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McKenna's Gold
Sep. 7th, 2010 07:17 pmSunday afternoon I saw the silliest Western ever on local TV - McKenna's Gold. The following video pretty much sums up the film:
This is a Western that ought to have everything: amazing vistas; larger than life characters; Indians; the Cavalry; a US Marshall and a Mexican bandit; and a treasure worth dying for. It looks as if it should have been a Spaghetti Western and probably would have made more sense had it been. Unfortunately the nearest comparison is more like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. It's really hard to understand just what the director was trying to do in this film.
The huge cast seems to exist just to give most of the actors cameos in the film. No sooner are most introduced (and some with extended explanations of who they are and why they're here) than they are killed one way or another. Omar Sharif is utterly unconvincing as a Mexican, and Gregory Peck seems to have phoned in his performance (which puts his performance as General MacArthur in the 1977 film in a good light). It does have Julie Newmar in a nude scene, and Ted Cassidy as a psycho Apache, so there are some redeeming features.
Also, the plot doesn't make a great deal of sense. The ending is contrived and not really explained well - the special effects have aged horribly over the 40 years since this was made. Also, any films that requires a voice over to explain the plot or the characters motives all the time, can't be that good at telling and explaining things naturally.
A pity. because as a "Saturday/Sunday Afternoon film" on TV (to be watched while you're doing something else) it's not bad! In fact, so bad it's good.
And the ending makes no sense. go figure!
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