Rancho Deluxe (1975)

Must See Movie...

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

To those of you who put this on your 'desert island' menu, congratulations. If you were sentient in the period contemporary to the making of Rancho DeLuxe, you get a clear picture of the real comedic and artistic value of the film. If you missed all that and the movie is still on your list, well, kind of like Slim Pickens describes missing the circus of the century, you're winging it pretty well.The mystery and controversy that kept Perry/McGuane's little masterpiece out of distribution is a travesty on par with Moby Grape's having been dealt the lousy hand as a rock supergroup. It was about 15 years after release before the film circulated on VHS and its only circulation occasionally on late night TV was in a version so mutilated by censors as to render it incomprehensible.Had the film been in wide release and properly circulated, it likely would have accrued the same sort of cult following dealt to Rocky Horror and King of Hearts. But the world went down a different path and Urban Cowboy became the substantial cinematic view of how hipsters saw 'western' and 'rural' America. Too bad. But they can't know what they don't know.If you found yourself standing in Bridges' boots in 'Last Picture Show', you likely found great reason to enjoy Rancho DeLuxe as a comedic romp on lots of levels. And his part is only a fraction of what makes this one worthwhile. I hope I'll say the same about his 'True Grit' (an inflated and mediocre dime novel in print and piddling exploitation of John Wayne's career as film), but I'm not holding my breath.

Never mind the movie, Monsieur Pickens' performance in this film is a significant event in the history of cinema. If he'd never done any other films, except perhaps Dr. Strangelove and Blazing Saddles, he'd live forever in my memory simply for the scene in Rancho Deluxe where he describes his dream of being in Egypt in the days of the Pharaoh, and expresses consternation at having that dream disturbed. And the speech he gives at the end was another of those earth-shattering moments that stick with you like flies to mayonnaise. Ah, what an actor. Every time he's IN the movie, he's the one you're watching to see what he does, because you know it'll be something you'll remember.I've learned over the years that it's the supporting players who make the movie. And in some respects, in many of his other movies, Slim Pickens always seemed a kind of updated Andy Devine, western comic relief but not much else. In this (and in the other two films I mentioned) we get to see another side of M. Pickens. More than a clown, he's a one-man show, as much of a scene stealer as, say, a vaudevillian in a movie full of Shakespearan actors. To tell the truth, the rest of the movie is occasionally disappointing, although Sam Waterston was fascinating to watch, showing a promise which sadly never fulfilled itself. Clifton James and particularly Elizabeth Ashley are great fun. Curt and Burt, played respectively by Harry Dean Stanton and Richard Bright, are more or less adequate. Jeff Bridges acts just like Jeff Bridges.However, hands down, this is Slim Pickens' movie. The man was brilliant, what can I say.

You've gotta love these whimsical '70's flicks. And, it was interesting seeing a younger Sam Waterston after so many years of seeing him play a character with the gravitas of Jack McCoy. Kudos to Charlene Dallas, even though, according to IMDb, she didn't have much of a career. An enjoyable film to watch. Grade: B+

Rancho Deluxe is a rare delight. It's a Western with a modern twist. The `good guys' are the ranchers. The `bad guys' are rustlers, down and out young men who poach cattle just to get by, pay their rent, and eat. Naturally, your sympathies lie with the rustlers, because they're the underdogs. We also sympathize with the rustlers because the ranchers are wealthy, socially prominent and dominant – everything the rustler's aren't. They have everything they could want, so they're bored. And when the rustling problem appears, they treat it as sport – like hunting a predatory animal. But their boredom takes other amusing forms as well. In one scene, the lady of the house tries to light a fire with the ranch hands. She's one of many cowgirls in the movie, women who like to be in the saddle, and to be the saddle. `Come on, goddamit,' she yells at the cowboys, Burt and Kurt. `I want some Gothic ranch action around here! I want some desire under the elms! I want to see some smoldering blazes down at the old corral!' It's hilarious. These guys are worthless. So it's a sad irony that her husband, who boasts that the B-Bar-Lazy-T has `the best matrons and the best sires,' must confine his boast to the non-human mammals on the ranch. When he takes his prize stud-bull to the county fair, the announcer describes it as having `tremendous thickness and length… This bull has it all: size, bone, trim and color. It just brings tears to my eyes.' One can almost see the tears of unsatisfied desire in his wife's eyes as well – that all the virile sires are bovine. Slim Pickens, a former horse-thief turned cattle detective, is brilliant, funnier than ever. And then there are the scenes that provide a little social satire. Speaking of the Western love of pickup trucks, for example, one character denounces them as `a sickness here worse than alcohol or dope. It's the pickup truck death. And there's no cure for it.' I wonder sometimes if I don't recognize the disease right here in Flagstaff.All in all, Rancho Deluxe is a very entertaining hour and a half.