MacKenna's Gold (DVD)

Made in 1969 this is not your traditional western, without wanting to bore you about the decline of the American western in the 50's and 60's you could argue that the last 'traditional' westerns were made in the late 50's. By then the audiences were staying away and apart from a few examples such as the Magnificent Seven (1960) Hollywood had turned it's back on the oldest genre of filmmaking. It took an Italian, Sergio Leone in the mid sixties to ...
...violent, less moralistic and semi operatic film we know known as spaghetti westerns. From that moment on US filmmakers took the lead form Leone and other European directors and tried their hand at producing quirky more stylised version of the traditional cowboy flick. 'Mackenna's Gold' is one such example. It has all the ingredients of a western but it also as was the fashion in the sixties subverts the genre and it has elements of fantasy adventure ... more

Made in 1969 this is not your traditional western, without wanting to bore you about the decline of the American western in the 50's and 60's you could argue that the last 'traditional' westerns were made in the late 50's. By then the audiences were staying away and apart from a few examples such as the Magnificent Seven (1960) Hollywood had turned it's back on the oldest genre of filmmaking. It took an Italian, Sergio Leone in the mid sixties to re-invent and reinvigorate the western by making a series more violent, less moralistic and semi operatic film we know known as spaghetti westerns. From that moment on US filmmakers took the lead form Leone and other European directors and tried their hand at producing quirky more stylised version of the traditional cowboy flick. 'Mackenna's Gold' is one such example. It has all the ingredients of a western but it also as was the fashion in the sixties subverts the genre and it has elements of fantasy adventure and mystery and the characters are not black and white, good or bad but more of a shade of grey.

THE STORY

Essentially this is a 'search for buried treasure' plot transposed with a western background.

US marshal Mackenna gets involved against his will in a gang's search for a lost treasure. He has been told the way to a long lost valley of gold by a dying man and the bandit Colorado capture him and force him to lead the way in exchange for his life. Along the way they meet a motley groups of fellow treasure hunters including some ordinary civilians and a group of cavalry soldiers all motivated by greed. An uneasy alliance if formed as the location of the gold is uncertain and each member of the group has a few clues to share. There is of course a secret map and inevitably a bunch of very angry apaches who want to keep the gold location (if it indeed exists) secret. Thus begins the action packed treasure hunt with plenty of twists, turns and double-crossings along the way.

CAST, PERFORMANCES AND REVIEW

Gregory Peck .... MacKenna
Omar Sharif .... Colorado
Telly Savalas .... Sgt. Tibbs
Camilla Sparv .... Inga Bergmann
Keenan Wynn .... Sanchez
Julie Newmar .... Hesh-Ke
Ted Cassidy .... Hachita
Lee J. Cobb .... The editor
Raymond Massey .... The preacher
Burgess Meredith .... The storekeeper
Anthony Quayle .... Older Englishman
Edward G. Robinson .... Old Adams
Eli Wallach .... Ben Baker

Directed by J. Lee Thompson Adapted from the novel by Heck Allen (as Will Henry) by Carl Foreman. Music by Quincy Jones, theme song "Old Turkey Buzzard" by Jose Feliciano.

Glancing at the cast list you would think this film was going to be a real treat. It is certainly packed with heavyweight character actors, amongst my personal favourites Lee J Cobb, Eli Wallach (another connection with the Spaghetti Westerns) and the legendary Edward G Robinson in one of his last film roles. The producers were certainly aiming high and the actors assembled do not disappoint each hamming it up for all it's worth and as actors tend to do trying desperately to outshine each other. The problem with having such a great cast in a 2 hour film is that their screen time is limited, very limited in some cases and you get barely more than a cameo performance from most. Having said this Robinson is worth every minute as the blind old time prospector who has sent he legendary canyon of gold with his own eyes, or is it in his own head. Telly Savalas (pre-Kojack) gives us another menacing performance he seemed to specialise in films like The Dirty Dozen. The fact that some of the characters are never named but are only known to us as 'The Editor', 'The Preacher' or 'The Englishman' add a little more mystery to the proceedings and gives the film the slight undertones of a Pinter production.

