There have been other outr\u00e9 oaters, before and since Dead Man.<\/p>\n
For starters, there is the notorious Terror of Tiny Town<\/a>, a 1938 offering with an all-little person cast riding Shetland ponies. Despite its reputation as a cult favorite, I consider the film unwatchable, but our dear Dr. Strangefilm has other thoughts you can check out at:\u00a0From the Files of Dr. Strangefilm #001: The Terror of Tiny Town<\/a><\/p>\n That same year another western saga with a completely different take flew under the radar: Track of the Cat<\/a>, directed by William Wellman, in which family dysfunction and sibling rivalry between brothers Robert Mitchum, William Hopper and Tab Hunter in a snow-encrusted Northern California farmhouse share the screen with the tale of a large cat–the \u201ckiller panther\u201d– that is slaughtering their livestock.\u00a0 Will the bleached-out colors of Wellman\u2019s palette tell whether it is real, or a Native American legend?<\/p>\n The sixties and early seventies certainly had no shortage of western weirdness. The genre may not have changed all that much, but the approaches to it certainly did, as filmmakers and studios tried to hook a younger generation that turned their backs on John Wayne and other \u201cold guard\u201d western heroes.<\/p>\n Andy Warhol and his Factory crew\u2014Viva, Taylor Mead, Joe Dallesandro, etc.\u2014put their own zonked-out spin on the western with 1968\u2019s Lonesome Cowboys. Presenting the drug-fueled adventures of a group of gay cowpokes and a prostitute, the film is a true product of its time. It was shot by Warhol prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Paul Morrissey and edited by Warhol as he was recovering from being shot by Valerie Solinas. For better or worse, the film never received an official video or DVD release.<\/p>\n Although it is not currently available, 1971\u2019s Zachariah\u2014billed as \u201cthe first electric western\u201d\u2014had its day on DVD. A truly way-out concoction co-written by members of the comedy troupe the Firesign Theater and directed by George Englund \u00a0(Cloris Leachman\u2019s hubby at the time), the movie centers on the title character (John Rubinstein) who buys a mail-order gun and, along with pal Don Johnson, sets out to become a gunslinger. During his travels, he encounters a group of outlaws (played by Country Joe and the Fish) and a sharpshooting drummer, played by real-life jazz skins phenom Elvin Jones. Also in the cast of this \u201cacid western\u201d inspired by Herman Hesse\u2019s Siddhartha was Pat Quinn as Belle Starr, The James Gang, featuring Joe Walsh, fiddler Doug Kershaw and the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAcid western\u201d would also be an appropriate tag for\u00a0Greaser\u2019s Palace<\/a>, a 1972 religious parable with Allan Arbus as Jesse, a zoot-suited Christ figure who stops by a desert town while on his way to Jerusalem, where he hopes to become a performing star. Jesse discovers that the town is run by Seaweedhead Greaser (Albert Henderson) and his gang, and when Jesse finds out that Greaser had his gay son (Michael Sulklivan) killed, he tries to resurrect him. The satire was helmed by Robert Downey, Sr. of Putney Swope fame.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most notorious \u201cacid western\u201d is Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky\u2019s El Topo<\/a>, a 1972 surrealistic Mexicali spaghetti western dripping with hallucinogenic images, ultra-violence, and religious allegory. The film offended many, thrilled the likes of John Lennon, Peter Gabriel, David Lynch and Bob Dylan, and became a mainstay on the midnight movie circuit. \u00a0<\/p>\n Taking a cue from the mind-expanding movies of yesteryear is 2004\u2019s Renegade<\/a>, based on a comic series co-created by Jean \u201cMoebius\u201d Girard, the artist responsible for design concepts in Alien, Tron and others.\u00a0 Originally called Blueberry, this topsy- turvy horse opera boasts Vincent Cassel, a marshal raised by Indians, who faces off against ornery prospectors and a killer out to steal mystical powers from a Native-American tribe.