my ignorance of certain genres is a real problem

My recent suggestion that you all start a regular screening of westerns for my education was not met with the unmixed enthusiasm I anticipated. But I'm trying again. People, I need to see westerns. I cannot understand other movies. Once when I was very young I saw Bronco Billy on TV when my mom thought I was asleep. I saw Drums Along the Mohawk in a course on Images of American Indians in Film. And while I would still argue that The Big Lebowski is a western, I don't think it really counts as, you know, canon. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a John Wayne movie all the way through. I mean, except this one.

I saw The American last weekend, and I think it was a Western, but I can't be sure. George Clooney is a crafty gun maker--a definite contender for the handmade Oscars this year, if anyone is keeping track--and maybe he's also an assassin, and he's hiding out in a tiny town in Italy. He is in a restaurant and a movie is on the TV, and someone explains (to us? to Clooney?) that Sergio Leone was Italian. Who knew!?


People love this movie, and I understand why; it's very beautiful to look at, whether you prefer looking at crooked Italian cities or implausibly beautiful Italian prostitutes or George Clooney's lean torso. I loved how silent it was (or...I would have loved it, had I not been trying to eat some nachos in a very crowded theater, but I can hardly blame Anton Corbijn's for the fact that the Bow Tie ran out of soft pretzels).George Clooney does this grave, understated, crafty thing, and he does it very well. There is a lot to like in the construction and the performances.

But it is also kind of a movie about cartoon butterflies. It is about redemption, and I'm not very interested in the character's redemption. There is a love story, but I don't understand why anyone loves anyone in this movie. There is a priest who has lots of aphorisms ("You cannot deny the existence of hell. You live in it.") and shadowy moral failings (I know, shocking). And, seriously, there are a lot of cartoon butterflies.