The Vision of Walter Hill
Fisticuffs with The Long Riders director?
Categories: Boggs Unleashed
By: Johnny D. Boggs 03/01/2008
The good news is that Walter Hill didn’t beat the crap out of me, although it crossed his mind. Must be his discipline.
Here we were, hanging out at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City on the eve of the Western Heritage Awards bash in 2007. Hill was picking up another bronze Wrangler trophy, this one for Broken Trail. We were having a rather pleasant conversation—until he asked, “What articles have you written for True West?”
As I fished out my business card to pass on to him, I stupidly answered, “I just did one on the films about Jesse James.” (See April 2007.)
He responded, with pure disgust, “I didn’t like that article at all!”
Sliding that business card back into my pocket, I cursed myself. You fool. That’s the article that states there has never been a really good movie about Jesse James—and Hill directed one of them!
That movie was The Long Riders, which didn’t win a Wrangler. Hill did take a Wrangler home, however, for Geronimo: An American Legend.
“That’s okay,” I told him. “I can take bad reviews. I’m sure you can too.”
He scoffed. “What most critics fail to realize is that a movie is about a filmmaker’s vision,” he tells me. “I think my best Western has been Wild Bill.”
I decided to keep silent on Wild Bill and toss out this: “I always thought 48 Hrs. was a Western.”
“All movies are Westerns,” he said, which got me thinking: Especially Walter Hill movies.
I mean, look at Walter Hill. He has Emmy Awards to go with those Wranglers. He has Directors Guild of America Awards. And he likes to make Westerns, whether he’s directing an Emmy-winning episode of HBO’s Deadwood or feuding with Robert Duvall on Broken Trail. That’s one thing about vision in Hollywood. The vision you have doesn’t always reach the screen. Studios and actors sometimes get their say.
Hill wanted Prentice Ritter to be edgy. Duvall wanted Prentice Ritter to be another Gus McRae from Lonesome Dove. Duvall won out. He also won an Emmy, which he didn’t get for Lonesome Dove.
But back to Hill’s vision. Last Man Standing is pretty much a Western, a Prohibition take on Yojimbo—or maybe Dashiel Hammett’s Red Harvest—which Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood turned into A Fistful of Dollars. Red Heat, Extreme Prejudice and Southern Comfort could be called Westerns. Hill wrote the screenplay for The Getaway starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, and that’s pretty much a Western. Then there are those true Westerns he has directed: Broken Trail, Geronimo, Wild Bill, The Long Riders.
Shoot, the story goes that John Wayne liked Hill’s Hard Times so much, he wanted Hill to direct The Shootist.
Here’s a director working today who cites John Ford, Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone among his favorite directors. Here’s a director working today who wants to make Westerns.
I didn’t hate The Long Riders. The movie has a great gimmick (brothers playing brothers), an authentic look and a great musical score. I just don’t think it worked overall; it needed to feature a much stronger actor playing Jesse James. (Great, now I’ll have James Keach after my hide. Hey, James, you’re wonderful as the warden in Walk the Line!)
So my hat’s off to Walter Hill and his vision, and for not beating me up. I did eventually slip him my business card, and he said maybe he’d reread my article. Later he said, “Come on, there’s free food to eat.”
Now that’s what I call vision.
Johnny D. Boggs’ favorite Walter Hill film is 48 Hrs.— unless Walter Hill says otherwise.
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