With iron fists

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Movie
German title With iron fists
Original title The Scalphunters
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1968
length 102-106 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Sydney Pollack
script William W. Norton
production Jules V. Levy ,
Arthur Gardner ,
Arnold Laven ,
Roland Kibbee ,
Burt Lancaster
for United Artists
music Elmer Bernstein
camera Duke Callaghan ,
Richard Moore
cut John Woodcock
occupation
synchronization

With Iron Fists (original title The Scalphunters ) is an American western from 1968, directed by Sydney Pollack . In addition to Burt Lancaster , the leading roles are cast with Shelley Winters , Telly Savalas and Ossie Davis .

action

The film is about the slowly growing friendship between Joe Bass and "his" black slave Joseph Lee - called "Black Feather" by the Komantschen . Joe Bass is ambushed with his skins on the way to the fur trader from Kiowas under their chief "Black Crow". They take the skins and his supplies from him and "leave" him as "payment" the black, very educated slave Joseph Lee. He can quote, read and write Latin sayings, but he has no idea about surviving in the wilderness and asserting himself in combat. Bass, on the other hand, has mastered all survival skills that are beneficial in the wild, knows the plants and survival strategies and is very good at handling both the rifle and the knife and his fists - and has a weakness for all types of alcohol.

With Lee in tow, Bass chases the Indians to get his pelts back. However, they have now discovered the keg of rum in the provisions and, totally drunk, fall into the hands of a horde of scalp hunters around Jim Howie, who simply shoot the Indians as easy prey and also seize the furs.

Bass and Lee are forced to pursue the scalp hunters. When Bass scouts the bandits lying in the valley below them, Lee ventures too far out of curiosity, slides down the mountain and is captured by Jim Howie and his bandits, who are on a trek with their wives, including Kate who have favourited Howie's rough mistress. The gang decides to sell Lee in the Galveston slave market . Lee, however, can ingratiate himself with his education and manners with the women of the trek - and especially Kate. When he hears that the bandits want to go to Mexico because of the many wanted posters looking for them, he decides to Bass' annoyance to stay with them because freedom awaits him in Mexico.

But Bass can also keep the bandits in check simply by new attacks (his gunsmithing, stone avalanches, the horse maddening weed ). Since they are badly hit after the fool weed attack, Lee can persuade them to negotiate a settlement with Bass through him. Bass lets them go after the skins are released, but demands Lee, whom he no longer really trusts, to stay with him for the time being. But Jim Howie doesn't even think about keeping the bargain and letting Bass do the skins. He's hiding in a very subtle way and can overwhelm and captivate bass because Lee still doesn't want to fight. Only when Howie opened Bass that he wanted to scalp him and then pull the fur over his ears, Lee responded. He can steal the knife and then the revolver from Howie. A scuffle ensues in which a shot is fired that kills Howie. But the winner's fame goes to his head: He first robs Howie and then wants to leave Bass behind and ride his horse to Mexico.

But Bass manages to break free and challenges Lee to fight. During the fight that follows, in which neither of them give each other anything, the Kiowas come back with their chief "Black Crow", kill the remaining scalp hunters and take the women and their wagons prisoner. In the end, “Black Crow” takes off his skins again from Bass and points to his “payment” to Lee in response to his protests. Bass takes a sip from his whiskey bottle and this time - unlike before - gives it to Lee too. He draws his attention to the fact that there are still two cases of whiskey in the bandits' car captured by the Indians, so that by evening at the latest many Indians would be totally drunk. Bass gives Lee his hand and lets him sit on his horse. Together they ride in the direction the Indians have taken.

production

Production notes, locations

The film was produced by Bristol Films in collaboration with Norlan Productions, distributed by United Artists and, among others, NBC , MGM Home Entertainment, Koch Media , Ascot Elite Home Entertainment ("Legends of the Wild West") and Warner Home Video .