<\/p>\n While the film has its violent altercations and an extremely offbeat cast (Ernest Borgnine, Michael Madsen, Djimon Hounsou, Eddie Izzard and Geoffrey and Juliette Lewis—singing, no less), its Renegade\u2019s trippy, New Age-y vibe, and expensive CGI trip sequences that truly make this a one-of-a-kinder that harkens back to the sixties.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Several western films of the ’60s and ’70s used elements of their films as metaphors for the war in Vietnam.\u00a0 Among the most memorable is Soldier Blue <\/a>(1970), ostensibly about the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado Territory, but filled with savage imagery and horrifying violence that reminded viewers of the then-recent My Lai Massacre when it was released in theaters.<\/p>\n Marlon Brando in a dress?! The idea is enough to elicit chuckles. Place him in a western opposite Jack Nicholson, directed by Arthur Penn of Little Big Man and Bonnie & Clyde fame, and, well, then, you really have something, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n That\u2019s what the movie studio thought when they issued The Missouri Breaks<\/a>, written by award-winning novelist Thomas McGuane. The pairing of the superstars\u2014Nicholson as the leader of a pack of livestock thieves, Brando as an eccentric regulator hired by a wealthy ranch owner to track him down\u2014was the big draw, but Brando\u2019s outlandish antics (dressing like\u00a0 a granny in makeup, talking to his horse, affecting an Irish brogue) put a bizarre spin on the project. When it opened, The Missouri Breaks tanked at the box-office and sent moviegoers to the exits scratching their heads, thanks in part to Brando\u2019s out-there acting. Today, it\u2019s a genuinely fascinating curio to be appreciated for all of its enjoyable eccentricities.<\/p>\n Years later, however, Leone fanaticos got the gist of what the film was about and, when the edited footage was put back in, the film\u2014originally titled Once Upon a Time\u2026in Mexico, with Peter Bogdanovich directing and Leone producing\u2014garnered a solid cult following.<\/p>\n The plot has Irish Republican Army explosives expert James Coburn, on the run from the British, joining forces with bandit Rod Steiger in 1913 Mexico. The two decide to rob a bank, but after the pair discover the bank is being used as an army prison\u2014and release a score of prisoners\u2014they\u2019re hurled headfirst into a conflict they initially had little interest in.<\/p>\n Duck, You Sucker! shifts quickly from light moments, to thrilling battle set pieces, to classic sagebrush motifs, with the bickering characters played by the twinkly eyed\u00a0 Coburn and sweaty, salt-of-the-Earth Steiger leading the charge. Helping the film transition so well is Ennio Morricone\u2019s magnificent multi-faceted score, which moves from stirring to eerie to breezy at the drop of a hat. \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"johnny-guitar-poster\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/johnny-guitar-poster.jpg\")
Of course, Dead Man doesn\u2019t corner the market on symbolism. Nicholas Ray\u2019s Freudian, Joan Crawford-anchored\u00a0western Johnny Guitar <\/a>(1954) is a real hoot\u2014enanny and then some\u2014teeming with phallic symbols, overtly butch women and sissy men, perverse dialogue and, of course, metaphors galore for the McCarthy witchhunts not-so snuggly placed throughout the proceedings.<\/p>\n![\"duck_you_sucker\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/duck_you_sucker.jpg\")
Spaghetti westerns were the source of many unexpected takes on traditional westerns. Sergio Leone, the pasta poobah, who gave us Clint Eastwood\u2019s \u201cMan with No Name\u201d and a gangster named \u201cNoodles\u201d in \u201cOnce Upon a Time in America,\u201d went el-flop-o with Duck, You Sucker! (A Fistful of Dynamite)<\/a> when it was issued in theaters in 1971. Neither audiences nor the studio knew what to make of this peculiar blend of historical epic, western action, goofy comedy and political message movie, so the studio cut out footage, retitled it and hoped for the best.\u00a0 The best never happened.<\/p>\n