RANCHO DE LUXE
US, 1975, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, Elizabeth Ashley, Clifton James, Slim Pickens, Harry Dean Stanton, Patti D'Arbanville.
Directed by Frank Perry.
Rancho Deluxe is a laidback contemporary western. It was written by Tom Mc Guane, writer of such novels as 92 Degrees in the Shade (which was also filmed) and The Sporting Club (filmed by Larry Peerce). He also wrote Cold Feet, Tom Horn and The Missouri Breaks. His vision of the west is a wry look at the traditions and how they have changed in the 20th century. This film has ranchers, rustlers, dissatisfied wives.
The film moves somewhat slowly – but with comic touches. Jeff Bridges had made an impact in The Last Picture Show and was at the beginning of a long career. Sam Waterston was also at the beginning of his career before moving into such films as The Killing Fields and the television LA Law.
The film was directed by Frank Perry who, with his wife Eleanor, had made a number of significant films in the 1960s from David and Lisa to The Swimmer. His later films tended to be a bit over the top with Monsignor and Mommie Dearest.
1. Meaning of the title, irony? Overtones of the West, the past and the modern West? The conventions of the Went and their being shown as outdated, changed? An ironic picture of the American West, its traditions and heritage, application today?
2. The importance of the colour, the atmosphere of Montana and the landscapes? Music? A cross-section of the modern U.S. West?
3. Audience response to Jack and Cecil as heroes, outlays. modern young men, wanderers? Their values and their lack of values? The fact that they had no security, criminal involvement, attitudes of conscience? Amiable, taking chances? The importance of one being white, one being part Indian? The double Western heritage from the nineteenth century? The decline of both white and Indian? Strengths and weaknesses of characters? Style of life, their complementing one another?
4. The picaresque structure of the film: the number of escapades, with the cattle, with the ranchers, the girls, the girls' family? Vengeance sequences? Hopes? How much sympathy for the two did this evoke? Dislike?
5. How well did the film establish a modern context for Western myths? The atmosphere on the commercial and the transforming of pioneer heritage to advertising? The presentation of frontier, heritage, individuals, pioneering, the land, belonging? The ironical treatment of each of these themes? Which sequences illustrated this best?
6. The irony of the name of John Brown and his role in Montana society and the West? His character, pomposity, wealth, the stances that he took, fatuous attitudes? The irony of his marriage to Cora? Her attitudes towards the ranch, to the young man? Business, woman, sexuality? Her attitudes for example the chain sawn cattle? Her vindictiveness?
7. The humour and the serious irony of the challenge of John Brown, the kidnapping, the ransom? Cattle an a symbol of wealth and status?
8. How well did the film delineate the characters of Curt and Burt? Their work on the ranch, their plans? Laura and her involvement and betrayal?
9. The humorous irony in the portrait of Beige and the twentieth century decrepit lawman? His relationship with Laura? The lure, the betrayal?
10. Betty and Margot as descendants of the saloon girls of the West? Sexuality, father, family, the humour of the family being present when the girls were woken up?
11. The violence still inherent in the West? Motiveless violence? Jack and his destruction of the car? The robbery?
12. The final irony of the two young men finding a place in the West, on a ranch, riding the range and yet it being prison? The de luxe of the ranch?
13. How did the film show the value and lack of value of old codes, how they are dislocated in the modern world, especially for the idle and purposeless young generation?
