Venice: Walter Hill or the western in the years of political correctness

Venice: Walter Hill or the western in the years of political correctness

Hill is credited with helping to revive the western genre during his long career, with films like the aforementioned “Hellback Ride” and “Geronimo.” He recognized that he had been inspired by greats of the genre, especially – as an Italian journalist reminded him – Sergio Leone, the father of the spaghetti western. “His films of his are terribly important, not only in the history of the western, but in the history of cinema. Leone is a classic example that what he gave made school and was used by many. We all owe something to our predecessors, we are all connected. You can’t totally separate your work from what came before.”
Regarding his last film, he pointed out that the limitations of money tied his hands during the shooting, which was restricted to 25 days and the means of production were limited.

When asked why he was drawn to westerns, he replied, “I’m tempted to say I don’t know. I like the era, I like making the movies, I like hanging out with the cast and the horses.” It is also about “the nostalgia for a certain period of American history that we all share, the world shares, there is a mythopoetic idea about the western”.

It was inevitable, of course, that the conversation would turn to the western in contemporary “woke” culture. Hill said, “It’s clear that attitudes about women’s position in society and racial attitudes are very different today from traditional Western standards. These changes were contemplated by the script, but at the same time the film tries to value the tradition of the western. I didn’t want to make a frozen movie in the 1950s or 1930s. I thought it must have some modern relevance, so the book follows a kind of bifurcation or self-contradiction, if you will.” Is the confrontation between the good guys and the bad guys always a necessary element in a western? Hill responded: “One of the things about Westerns is that the endings are foretold. They deal with dramatic inevitability, so the drama demands a final confrontation between these two people… Every good story ends with a tear, even a comedy, and I would like to think that this is a positive story, but it has a melancholy ending. ”.

The main cast members were also present and praised Hill for his method of working. Said Waltz: “I am convinced that discipline is the starting point of everything, in thought and in action. Dafoe told an amusing anecdote about Leone, saying that when “The Last Temptation of Christ” opened in Venice, the director “came out in the press and said, ‘This is not the face of our Lord (Dafoe played Christ), this it is the face of Satan’. I liked his movies, but after that I don’t know”, he laughed.

Source: Ambito

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts