Testimonials / Personal / Contact / Robert Duvall Filmography
The Eagle Has Landed
Tender Mercies & Crazy Heart
The
Gingerbread Man