The shooting extended from March 1967 to May 1967. The shooting took place in the cities of Quartzsite and Parker in the US state of Arizona as well as in the Harquahala Mountains in Arizona. Further filming took place in Barranca del Cobre , a mountain formation of the Sierra Madre Occidental in the Mexican state of Chihuahua , and in the capital of the same name, Chihuahua . Film recordings were also made in the Mexican state of Durango and in the Sierra de Órganos northwest of the city of Sombrerete , Zacatecas in Mexico .

Shelley Winters sings the song Our Lovely Deseret in the film with the lyrics by Eliza R. Snow and the music by George Frederick Root .

background

Joe Hembus sees the film as an important contribution to the renewal of the Western. The character of the film as a "western comedy" had been pushed into the background by the German distribution companies, "as if the huge number of visitors to films like Four Fists for a Hallelujah and My Name is Nobody never existed." Instead, this comedic film was considered hard drama brought out. "Hence the title With Iron Fists ."

An interesting detail of the film to which the Hembus points - and which exemplifies the development of the Western from the 50s to the late 60s - is the role of Shelley Winters : In The Scalphunters she plays the lover of the villain Telly Savalas - in the year In 1950, in Winchester 73 , she was the friend of the good James Stewart . She would have rather shot herself in Anthony Mann's Noble West than give herself up to the Indians. At Pollock she instead calls: "Indian Man, I don't know how many wifes you have now, but you're going to have yourself the damnedest white squaw in the entire Kiowa Nation!" (In the German version: "Edler Häuptling , I don't know how many women you already have, but now you get the greatest white squaw the Kiowa tribe has ever seen! ”).

From Sydney Pollack the comment has been passed down that you cannot claim to be a “real film director” in Hollywood until you have also made a western, which he got the opportunity to do with The Scalphunters . American society was in a transition process in the 1960s and the film is rich in metaphors about racism and violence. Joseph Lee is portrayed as an educated, cultured man who is more used to reason than to brute force. Joe Bass is illiterate and has a tendency to use his fists to get things sorted out. Both are convinced that they are superior to the other until the point when they fight in a mud hole and are so covered in mud that their skin color is the same.

Pollack lets Callaghan capture the relationships between the characters with the camera using frames and camera angles, whereby Lee and Bass are not placed on the same plane of vision until the end of the film. The casting already turned out to be perfect, as both Lancaster and Davis were active in the civil rights movement and agreed on other issues. During the production work there were various stories about Lancaster's volatile temperament and his dealings with his ex-girlfriend Shelley Winters as well as with director Pollack. The scorching heat of the Mexican filming locations around Torreón was particularly troubling for the crew . A special agreement therefore had to be made with the drama union so that shooting could start at 5 a.m. and rest by 7 p.m. at the latest. Gary Fishgal wrote in his Burt Lancaster biography Against Type that it was shot on a table mountain in the mountains at temperatures of 110 degrees. The mud hole where Lancaster and Davis are fighting at the end of the film required a lot of water to be brought in, which Davis said was absolutely refreshing. When both came out of the mud hole, despite the scorching heat, they had to be wrapped in blankets as they were cold.

Lancaster learned Spanish while off-film and attended every performance of an opera festival that was taking place in Durango during that time. During this time, the actor was also asked how he saw the problem of getting older. His answer was: “I believe that when you lose your curiosity, you get old. As long as you are curious, getting old cannot harm you. "

publication

The film was first released in London on February 29, 1968, and premiered in the United States on April 2, 1968. In the same year it started in the following countries: Japan, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Mexico. The film was released in Finland in 1969, in Poland in 1970 and in Hungary in 1980. It was also released in Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Romania, the Soviet Union, Spain, Turkey and Yugoslavia.

The German premiere of the western comedy was on November 8, 1968, in Austria the film was first seen in January 1969.

reception

criticism

The lexicon of international films found: "An elegantly staged western that reflects the political climate of the 1960s: after initially propagating violence as a legitimate means of combating oppression, the conciliatory conclusion weakens this thrust."

