Anyone whose overriding impression of Charlton "From My Cold Dead Hands" Heston is of a rather sadly outdated, bullish conservative, might find much to admire and wonder at in this quiet, surprisingly good western. I'd never even heard of it when it popped up on British TV here recently, but I was riveted.
I like thoughtful westerns that give time to explore what being a man is, what being manly is: instead of it being a given, at the start of the film, the exploration IS the film. The best westerns always explore this in a sensitive and complicated way, and "Will Penny" is certainly one of them.
Heston's Will Penny is illiterate, a working man without much to hope or fear. But he knows what he is and is not, and his self-knowledge gives him a certain quiet nobility, aided beautifully by Heston's marvellous profile. But his only future is the next job, if he's lucky, and that isn't much. Heston shows great skill in making this believable.
On his way to another job, Penny crosses a truly horrible family, and later, runs into a vulnerable woman, Catherine Allen (Joan Hackett) on her way west with her son. He gets work on a ranch as a line rider, only to run into both the family and the woman again, with results that will test him in ways he's never really been tested before. The time the film takes to explore both his journey and his development is nicely played out and well spent, the story neither overly knowing nor embarrassingly innocent. The characters are serious and thought-through (possibly excepting the crazy scary man and his vile sons, classic dyed-in-the-wool baddies, inserted for dramatic tension). By the time the leisurely story has got both Will and Catherine embroiled, you really care about both of them.
It's a testament to the luminous Joan Hackett's acting skill that she does so much with relatively little screen time. The way her character is painted reminds me of Janice Rule in "Invitation to a Gunfighter", and I agree with the reviewer from Perth who talked about Brando's "One Eyed Jacks" another great overlooked oddball 'western' with a similarly radiant and largely unknown female star. (You might also want to check out "Eagle's Wing" for the 70s revisionist take.)
"Will Penny" seems now to be very much ahead of its time, both in its thoughtful script and its realism. And as for Mr Heston, redemption indeed, bravo.
I like thoughtful westerns that give time to explore what being a man is, what being manly is: instead of it being a given, at the start of the film, the exploration IS the film. The best westerns always explore this in a sensitive and complicated way, and "Will Penny" is certainly one of them.
Heston's Will Penny is illiterate, a working man without much to hope or fear. But he knows what he is and is not, and his self-knowledge gives him a certain quiet nobility, aided beautifully by Heston's marvellous profile. But his only future is the next job, if he's lucky, and that isn't much. Heston shows great skill in making this believable.
On his way to another job, Penny crosses a truly horrible family, and later, runs into a vulnerable woman, Catherine Allen (Joan Hackett) on her way west with her son. He gets work on a ranch as a line rider, only to run into both the family and the woman again, with results that will test him in ways he's never really been tested before. The time the film takes to explore both his journey and his development is nicely played out and well spent, the story neither overly knowing nor embarrassingly innocent. The characters are serious and thought-through (possibly excepting the crazy scary man and his vile sons, classic dyed-in-the-wool baddies, inserted for dramatic tension). By the time the leisurely story has got both Will and Catherine embroiled, you really care about both of them.
It's a testament to the luminous Joan Hackett's acting skill that she does so much with relatively little screen time. The way her character is painted reminds me of Janice Rule in "Invitation to a Gunfighter", and I agree with the reviewer from Perth who talked about Brando's "One Eyed Jacks" another great overlooked oddball 'western' with a similarly radiant and largely unknown female star. (You might also want to check out "Eagle's Wing" for the 70s revisionist take.)
"Will Penny" seems now to be very much ahead of its time, both in its thoughtful script and its realism. And as for Mr Heston, redemption indeed, bravo.