Julie Newmar playing the sultry Indian with a keen interest in Peck and the other actress Camilla Sparv complete the love triangle but their involvement is little more than peripheral to the plot.

Coming on to the leading roles we also have some great actor to savour. Gregory Peck the ultimate good Guy of Hollywood movies gives another quiet strong performance, it is impossible not to like him in any film he makes although as he proved in 'Boys From Brazil' he can turn in a darker performance when he wants. With Peck as the lead you require a rather more extroverted character to balance out the film and in Mackenna;'s Gold this is provide by Omar Sharif as the charming and yet utterly ruthless bandit Colorado. The contrast between these two is pivotal to the story and the actors succeed in producing the necessary on screen chemistry.

Overall I didn't have a problem with any of the performances as far as they went but it would've been nice to see some of the other actors apart from Peck and Sharif have more weighty roles.

The film also works as a mystery thriller. It is a little slow to get going and many of the better actors don't appear quite a way in to the action. The mystery surrounding the legendary canyon of gold is cleverly introduced and the greed exhibited by the characters provides enough scope for treachery and betrayal while there is still a doubt as to the existence of the mythical gold they all crave. The chasing pack of marauding Apache Indians is rather a throwback to an older type western but is necessary to maintain the tension throughout the course of the story.

Where the film lets itself down is in the technical aspects. Often the special effects and stunts come across a fairly amateurish for the class of production this is supposed to be. It also seems that a desire to be appeal to a more 'current' culture in the potential audience led the filmmaker to try and make the film more 'hip' (remember this is 1969) by using the legendary soul producer and composer Quincy Jones for the soundtrack, not an automatic choice for a western movie. Again since the Spaghetti Western and Ennio Morricone's idiosyncratic score for those films other makers or western have felt that the standard orchestral score will just not work and in this period we see a steady use of contemporary music being used. Another famous example would be Burt Bacharach in 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' also made released 1969. However for me the soundtrack doesn't quite work and the theme song "Old Turkey Buzzard" by Jose Feliciano a very well known Hispanic singer songwriter at the time is more Beverly Hillbilly than Spaghetti western and falls well short of the mark.

THE DVD

Like most of these 'old' films transferred on to DVD unless they are a 'Special Edition' the DVD offers little more than higher quality medium than VHS.

The DVD package I'm reviewing was very basic with no Director's commentary or even trailers. The film can be viewed using different languages Italian, Spanish, French, and German and there is
a wealth of subtitle choices; Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and very basic production notes are included.

The presentation is very standard.

Technically we have Screen Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic and Dolby digital (5.1) sound although strangely the German version is only in mono! Film length 2 hours and 2 minutes.

Normally the DVD sound is universally good especially on newer of big budget productions, however I noticed that the sound on this DVD lacked a little sparkle and the set piece action where gunshots or explosions feature tended to be rather muffled or muted. This could be due to the film is an older production but my DVD version of 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly' roughly of the same period has excellent sound resolution it might thus be down to the transfer on to DVD.

Another thing I noticed is the editing on this DVD version is quite sloppy and scene changes or cut come across as rather stilted, again this could be due to the version of the film that has been transferred but having seen 'Mackenna's Gold' on TV I don't remember the editing being so sloppy.

The DVD menu and partitioning was fine and easy to use. The certification is 15 but by modern standards this is a little surprising since I'm struggling (apart from a fairly 'explicit' nude swim by Julie Newmar) to think of particular scene that might warrant this.

OVERALL

'Mackenna's Gold' sets out to be an epic western and to compete with the contemporary westerns also made at this time, it fails in both regards, the production values and story are not in end good enough However it should not be dismissed completely. Despite it's failings it is a better than average adventure thriller and is quirky enough to stand out form the rest. There is also some quality acting on show and it is a good opportunity to see some Hollywood all together on the big screen. Probably one to catch on TV rather than to buy on DVD at the low price you can pick it up for a western fan would not be all that disappointed.

'Mackenna's Gold' is available on DVD from Amazon.co.uk for £5.99 (+p&p).

Thanks for reading and rating this review.

© Mauri 2004

 

...less