Sunday, May 17, 2015
The Englishman's Boy
This was a border-crossing novel of the old west by Guy Vanderhaeghe. To my discredit I have yet to get around to reading the book but last night I re-watched the DVD.
I could not remember having watched it the first time. The character of the title loses his Englishman in the opening scenes and takes up with a group of wolvers who, in the words of one of the actors in one of the supplements, are not very nice people. The action jumps from a movie set in Hollywood in the present which here is the 70ies, to a cabin on a rundown ranch in California, to a trail ride at the turn of the century as Harry pumps the aging Shorty for his memories of his life on the trail as the boy in question.
This is a better than average Canadian Production in which rival CTV and CBC each apparently had a hand in. A fair number of well-known Canadian actors are involved. There are two major issues. In casting no attempt was made to find actors to play the youthful and aging Shorty who in any way resembled one another. The action jumps from one place and time to another so often it leaves the viewer somewhat confused more than a few times.
I could not remember having watched it the first time. The character of the title loses his Englishman in the opening scenes and takes up with a group of wolvers who, in the words of one of the actors in one of the supplements, are not very nice people. The action jumps from a movie set in Hollywood in the present which here is the 70ies, to a cabin on a rundown ranch in California, to a trail ride at the turn of the century as Harry pumps the aging Shorty for his memories of his life on the trail as the boy in question.
This is a better than average Canadian Production in which rival CTV and CBC each apparently had a hand in. A fair number of well-known Canadian actors are involved. There are two major issues. In casting no attempt was made to find actors to play the youthful and aging Shorty who in any way resembled one another. The action jumps from one place and time to another so often it leaves the viewer somewhat confused more than a few times.
# posted by garthmailman@gmail.com @ 7:37 am 
