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I never watch Western movies – By @decadokhan

Tomasz Wojcik

By Tomasz Wojcik

 

I never watch Western movies

 

I never watch Western movies. I don’t enjoy all that spaghetti western stuff. I do not enjoy the mood and the atmosphere of those movies. And the story seems kind of bleak. Plot circles around shooting those or the others. The story is about remorse or revenge. Hardly anything fresh comes to my mind across the genre (well, maybe honourable mention of The Unforgiven and Django Unchained)

So was my biased perspective towards those kind of movies until I’ve watched the movie that made me re-think it all.

I have chosen to watch “Treasures of Sierra Madre” (1948) based on the number of positive reviews around the web. I made couple of circles before finally deciding to actually watch the movie. I maintained my negative and ignorant attitude for the first 2 minutes of the show. And then I completely fallen in love with it. After I’ve finished watching I gave myself a bit of time to reflect upon what I’ve seen. I asked myself – what is the perfect recipe for a grand movie? Is it the plot that has in-depth character development, brilliant acting, stunning visuals, gripping atmosphere that fixed your attention 100% on the story that unfolds or is the unforgettable ending that is thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable simultaneously. Well, I just feel the need to shout – they don’t make movies like they used to. I regard this movie as one of the best I’ve seen that were produced in the land of Hollywood.

In a nutshell, it is the time of gold rush in Mexico in 1920s or so. There are 3 main characters that jump on a bandwagon. The western turns into a drama from then on. It is where paranoia and greed drives a man mad. A study of human condition in a most severe conditions so universally depicted that anyone, and I mean it, is able to identify themselves with the roles characters play and situations they need to tackle. It is a viewing experience that makes you instantly understand that you are a feeble human being. It changes you for the better. It makes you wiser. How many movies you’ve seen hold that kind of power over you? Hell, I should have called it a masterpiece the moment I started writing about it. It is a masterpiece of storytelling. A story that is compelling morally and visually. No redundant scenes, no harmful changes of pace and a tone of voice. It is all there – consistent and communicatively powerful. This is a tale that is universal and could be told irrespectively of a choice of genre. It is something you could watch many times over and dissect it into smaller parts learning something new along the way. Definitely the script is where I could start with. Dialogue is brilliant, snappy and perceptive. You as audience are constantly engaged with catching simple wisdoms that are thrown here and there. Funny as hell and precious as gold.  A movie that transcends a medium in order to speak to all people who crave a timeless and wise story. I am already a convert. Never will I look at western the same way again.

 

 

 

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