MACKENNA'S GOLD

US, 1959, 135 minutes, Colour.
Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Edward G, Robinson, Anthony Quayle, Telly Savalas, Keenan Wynn, Julie Newmar, Raymond Massey, Eli Wallach, Lee J. Cobb, Burgess Meredith.
Directed by J. Lee Thompson.

The widely-read critics attacked this film for its shoddy production: many of the riding scenes where the actors jogged up and down in front of screened scenery; the earthquake breaks up mountainsides into neat rock dices. But this conceded, as well as the deadly artificial acting of Omar Sharif (which you get used to), the film is an enjoyable adventure. It is like a huge chunk of cake, all the ingredients are there in abundance and iced. If you like cake, then go ahead. There is a glut of stars with a treat for the older generation in Edward G. Robinson or Anthony Quayle and company appearing for a few minutes and saying about 200 words each. The saga treatment, Texan narrator, Jose Feliciano singing a ballad - maybe pretentious. Cowboys, Indians, Cavalry, gold, rapids, spectacular canyon scenery, and excitement in the final fight and earthquake.

1. The success of the film as an action spectacle?

2. Audience appreciation of this kind of film? The values behind it? Quality of entertainment?

3. How well did the film use the basic ingredients of action spectacles. the action sequences, the seeking for gold, violence, relationships, dramatic climax etc.?

4. The appropriateness of the ballad forms the turkey buzzard and its implications, visual presentation of this? The importance of the commentary and the legend and ballad forms?

5. The background of Indian lore? White superstition? The stories about the gold? The presentation of Old Adams and his stories?

6. The Indian's death, the map, the following of the map, the Indian's appearance at the end and the meaning of disaster?

7. The character of Mackenna, a Gregory Peck type, the hero, his work as Marshal, standing for the law, the Indian chiefs death, his capture by Colorado, his standing by his principles, response to violence, forcefulness, ingenuity? Leadership qualities?

8. Did his character develop during the film? His reaction to the Indian, to gold prospecting, to Colorado? The background of his encounter with the judge, his protection of the judge's daughter and her identity? His relationship with the Indian girl? His attempts to persuade the gentleman from Hadleyville to return? Leading the group, having the girl from the Indian girl's attempt to kill her? Heroism in leading the group through difficulties, to the gold, the finale? A typical western hero?

9. Colorado as villain? As an arch-villain, the number of deaths he was responsible for, his greed? His hopes to go to Paris? His capacity for violence, betraying friends, his escaping at the end?

10. The characterization of his henchmen, both white and Indian? Greed and betrayal, violence? Men of the west?

11. The presentation of the women in the film? The judge's daughter as the heroine, in danger, the happy ending? The Indian girl and being a villainess, jealousy and violence?

12. The officer and his pursuit of Mackenna's group? The impact of his shooting his own soldiers? His greed? His being finally shot? The ugliness of human greed?

13. Why were the gentlemen from Hadleyville introduced? The way they were introduced? Their motivation for gold seeking? +he religious man, the shopkeeper, the newspaper proprietor, the English tourist and his friend? The agent for leading them onto Colorado's group? The futility and violence of their various deaths? Old Adams and his stories and blindness?

14. The ingredients of the Indians, the siege by the Indians, trek through the desert, the finding of water etc.?

15. How well presented was the finding of the gold? The journey through the canyon, the earthquake and the collapse of the canyon? How well was this done technically?

16. The appropriateness of the happy ending? Audience values that were relied on for the success of this kind of film?