Joe Hembus writes in his Western Lexicon that Sydney Pollack plays his comedy “as if he had thought about Brecht for a long time and with good results . The game of false masters and false slaves also works thanks to its poetry and beauty. "

Tony Thomas wrote in his biography of Burt Lancaster that the film claims to be a “funny story”, but that “human rights issues are treated nicely,” especially after “after Lancaster and Davis had annoyed each other for a long time “Be. It goes on to say that you can "see the excellent Ossie Davis in a film in which the dilemma of white-black relationships is approached with humor".

The critic Roger Ebert said it was inaccurate to call The Scalphunters a Western, because in fact it was the strangest mixture of different types of films that one has ever seen. The film won this year's Beat the Devil award for trying to get a dozen things done at once: hard action, social commentary, a broad farce, elements of comedy, panting and roaring Indians and a gallery of stereotypical, cartoon-like Figures from every western that has ever been made. The film has as many clichés as El Dorado and is just as fun. In the wrong hands, however, it could have been a catastrophe. The key lies in the performances. However, there are four experienced professionals at work here: Burt Lancaster, Ossie Davis, Telly Savalas and the wonderful Shelley Winters. Although they found themselves in a very unlikely action, which they knew, they were performing well and having fun with ease. Davis is developing as a real comic talent in a very demanding role (actually the main role, even if Lancaster is number one).

Even Renata Adler and Vincent Canby that the film for the New York Times -reviewed, were that The Scalphunters more proves that the Western film genre was once on his way elastic like a garter and today's Western encompassed everything from heroic myths to to Marlboro commercials, with The Scalphunters being somewhere in between.

Derek Winnert thought Pollack's boisterous western comedy was all around cheerful and lively; he particularly praised the acting performances of Shelley Winters as Kate and Savalas as the villain, and Nick Cravat as Yancy. The music by Elmer Bernstein is remarkable and William Norton does indeed do a good job with his script, as do Duke Callaghan and Richard Moore on the camera up to the production drafts by Frank Arrigo.

On the DVD Beaver page it is said that this is a lovable liberal western comedy with a cultural conflict, which is characterized by an ironic plot. The Scalphunters is a very remarkable western with which Pollack had the opportunity to prove his courage by turning off a western action comedy with socially critical overtones that fits well into the context of the time.

prisma praised: “With the exciting and funny western, Sydney Pollack delivered an amusing, well-played lesson on the subject of racial discrimination. Especially Lancaster as a muscle-packed and not exactly intelligent hillbilly Joe Bass and Ossie Davis as an educated black slave know how to convince here. "

The Protestant film observer was also full of praise : "A western in which the more serious tones are cleverly packaged in a funny way, which offers good entertainment and can be recommended from around 14."

Awards

In 1969, Ossie Davis was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

Telly Savalas and Burt Lancaster were nominated for acting at the Laurel Awards . Savalas came third in the Best Supporting Actor category at the Golden Laurel, and Burt Lancaster came fifth.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In Our Lovely Deseret see lds.org (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d Hembus, Joe; Western Lexicon; Munich 1982, p. 416 ff.
  3. ↑ a b Jerry Renshaw: The Scalphunters (1968) see page articles at Turner Classic Movies - TCM (English)
  4. ^ A b Tony Thomas: Heyne film library Burt Lancaster His films - his life. 3. Edition. 1981, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-453-86030-6 , pp. 153-157.
  5. ↑ With iron fists (1968) publication dates in the IMDb (English)
  6. ↑ With iron fists. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 25, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Roger Ebert: The Scalphunters see page rogerebert.com, July 8, 1968. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  8. ↑ Renata Adler , Vincent Canby : Tale of Double Agent Opens at Cinema 1 Burt Lancaster Stars in Integrated Western In: The New York Times . April 3, 1968 (English). Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  9. ↑ Derek Winnert: The Scalphunters see derekwinnert.com (English), February 21, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ The Scalphunters (Sydney Pollack, 1968) see page dvdbeaver.com (English, including numerous film images). Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ With iron fists at prisma.de . Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  12. ↑ With iron fists. In: Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 532/1968