Sometimes something happens in film class that drives home some of what I really like about it. That happened last week as we were discussing My Name Is Pecos, the 1967 Spaghetti Western starring Robert Woods. Throughout the film, I found myself wanting to like it. But I just couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I couldn't really put my finger on why. Then, in the discussion, Joe nailed it. The movie had everything, he explained. The troubled protagonist. The conflict. The hero getting beaten up. The gunplay. Some clever one-liners.
But there was nothing memorable. So it became an exercise in movie-by-the-numbers.
Now, having said that, I should note one thing I don't recall seeing in these Spaghetti Westerns. The Mexican is the hero. Most of the Spaghetti Westerns I've seen portray Mexicans as brutish thugs, often sweaty pigs, And when they're smart, they're still undone by their lack of self control. Here the Mexican was clever and controlled. And he won in the end.
One thing that I actually found interesting was one thing late in the movie. Mary is being held by Kline's gang, who want her to tell them where she's hidden the money they want. So what do they do? They threaten to strip her clothes off and make her walk around the house naked until she tells them what they want to know. It kind of had this bizzare sanitized feel to it. Kind of like an episode of Happy Days.
I'm also convinced that the graveyard was the same one used in Django. But I have no idea how to confirm that.
One final thing. I liked the music, but the theme song sounded like "House of the Rising Sun."
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