Paint Your Wagon (1969) - film review

California, during the Gold Rush.  When he sees a wagon go crashing over a ravine, curmudgeonly old prospector Ben Rumson hurries to its aid.  One of its two occupants is killed in the fall; the other, his bother, is alive, but badly injured.  Ben takes care of the wounded man, Pardner, and, in gratitude, the latter agrees to form a partnership with him.  Whilst burying Pardner’s brother, Ben discovers deposits of gold and immediately stakes a claim on the land.  Within no time, a colony of prospectors has sprung up in the area.  The only thing that is missing is female companionship.  When a Mormon turns up with his two wives, the prospectors are incensed and insist that one of the wives be sold at auction.  Whilst under the influence of strong liquor, Ben puts in the highest bid, and acquires for himself a beautiful young bride, Elizabeth.   Ben later discovers that his wife is in love with Pardner, so he comes up with a novel solution.  Both men shall take Elizabeth as his wife.  The arrangement works out rather well, until the other prospectors become jealous...

One of the dafter Hollywood film musicals, Paint Your Wagon is either a travesty of the musical genre or an amazingly good romp, depending on your mindset and/or state of intoxication when you watch it.  Certainly, it did little to enhance the reputation of the film musical, which was on its deathbed by the late 1960s and rapidly becoming a thing of the past.   As in his previous South Pacific, director Joshua Logan makes a brave attempt to depart from the stagey musicals of the past by using a naturalistic setting, although this somewhat undermined by the strip cartoon feel of the story.  Based on the popular 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, the film’s main selling point is that it brings together two icons of the western genre – Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood.  Unfortunately, both of these talented performers go to remarkable lengths to convince us of their almost total lack of ability in the singing department.  Make sure you have your ear plugs close to hand when you watch this film.

Actually, it was an immensely brave decision on the part of Warner Brothers to allow the male leads to sing their own songs.  Usually, the big Hollywood studios preferred to play it safe and hire professional singers to dub the songs, presumably to reduce the chance of being sued for wilful eardrum damage.  Jean Seberg, who plays the lead female character, must have had an atrocious singing voice for her to have been dubbed, whilst Eastwood and Marvin were given free rein to inflict aural misery on an unsuspecting audience.  It doesn’t help that most of the songs are truly terrible.   The only song that isn’t entirely cringe-inducing is Marvin’s I Was Born under a Wandering Star, which, miraculously, became a hit single, topping the UK pop charts in 1970.  This could only happen in a world where at least ninety-five per cent of the population are tone deaf.

So, whatever appeal Paint Your Wagon has, it probably isn’t to be found in the musical numbers.  More likely, it is performances of the two leads, and their magical on-screen rapport, that justifies the price of the cinema ticket and makes the musical monstrosities just about bearable.  Both Marvin and Eastwood play against type and show a surprising flair for down-beat comedy.  It’s almost a western version of The Odd Couple, with the story revolving around two disparate characters who discover something about themselves through their relationship to each other.   Amidst the humour and general all-round juvenile silliness, there is a genuine poignancy in the realistic interplay between the characters.  If only this has been given greater weight, if only there had been slightly less misjudged musical mayhem, Paint Your Wagon might conceivably have been far better received.

© filmsdefrance.com 2010

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