One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

The Age of Commercialism

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ONE-EYED JACKS is a western, which is based on a conflict between the brutality of the Wild West and an intense romance.The three outlaws successfully rob bank in Sonora, Mexico. However, Mexican rurales track them and catch them celebrating in a cantina. The two outlaws manage to escape. One of the outlaws has, during an exciting chase, betrayed his partner and ran away with their gold. The second outlaw is arrested and transported to prison by way of a jacalito where he learns first hand of betrayal from an owner. He spends five hard years in a Sonora prison, before he escapes with his new partner. He decides to find his old friend. However, the betrayer has used their wealth to become the sheriff of Monterey, California. The fugitive plans a revenge, but he falls in love with a lovely sheriff's stepdaughter...This is an unlikely illusion, which runs between insecurity and greed. Mr. Brando has, despite the fact that the main protagonist is an outlaw (an antagonist), exaggerated with melodramas in this film. This is an important flaw. The conflict between the two antagonists emphasizes anti western style as sub-genre. This is a positive aspect, which causes a cold tension in this story. The duel between the two of them is very realistic. A romance, with a lot of charm, is a quite tasty and unobtrusive. Simply, Mr. Brando was not experienced enough to connect all the positive aspects in a single unit. The scenery, together with the photography is excellent, although not corresponded to the mood in this film. I can not be sure, maybe it's just a game between different contrast.Marlon Brando as Rio is a dominant and very interesting character, who has a frequent and somewhat inappropriately explosion of his feelings. He shows the complexity of an outlaw. Karl Malden as Dad Longworth is a villain, who is rotten to the core. Katy Jurado as Maria Longworth is not got enough space. Her character is not fully developed. Pina Pellicer as Louisa is a charming voice of reason, which is very quickly thrown into the fire.This is a very ambitious experiment by an inexperienced director.

This is the only film that Marlon Brando directed. It's easy to understand why no producers would let him get near a camera afterward. It's expensive to expose film, and while Brando the director would argue with Karl Malden the actor, the cameras would roll philosophically along, exposing the rehearsals, the arguments, the conversations about the weather, the new styles in men's clothing, and the conundrum of mind/body dualism. It cost a fortune -- and the result is a long, colorful Western with a conventional revenge plot. By "conventional", I mean that the usual fallacies apply. Whose gun is faster than whose? A clip on the jaw or a whack on the head renders a man unconscious for as long as the plot requires. A dozen men galloping after two fleeing bandits fire their pistols wildly although they're a quarter of a mile behind their quarry.It's not a BAD movie. It's just hard to assess. The location shooting around the Monterey Peninsula in California is rich in texture and exquisite, as is the location itself -- or was, before it turned into Disneyland. Hugo Friedhofer's romantic score is appealing if overused. Brando must have had the cast improvising all over the place and in every instance it seems obvious and awkward. You'll notice the scenes when they come around.The story, briefly, is that Brando is betrayed by his fellow bank robber, Malden, in Mexico. After five years in the Sonoran pen, Brando escapes and seeks revenge on Malden, who has now become civilized and is a popular sheriff with a nice Mexican wife and stepdaughter in Monterey. They shake hands, both faking. Brando spitefully seduces and impregnates the stepdaughter, Pina Pellicer. And when the opportunity presents itself, with the townspeople behind him, Malden reveals his barbaric side, bull whips Brando, and smashes his gun hand. A final shootout resolves some of the issues, but not all.It's far from Brando's best performance. He says little, glowers a lot, and blinks reflexively. When he's facing someone down, his feet are in the first ballet position, and when he walks he puts one foot in front of the other. He must leave not two parallel sets of footprints but a single trail of two prints, one on top of the other.And when you get right down to it, he's a pretty rotten guy. He lies to most of the people he meets, and for the worst of reasons. In the last scene, he rides off romantically into the white dunes of Monterey, leaving behind a winsome young Mexican girl whom he has knocked up out of spite for someone else. And this in a culture where there are only two kinds of women -- Madonnas, who bring their hymens to the party, and whores, for whom anything goes. "I'm off to Oregon but I'll be back for you some day -- maybe, if I find it convenient. So long, baby."Slim Pickens gives a good performance as Lon, "you tub of guts," "you gob of spit." But the best performances are turned in by Karl Malden and his family -- Katy Jurado as the wife, and Pina Pellicer as the slender and beautiful stepdaughter. Much of their dialog is in Spanish. (Both actresses were from Mexico City.) Pellicer, in particular, is bewitching.The movie may have wasted a lot of money but it's by no means a complete waste of time. You'll have to judge for yourself.

