Rancho Deluxe is a wryly skewed take on the Western as only Tom McGuane could have made it; the protagonists are cattle rustlers, the ranchers are wealthy, new money dilettantes with sexually frustrated wives, and the marshal from out of town is an old railroad detective who knows a good gig when he has one, and spins it out as long as he can, which means he does a masterful job of NOT catching the rustlers for as long as he can.
That's the plot, and Tom McGuane presents it in a masterfully understated script which captures the laconic silences of the plains as well as the craziness of the honkytonks and the loopiness of doped-up rustlers and their girlfriends. Law and Order's Sam Waterston steals the movie as the chronically stoned/drunk Native American rustler (one wonders if this cast was in small part an homage to the old-timey Westerns in which Jewish actors were cast as Injuns), even though Jeff Bridges is in the dramatic foreground most of the movie.
Waterston puts in an effortlessly authentic performance as someone who is content to watch life rush on by as he rolls in the turf with his lady, and pot the odd steer with that great "cattleman's carbine" cap and ball black powder rifle he and Bridges' character use to ply their trade.
This movie has a wonderful Jimmy Buffett score - "Livingston Saturday Night" sets the frenetic honkytonk scene admirably, while the other scenes have more soulful, reflective Buffett songs in the background.
I'll be honest, I watched the movie BECAUSE McGuane's brother-in-law Buffett wrote and performed the score, but I found myself drawn into the plot and interested in the fate of the characters, in a sort of laid-back way. By modern film standards the pace of this film definitely lags, but it was shot in the 1970s, back when this was not the major sin against commercial film-making that it is now.
"Laid-back" is the right term to sum this movie up - it was very much a creature of its mid-Seventies origins. It's a mood movie, good for those evenings when you're not up for car chases, tense emotional scenes, or side-splitting laughter. And the soundtrack rocks.
That's the plot, and Tom McGuane presents it in a masterfully understated script which captures the laconic silences of the plains as well as the craziness of the honkytonks and the loopiness of doped-up rustlers and their girlfriends. Law and Order's Sam Waterston steals the movie as the chronically stoned/drunk Native American rustler (one wonders if this cast was in small part an homage to the old-timey Westerns in which Jewish actors were cast as Injuns), even though Jeff Bridges is in the dramatic foreground most of the movie.
Waterston puts in an effortlessly authentic performance as someone who is content to watch life rush on by as he rolls in the turf with his lady, and pot the odd steer with that great "cattleman's carbine" cap and ball black powder rifle he and Bridges' character use to ply their trade.
This movie has a wonderful Jimmy Buffett score - "Livingston Saturday Night" sets the frenetic honkytonk scene admirably, while the other scenes have more soulful, reflective Buffett songs in the background.
I'll be honest, I watched the movie BECAUSE McGuane's brother-in-law Buffett wrote and performed the score, but I found myself drawn into the plot and interested in the fate of the characters, in a sort of laid-back way. By modern film standards the pace of this film definitely lags, but it was shot in the 1970s, back when this was not the major sin against commercial film-making that it is now.
"Laid-back" is the right term to sum this movie up - it was very much a creature of its mid-Seventies origins. It's a mood movie, good for those evenings when you're not up for car chases, tense emotional scenes, or side-splitting laughter. And the soundtrack rocks.