Cat Ballou (DVD)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

American Director Elliot Silverstein directed the famous western movie Cat Ballou, and it was released in 1965. It was a huge financial success at the box-office. This movie also achieved several prestigious awards for its unique and engaging story-line and superb acting by lead characters. The story of this movie revolves around an educated young lady, who gathers a team to avenge her father’s brutal murder.

~STORY BASED ON~

The story of this movie was taken from a novel written by Roy Chanslor and famous American script-writer Walter Newman rewrote the movie script. Director E. Silverstein directed five feature films in total in his career, and he rose to fame and widely recognized for directing Cat Ballou. One of the most famous American actresses Jane Fonda portrayed the title character in this movie as Catherine Ballou.

MAIN CHARACTERS

• Jane Fonda plays the role of Catherine “Cat” Ballou(An young girl, just completed her eastern education, and coming back to her father’s ranch in Wyoming)
• Michael Callan plays the role of Clay Boone (A young criminal and captured by local Sherriff for trial and travelling in the same train with Cat Ballou )
• Dwayne Hickman as Jed (Funny and quirky uncle of Clay Boone, he tries to help Boone to escape from the Lawman)
• Lee Marvin plays the role of Kid Shelleen / Tim Strawn (They are twin brothers and one of them is bad guy and kills people for money and another one is good guy who protects people from criminals. Both roles played by the talented actor Lee Marvin)

PLOT OUTLINE

After finishing her eastern education Catherine returns home to visit her Rancher Father, Frankie Ballou. She meets with a con-man, small time criminal and prisoner Clay Boone on the train and intentionally helps him to escape from Lawman.Catherine Ballou finds out later that local city Development Company wants her father’s land and keeps threatening him. So Catherine hires a renowned gun-man Kid Shelleen to protect his father. But unfortunately Frankie Ballou got killed.

So the story tells us how Catherine able to save her father’s ranch and takes the revenge of his murder? This movie has a very interesting story-line with some surprising twists and hilarious moments.

MY PERSONAL THOUGHT

This western movie was an instant hit in the box-office and well received by the audience. Director E. Silverstein has put the right amount of humour and reality in this movie. He gathered two brilliant actors to perform the title characters in this movie. Famous feminist, writer and actress Jane Fonda played the title character of Catherine Ballou in this movie. She started acting on mainstream feature films in the early in 1960's. Though she was not received positively for her acting and mostly criticized by film-critics and audience. But, she rose to fame and widely recognized as a talented actress for her role as “Cat Ballou”.

Cat Ballou is a soft, polite and educated young woman who wants to be a school teacher. She is traditional, beautiful and also thoughtful .Jane Fonda portrayed the character of Cat Ballou magnificently. She put a lot of effort and dedication in her acting. She is charming, seductive and very lovable in her character. After her father’s death, she gathers a team to take revenge. It was not an easy job for her. But she did well with her soft and sensitive appearance, and she gained sympathy from those men and they decided to help her. Jane Fonda’s on screen gorgeousness, innocent and soft facial expression, immaculate delivery of dialogues makes the character of Cat Ballou more enjoyable and interesting. Tom Nardini (an American movie & TV actor) played a side role in this movie named Jackson-Two Bear. He is an orphan Indian and Frankie ballou gave him a job in his ranch. He is very loyal and honest. He always tries his best to protect the old man Frankie. Director presented this character with lots of emotion and sympathy. T.Nardini also played his character very well. As a result, he got a prestigious Golden Globe nomination for his superb performance.

Another famous American actor Lee Marvin rose to immense fame for portraying the characters of Kid Shelleen/ Tim Strawn. He used to do side roles mainly negative roles in his earlier movies. But after the success of this movie, he got a new platform in Hollywood. He got some better and more positive roles in his later movies. It was a very difficult job for Lee Marvin to portray the double role in this movie. Both characters are distinctly different form each other. Both of them are brothers and one of them works against the law and kills people ruthlessly just for money and pleasure. On the other side, the good brother Kid Shelleen is good guy and a super fast gun-fighter. Though he is always drunk and tent to do funny and silly mistakes but he is kind and honest. He has strong and firm facial expressions, witty sense of humour and great on-screen personality. I really enjoyed the superb acting of Lee Marvin.