This was the only film the great Marlon Brando ever directed, featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, at the time it was seen as a bit of a disaster, both financially and because of its controversial material, but these days it is seen a classic of the genre. Basically a bank robbery is carried out by Rio, also called "The Kid" (Marlon Brando), Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) and third man Doc (Hank Worden), they are successful, but Doc is attacked and killed by Mexican Rurales, the other two manage to get away, followed by a posse in the desert. They travel across going across danger terrain with the swag bag, but Dad leaves his partner to the mercy of the Rurales, they take Rio and he is arrested, and for the next five years while in Sonora prison he thinks of nothing but exacting revenge on the man who betrayed him. When he is released he finds out where Longworth is, and since the robbery he has since become the sheriff of Monterey, California, when they meet Dad tries to convince him of his reasons for leaving him behind in Mexico, but he again tries to deceive him. With new partners Chico Modesto (Larry Duran) and Bob Amory (Ben Johnson) joining him, Rio plans to rob the bank of Monterey, but when he falls in love with Longworth's stepdaughter Louisa (Pina Pellicer) his plans are sidetracked, and Dad catches him and viciously whips him in front of the entire town. While recovering from hi wounds he struggles with conflicting emotions about his love for the girl and the man he wants to exact revenge, he chooses to go ahead and get his vengeance, but the robbery is carried out without him, Emory kills Chico during it, and the heist goes wrong with an innocent person murdered. Rio is falsely accused of the crime and put in jail by Longworth, who is desperate to kill the man he betrayed to get over his feelings about what he did in the past to him, so he will have him hanged in two days. Louisa visits the man she loves in prison to tell him that she is expecting his baby, and she attempts to smuggle him a miniature pistol, and he manages to bluff his way out, pointing the empty gun at Deputy Lon Dedrick (Slim Pickens), stealing his loaded gun and knocking him out to lock him up and escape. With no choice but to get out of town and run away Rio and Longworth get involved in a small shoot out, Dad is killed in the final showdown, and in the closing scene Louisa watches Rio ride away into the dunes, knowing he is a wanted man, and he says a fond farewell to the town, but to wait for him in the spring. Also starring Katy Jurado as Maria Longworth, Sam Gilman as Harvey Johnson and Timothy Carey as Howard Tetley. Brando, who apparently took over from Stanley Kubrick (who left to do Spartacus) does a pretty good job of directing, and as the lead character set on revenge but held back by love he is suitable, and Malden proves a surprisingly nasty presence compared his other much more laid back roles. The story is just about easy to understand, apart from the political and law related stuff, the concept is not completely original but has the right material to keep you watching, such as sadism and perversity, the picture quality is questionable, but it is a most interesting western. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Very good!

I love this movie very much.It doesn't have those clichés of most of the western movies.The momentum is gradually built up.The characters, every one of them, are believable.Marlon Brando's intensity is nuanced. His rendition wins audiences' sympathy.The love story is moving.Many sceneries are very beautiful.It should be called a master piece.I only hope the DVD could have a better quality.Marlon Brando is a national treasure. All his work should be properly preserved for the future generation to appreciate.(I feel bad if Brando's work is not well-preserved because he is such an unusually talented actor.)