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Finding enjoyment in a notoriously terrible movie seems to be an almost impossible task. A few months back Pauline Kael attempted to analyze this in Harper’s magazine in an article with a controversial title, Trash Art and the Movies. However, I strongly believe she missed the mark in her reasoning. The bad movies that were within her radius of enjoyment (The Scalphunters, Wild in the Streets) pale in comparison to the abominable Death Ride a Horse which is for lack of better words embarrassing.
And yet, it’s the total opposite of what one would expect. What is truly mystical is how a large Loop theater consumes you within its walls. Come Saturday afternoon, you can expect me buckled into my seat enveloped in denial and unfortunately for myself, I am begging to surrender to a movie ride such as this. You will intermittently laugh or be amazed or just distract yourself and observe how some of the outdoor scenes were actually filmed in a studio with backdrops at one point the protagonist literally casts a shadow across a full mountain range.
Sadly, these sorts of films take two hours to connect these points. However, sitting there in the dark watching this terribly bad Western on a Saturday afternoon releases a part of you. You reconnect with yourself as the 10 year old kid that you are when you were forced to sit through such bad Westerns not so violent, even if they were violent. The mystics assure our contemplation of this sort is essential for psychic well being.
You can ponder the destinies of Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law. It’s one thing to become successful and famous out of the blue like Clint Eastwood, because of spaghetti westerns. It is, however, a different matter entirely to remain stuck in such roles throughout the career. Van Cleef’s closeup shows his face, lean, and embittered with the expression of the fierce will to enact comfortably. Either he has spent 30 years of his life pursuing a lone vengeance across the West or embraced the sad fate of being stuck doing spaghetti Westerns for eternity. The difference is nearly indiscernible.
But Law still retains a certain sense of innocence. Cheekbones that are expected of a headstrong hero in combination with an unlined face and blue eyes give him his innocence. In these movies, he usually had suspenders (the same way Eastwood wears cigars and Van Cleef a pipe), which bestow him with youthful sincerity. We expect that he will bring justice destroy the villains and return to Hollywood in one magnificent pearl.
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