Month: November 2017

Jim Jarmusch’s utterly bizarre 1995 ‘Acid Western’ Dead Man is the subject of this episode, featuring Johnny Depp at his height as a tenderfoot traveling into the Frontier and also, potentially, the reincarnation of the poet William Blake. Shot in B&W and featuring a unique Neil Young soundtrack, Dead Man defies easy description and is a strong contender for strangest film we’ve covered on the show. And while I reveled in the unusual, avant-garde style and philosophical explorations, Dad found the whole thing remarkably interminable, a word that will come up more than a few times when describing the experience of watching it! Real split decision on this one. Topics of conversation include solipsism, the most likely interpretation of the film (involving a soul’s journey from life to death), the gorgeous desolation captured on film, the huge list of entertaining and confusing cameos the film boasts (Robert Mitchum! Crispin Glover! Iggy Pop!), the moments of shocking violence or striking dream imagery, Neil Young’s aggressively atonal and divisive score, the value of confrontational art, and the validity of Acid Western as a categorization. There’s also some good car horns in the background for you! Can’t be helped sometimes, my street’s a disaster lately.

Letting you in on the behind the scenes drama a bit here, we had some internet issues while recording this, and one thing that got lost by the way side was Other Things We’ve Seen Lately! For the record, I saw the new Thor movie (funny!) and the new Justice League movie (boring!), and I assume Dad watched the Seahawks season kind of start slipping away. Come visit us online at westernswithdad.com and email any episode recommendations or questions to westernswithdad@gmail.com, and why not come by iTunes and leave us a rating or review? It improves our visibility! On the next episode, we’ll be talking about both versions of the Western classic, True Grit!

Dead Man was directed by Jim Jarmusch and stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott and a whole bunch of other people.

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Coming from director Delmar Daves, 1956’s Jubal tells a story of sexual obsession on the open plains, highly reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Othello. Starring Glenn Ford as stoic loner Jubal Troop, it has come to more prominence lately, possibly owing to a fine Criterion restoration,  and features a cast of beloved character actors sinking their teeth into some high melodrama with aplomb. An unusually adult 50s western, it’s worth a look for its maturity and as usual, its glorious location photography, as well as a divisive Rod Steiger performance as the Iago of the piece. Topics of conversation include the sexual politics of the story, the morality of Valerie French’s femme fatale, a bit of talk of star Ernest Borgnine’s other great roles (including his wolf pit scene in The Vikings), Glenn Ford’s perhaps excessive stoicism, the abruptness of the conclusion, early Charles Bronson, the status bestowed by a Criterion edition, and man, so many Rod Steiger impersonations. There’s a lot of that. Good movie, as Dad would say. Check out Jubal! And thanks to Ron for the suggestion! Please keep those coming. Also, I have a cold in this one, and though I’ve edited out as many gross sniffles as I could, I’m sure a few snuck in. For this, I apologize.

We also discuss some TV, specifically Dad’s current regimen of old Westerns and my recent delve into the new season of Stranger Things (and how it relates to the shows we used to watch in the 80s). If you’d like to suggest a movie or ask a question, please email us at westernswithdad@gmail.com! Also, you can help the podcast by leaving ratings and reviews on iTunes, which increases our visibility! Cool! If you’d like to hear back episodes of the show (beyond what’s on iTunes), they’re all there on our website, westernswithdad.com! On the next episode of the show, we’ll be talking about Jim Jarmusch’s odd, poetic 90s western Dead Man, starring Johnny Depp and a bunch of familiar faces. Should be weird!

Jubal was directed by Delmar Daves, and stars Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Valerie French and Charles Bronson.

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