University of Virginia Library

Perfect Match

Many films have been made
with fantastic content and
ordinary images. Here the
images wrought by John
Houston perfectly match the
subjects in their fantasy and
expressive poetry.

He fills the whole breadth of
the screen with the Texas
desert. He broadens the
violence beyond belief, while
keeping it credible enough at
to laugh at. He uses the stills
tinted like old photographs to
show the appealingly absurd
innocence of these fighters for
law and order. Every
shot verges on, and finally falls
into, the poetic, Houston can
count Roy Bean among his
best.

Is this the stuff of which
fantasy is made? If by that you
mean absolute justice, good,
and evil; total belief in one
man's word above all else;
violence so beyond the cruel it is
colorful; and blind, arrogant,
ignorant nobility of soul, then
yes, of this is fantasy made.

And damn good movies.

(Now at the Cinema)