DIRECTION & CINEMATOGRAPHY

Director Elliot Silverstein came under the spotlight after the huge commercial and critical success of this movie. The original script of this movie was a very serious and gripping western theme. But he injected the humour in every scene and sequences masterfully that it becomes more enjoyable. It is definitely not a spoof or satire movie of western themes (in my opinion). It is just well executed with brilliant characterization of each title role. Though, Kat Ballou is the centre of attraction in this movie, still director gives an extra attention on the role of Kid Shelleen. He presented the character of Kid Shelleen in such a skilful way that, audience slowly but surely feels for him. At first you will be annoyed at his character, he is drunk and very stupid at times, and as time passes you will realize that he is a rather enjoyable and main attraction of this movie. Another brilliant thing about this movie is, director never forces you to laugh. There are no silly scenes and really dumb dialogues in this movie. But the story is rather pleasant and refreshing, and it will genuinely make you smile. I really appreciate Mr. E. Silverstein’s outstanding direction in this movie.

Background scenarios of this movie are very colourful and appealing. There are couple of well executed train-robbery sequences and gun-fights in this movie. It looks very realistic and believable. He spent a good amount of money to build the movie sets, and it was well spent.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO LEE MARVIN

Both Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin gained huge popularity from this movie. Director also being praised for his brilliant work in this movie. But, Lee Marvin surpasses them all. As you know the movie name is the name of the title character played by Jane Fonda and most of the time she occupied the screen. So you can imagine the hard work Lee Marvin did to gain everyone’s reorganization and appreciation. He earned loads of prestigious awards and nominations for his outstanding performance in this movie from all over the world. He won the Academy Award for best actor. He also won British Academy award and Golden Globe award.

MUSICAL SCORE

There are some catchy and melodious tracks in this movie. These songs actually narrate parts of the story in a comical but thoughtful way. Especially, “The Ballad of Cat Ballou” was an instant hit in that time and also got Oscar nominations for best music and best original song.

THINGS THAT PLEASED ME

• Excellent direction by Elliot Silverstein
• A very well-executed plot-line.
• Superb acting by Lee Marvin and Jane Fonda.
• Outstanding cinematography.
• Brilliant musical score.

INCONVENIENCES

There is no significant flaw in this movie. Though I find the character Clay Boone (love interest of Cat Ballou) is very immature and poorly executed. Other than that, this is a brilliant movie and highly enjoyable.

VIEWERS RECEPTION

This movie was great hit at the box office in that time and well received by both the audience and also movie-critics. Currently, it has a 6.9/10 rating voted by almost five thousand viewers. But it has a higher rating in RottenTomattoes and mostly gained positive reviews by the viewers.

Movie trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koAA9MvqS​pI
IMDB rating: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059017/
RottenTomatoes Rating : http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cat_ball​ou/

This is a classic movie, and currently it has been considered the tenth best western movie in the history of American Cinema by AFI (American Film Institute). It also made in the list of top hundred movies created by AFI.

NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS

This movie received numerous awards and nominations for its outstanding quality. Lee Marvin earned most of the awards (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe) and became a superstar overnight for his excellent performance in this movie. This movie also nominated for its melodious musical score and unique and enjoyable screenplay.

FINAL THOUGHT AND RECOMENDATION

I truly enjoyed this movie. It has a balanced amount of laughter and genuineness in the plot. It is only one and half hour long and there is a smooth continuity in the story. I bet you are going to enjoy this classic western movie. It is light-hearted and engaging movie. I really enjoyed this movie so highly recommended. You can buy the DVD from Amazon.uk and it will cost you only £5. Otherwise you can rent the DVD from any rental store. But I would highly recommend you to buy the DVD and trust me, you would not be disappointed.

Thank you very much for reading my review. It is highly appreciated..!!

©Gladiator007

***This is a movie only review and also posted on Helium and Dooyoo under same user name..***