WATERHOLE No 3
US, 1967, 95 minutes, Colour.
James Coburn, Carroll O’ Connor, Margaret Blight, Claude Akins, Timothy Carey, Bruce Dern, Joan Blondell, James Whitmore, Rupert Crosse.
Directed by William A. Graham.
Waterhole #3 is a satiric western, the kind of film that Coburn was making during the mid-60s including the Flint series and such satires as The President’s Analyst.
This was a period in which outlandish satire was beginning to be accepted on screen. Kubrick had made Doctor Strangelove in 1963. Arthur Hiller had made The Americanization of Emily (also with Coburn) in 1964. M*A*S*H and Catch 22 were to come.
The film should be seen in that light – and in terms of the satirical song by Roger Miller, ‘The Code of the West’, and his voice-over commentary.
The film parodies the codes of the west, parodies the violence, the misogyny, the sexism. Some critics at the time and audiences took this rather literally.
James Coburn was adept at this kind of character. Carroll O’ Connor, later to be seen in All in the Family, is the sheriff. There is a good supporting cast of veterans like Joan Blondell and James Whitmore and up-and-coming actors like Bruce Dern.
The film was directed by William A. Graham who had a forty-year career in television – this was one of his few feature films.
1. Audience response to comic westerns? The western conventions, the comic styles and conventions,# their blending? How well did this film blend the varying conventions?
2. How seriously was the film meant to be taken? How much a satire on the west, its conventions and people? How much a parody of the robbery western? A parody of the western hero and heroine, sheriff etc.? What is the effect of this kind of satire and parody? Enjoyment, insight into the bases of a western?
3. The importance of the ballad used to introduce the film and to comment throughout? The pointed irony of the lyrics and their effect?
4. The film's treatment of the themes of gold, greed, the army, dishonesty, chases, death?
5. How engaging a character was the hero? James Coburn's style? His background, card-playing, trick gambling, gun fighting? His response to the map, stealing horses, raping the marshal's daughter, trekking for the gold, surviving in the desert, making friends and enemies, outwitting people? A parody of the western hero?
6. The satire on the sheriff and his assistant? The sheriff and his double values, his wishes to be a criminal? The assistant being a 'yes-man’? The sheriff's priorities about his horse, his daughter and the rape, the deals with the hero? Did he get his appropriate comeuppance?
7. The parody of western heroines in the portrayal of the daughter? Infatuation with the hero, rape, her relationship with her father, chasing them, her getting the gold?
8. The satire on the army and the face that military men had robbed the gold, hidden it, had schemes for recovering it, were able to redeem their face in the light of discovery?
9. The pathos of the Dutchman as a man who was used by everyone?
10. The enjoyment of the chase and its details? the parody of the western chase, the comment of the ballad?
11. The typical portrayal of the saloon and the brothel? The prostitutes with the hearts of gold etc.?
12. The climax and all the double talk? Rewards for all the criminals, condemnation of the innocent? The moral point of view of the film, its questioning and poking fun at values?
