One fellow said that? The other book the film was based on
was MOUNTAIN
MAN, a novel by Vardis Fisher, and I thought CROW KILLER was
fiction, too.
Still, I always assumed the character was based loosely on a
possibly real
person (or at least a legendary figure-something the film
itself, in the
voice-over, both spoken and sung, hints at). But
liver-eatin'? YIKES!
I'll have to look for Crow Killer. But I still think the film
works well
for what it is, an adventure tale with some hardboiled
touches. And the
idea, that after the film, which ends sorta ambiguously,
Johnson continues
to wage war against the Crow, and eventually goes as nuts as
the The
Screaming Woman, chomping livers throughout the Rockies,
certainly adds
some weight. (It would certainly give those horses something
to whisper
about).
(For anyone who doesn't know the story, Robert Redford plays
Johnson, a
mountain man who eventually becomes the target of the Crow,
who have
declared a sort of fatwah against him. One by one, they come
to pick him
off. I guess U2 wasn't around then to hide him out.)
As for the film or book being "politically correct", huh?
Nature may come
off pretty well, if harsh, but people are presented in all
their petty,
stupid, cowardly, viscious, cruel, violent (and just
occasionally, brave
and noble and honourable) glory. It's the reason Johnson
heads off into the
hills in the first place, because he's been disgusted by the
endless wars
and squabbles he was involved in. Of course, there's no
escape. The opening
narration that I quoted yesterday sets the tone.
Unfortunately, the film
doesn't always remain true to that tone. Maybe Sam
Peckinpaugh should have
directed it, instead of Sydney Pollack. But overall, I still
liked it.
The books and film were all produced twenty-five or so years
ago, long
before "politically correct" was generally used; certainly
long before it
became commonly used, as an accusatory, albeit nebulous and
essentially
meaningless buzzword that sounds like the speaker is saying
something, but
isn't. Tell that fellow to get a life.
Kevin Smith
The Thrilling Detective Web Site
http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
The February issue has the results of The 1998 Cheap Thrills
Awards.
Plus thrilling detective fiction from Robert Iles and Leigh
Brackett. And a
contest! Yippy!
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.