Review of The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) by Henri L — 28 Apr 2009

After Sam Peckinpah had a great deal of succes with "The Wild Bunch" he changed the pace of mood with "The Ballad of Cable Hogue". You did not see this coming from a revolutionary director of the media whose trademarks are violence and brutuality rather than comedy and love. But that is what this movie is about.

The characters are amazing and the acting as well. Especially Jason Robards and Stella Stevens shine as the individualist Cable and Hildy, the prostitute with a heart of gold. Robards makes Cable one of the most memorable western-characters of all time and Stevens makes you fall in love with Hildy.

Just like "The Wild Bunch" though, this is also a movie about the end of the old west, a so-called "death of the west"-film. Although Cable isolates himself in the desert where he tries to make a business selling water and food for travellers, civilisation is always just around the corner.

The aestetics of the movie work on all levels: The editing from later Robert Altman-editor, Lou Lombardo, is both classical and daring and the photography by Lucien Ballard is in the style of "The Wild Bunch" - gritty and powerful. The pace of the film and the pictures says a lot about the heart of the film. As Roger Ebert put it in his review from 1970:

"The screen is filled with dirt and dust and Gila monsters and whiskers, and you begin to understand that for Peckinpah (as for many a 20th-Century American), happiness consists to some degree of getting dirty and wriggling your toes in the mud".

This is a perfect film.