Winchester 73 (James Stewart Collection Box Set)
Winchester 73 is a story about the gun that won the west for the white guys. It’s a classic amongst Western films and a jewel in James Stewart’s crown. The film is a black-and-white odyssey featuring the usual cast of waifs and strays: some varmints, a local sheriff, a man doing a very poor impression of a Native American Chief, an uptight middle class woman who wants to rebel to spite both her...
Note: This release of Winchester 73 is part of the Jame Stewart Collection boxset which includes Vertigo, The 39 Steps, Rear Window, Harvey, Winchester '73 and Destry Rides Again. Any recommendations for the release should be taken in the context of the whole boxset not the individual release:
Winchester 73 is a story about the gun that won the west for the white guys. It’s a classic amongst Western films and a jewel in James Stewart’s crown. The film is a black-and-white odyssey featuring the usual cast of waifs and strays: some varmints, a local sheriff, a man doing a very poor impression of a Native American Chief, an uptight middle class woman who wants to rebel to spite both her father and her lineage and the local neighbourhood gunslinger in search of a pretty penny for a pretty rifle. Only an American Redneck audience could ever have been hypnotically transfixed by one man’s love affair with a firearm and one gets the faintest impression that this nod to nostalgia may well be the current cinematic flick of choice for a certain shrunken marsupial in the White House. Yet, such observations are-dear gentle reader- merely the musings of an old time liberal.
Hindsight is a dangerous weapon in a movie reviewer’s arsenal. It could easily harm its owner more than its target. The hackney Western film clichés in this movie are from a time when people liked nothing better than to escape to a darkened cinema- the camp fire of the early modern age- and hear tales of how the West was won. What we witness in this movie is the birth of cinematic notions which will- one day- become clichés. People are run out of town in this movie not because it is a requirement of the genre but because people in the real old West really were run out of town. Both James Stewart and Shirley Williams have legend status in the acting world and as such the sticks and stones poison banter of film critics rebounds back into the face of the abuse hurler. Shirley and Stewart are, as ever, superb.
The remaining band of warriors of the West saunter around the movie as little more than a supporting ensemble. Their guns are in their holsters and their feet are in the saddles but the one thing they are missing is a purpose. Just how many men does it take to search for one suspected murderer? The Winchester rifle won the west. Now, the white man reigns supreme in the world and his Native American cousins run casinos, earn lots of money, have their own customs and traditions and have their own land. Precisely who had the last historical laugh is an open-ended question. Despite the best efforts of sanity, American “Redneck” audiences love films built around guns. As recently as this year, a new movie opened about several “outlaws” who worshipped their weapons. Rednecks shake their head at racially motivated killings in Eastern Europe before sauntering off to the DVD store to satisfy their urge to celebrate an episode of ethnic cleansing dressed up and diluted by the notion of “Cowboys and Indians.” With violence on our screens each and everyday and governments across the world scrambling for those long-forgotten nuclear buttons, the last thing the world needs is a Western. Winchester 73 is one for the collectors and will sit on the dusty shelf of a film buff’s study for all eternity. The interview with James Stewart included in the special features is a blessing to his army of fans but the special features are a barren, desolate landscape filled by nothing but binary encoded fresh air.
Be part of the Redneck agenda if you must. Walk in the past and enjoy the black-and- white, they-don’-make-them-like-they-used-to glow you get from watching a film they- admittedly- haven’t manage to eclipse for decades. But take a moment to remember the truth while you watch fiction. A gun is not a movie star. Neither is it a tool. A gun is proof positive that we remain as primitive as the moment we- as a species- climbed out from the primordial soup.
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