Monday, February 5, 2007

Emperor of the North (1973)

I remember being disappointed by this movie when I was a kid, because the print ads had led me to believe it would be non-stop action - Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, armed with hammers, chasing each other across the top of a moving train - and it turned out to be mostly talk.

Perhaps I'd missed out on the many nuances, and a viewing as an adult would reveal a film full of keen sociopolitical insight into the Great Depression, or a Cormac McCarthy-style study of what passes for honor among human trash, rural division.

But no. My pre-adolescent verdict stands: Not enough hammer fights.

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