Search - Paint Your Wagon-Dvd (Chk) on DVD

A bad rap...UNDESERVEDLY...

R. Gawlitta | Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA | 06/26/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The DVD version of "Paint Your Wagon" is as good as it gets. The 2.35:1 LBX shows outdoor panoramas that are often breath-taking. Lee Marvin had recently won the Oscar, followed it with "The Dirty Dozen", and shows a confidence that carries this film to new heights. He's never been so good, or as good, since. The Lerner & Loewe score is wonderful. Marvin's "Wand'rin' Star" is actually quite touching, and Harve Presnell is here to give justice to the best song in the show, "They Call the Wind Maria". These songs are augmented with excellent support from the chorale of the legendary Roger Wagner. Additional musical ideas came from Andre Previn. What a great effort from the greatest musical icons of the period! Top this off with a screenplay by Paddy Chayevsky (very loosely adapted from the stage show), and it's a bawdy, irreverent and totally fun film. Clint Eastwood was much maligned for his attempt at singing (and NOT so terrible, considering these were macho guys...) This film has had a bad rap since it was released, and it's not that bad. It's quite silly, but, in this case, silly is good. There are some serious issues being dealt with. This film's greatness depends on your willingness to accept it as entertainment; if you are the least bit "prudish", forget it. To quote the preacher's teenage son: "If you don't drink or smoke, you're missing out on the 2nd and 3rd best thing in life". Don't judge; enjoy!"

Think of it as a Giant Hippie Party

Old Hippy | PORTLAND, OR United States | 02/09/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"No name city was built in the Wallawa Mts. outside Baker City, Oregon, and a call went out for "longhairs" to act as extras. Hippies were big on authentic Western costume and could supply their own wardrobe right down to the guns (yes, these hippies were armed to the teeth). They came with wives, kids, big dogs and bigger trucks and settled in for the summer, fall, winter, spring, and...I believe...a second summer. Everything you see in this movie is REAL...the poker game in the background, the French whores (imported from Paris, and yes, they plied their trade on the set and in hotels in Baker), the antiques, the long hair and handlebar moustaches. The opium den and bootleg liquor. All real and functioning. After the filming, there was a showing in Portland of the rough movie for the extras, and it was heartbreakingly beautiful. The Norman Luboff choir was not yet dubbed in and the music WAS the extras singing, and we got to hear Jean Seburg sing her part, and the SCALE of it was monumental....you really got the feeling of this tiny place lost in the Westerm wilderness. It was wonderful...makes me angry/sad to see the finished movie as cut in LA...the studio did their best to turn it into a routine and banal Broadway musical. Wish you fans could have seen it as I did in 1969."

Wonderful Movie, Mediocre DVD

Thomas A. Holmes | Johnson City, TN USA | 07/27/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"PAINT YOUR WAGON is maybe one of the first counter-culture musicals, and the fact that it was made by the same director, Joshua Logan, who made SOUTH PACIFIC invites remarkable comparison. Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Harve Presnell, and Ray Walston stand out in the cast, mostly of nonsingers, giving the musical a realistic edge we don't see again until David Byrne's TRUE STORIES. Basically, a city of men in Gold Rush-era California see their standards conflict with those imposed by the introduction of conventional morality to their settlement. The notion that Rumson and Pardner accept being the husbands of Elizabeth as, in her words, "a beautiful, humane solution," saves the main romance from being a run-of-the-mill love story. Marvin's comedic capacity plays well with his foil, Eastwood, and Ray Walston heads the ensemble cast in an impressive way.Unfortunately, Paramount has released a bare-bones DVD. The picture and sound are much better than the VHS version, of course, but there's little else. The chapters are NOT coded to the songs. The DVD contains the trailer, but no other background information. While, of course, some of the principals have passed away, it would have been nice to have a comment or two from Clint Eastwood. I would also like to hear some of the singing auditions--in a film where almost everyone sings, Jean Seberg's voice must have been interesting for the director to decide to overdub her. I realize this movie does not have the cultural resonance of SOUND OF MUSIC, but it would be terrific to learn more about PAINT YOUR WAGON.If you're looking for a movie with a couple of memorable songs ("I Was Born under a Wandering Star" and "They Call the Wind Mariah"), and the type of cantankerous social satire you find in NETWORK (Paddy Chayefsky adapted the stageplay), you'll enjoy PAINT YOUR WAGON. If you already own this movie, you buy this disc to have a crisper, cleaner version once you've worn out your VHS copy and/or have gotten tired of switching tapes midway."

California Gold Rush

Fred Camfield | Vicksburg, MS USA | 01/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was a great motion picture when it was filmed, and it remains a great motion picture. Lee Marvin plays the prospector Ben Rumson, a somewhat crude individual, who strikes gold while digging a grave for a man killed in an accident. A mining camp springs up, and Ben acquires a pardner (played by a younger Clint Eastwood, who sings quite well in this role), the brother of the man who was killed. The pardner is known as "Pardner" until a closing scene when Ben says, "By the way, what is your name?" You have to be on your toes to get the significance of that.

Action moves along in an all male town until a Mormon shows up with two wives. Under some pressure, and motivated by avarice, the man agrees to sell his younger wife, Elizabeth (played by Jean Seberg) at auction. Ben, while drunk and not quite himself, puts in the high bid of $800, and the story progresses from there. The $800 bid, even by standards of that day, seems a cheap price for Jean Seberg, but it is a very good film with many original songs including the theme song, "Paint Your Wagon." The motion picture has the spirit of adventure of men (and sometimes women) striking out for the frontier to seek their fortunes. That was, after all, the way the United States was settled.

The story is a love triangle of sorts, and a comedy of sorts. There is some crude language; the corruption/initiation of a minor youth (the son of some pious farmers rescued from the snow) who discovers he likes whiskey, cigars and women; and numerous references to the ladies of a local bordello. It is what one might expect in a frontier mining camp before civilization moves in. The film would probably offend religious fundamentalists.

I would note that this is probably the only motion picture where Clint Eastwood sings. Hollywood could have used him for a romantic lead, but his career went in a different direction.

The original DVD copy I received had a flaw, but Amazon replaced it at no cost. Amazon does guarantee all products purchased from its Web page, including purchases from secondary distributors listed on the page.

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