One-eyed Jacks

Westerns don't get much more unique than these two revisionist takes on the once-thriving genre. Altman's European--influenced McCabe (1971), with elegiac music by the late Leonard Cohen, employs "poetic realism" to tell the story of entrepreneur John McCabe (Warren Beatty), who partners with hooker/madam Constance Miller (Oscar-nominated Julie Christie) to run a brothel in a Pacific Northwest mining town. An unfriendly bid to buy out the successful enterprise pits corporate interests against small-time business owners, culminating in a snow-filled showdown far from the usual dusty main-street shoot-out. A flawless makeover restores this National Film Registry listing's hazy, color--desaturated period look. One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Brando's only shot behind the camera, casts the stellar actor as Rio, a bank robber seeking retaliation against father-figure cohort Dad Longworth (Karl Malden), who abandoned him for stolen loot. Rio's retribution is complicated by his former partner turning sheriff and a romance with Longworth's stepdaughter. Photographed in large-format VistaVision along coastal California, this Freudian-tinged film is a gorgeous-looking meditation on vengeance. VERDICT Rescued from grossly inferior video incarnations, Criterion's stunning restorations allow a long overdue appreciation of these genre busters.-Jeff T. Dick, Davenport, IA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.