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As a genre, the Western is fairly straightforward. Whether it’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or The Assassination of Jesse James, the formula is plain. There’s the saloon. The duel at dusk. The revolver sitting pretty on the lone ranger’s hip.
Now comes Cowboys and Aliens, a Western with an out of this world storyline hell-bent on changing up the formula.
Based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, Cowboys and Aliens has all of the Western’s general hallmarks. There is the lone wolf outlaw, Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig). There is the capitalist tycoon, Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). There is the mysterious saloon waif, Ella (Olivia Wilde). There is the saloon owner for comic relief, Doc (Sam Rockwell). And then, there are aliens.
The film begins with a dusty, befuddled Lonergan, who, having lost his memory, wakes in an unknown place with a bizarre metal cuff on his wrist. Craig plays the part with extraordinary control, using the harsh lines of his face to their full advantage as he scowls and huffs but rarely speaks. While Craig comes off more as a displaced James Bond than a traditional cowboy, his coldly placid face and tense body recreate the Western antihero in a way that spoken lines or plot development can’t. Before Craig utters a word, we know that he is a skilled fighter, a punch first, ask questions later sort.
Lonergan’s quest to recover his memory takes him to the town of Absolution, where he encounters Dolarhyde’s dramatically wayward son, Percy (Paul Dano). Things are going along the route of a traditional western, with Lonergan shaking up the town’s status quo, Dolarhyde making menacing statements, and an impending hanging. Cue: aliens.
With a plot so outlandish, the film could easily fall into cliches and overacted one-liners. Instead, Cowboys and Aliens undercuts its serious swagger with cheeky jokes and the occasional eye roll. The action movie feel is boistered by a cast of seasoned actors. Ford, whose acting might be expected to fall in line with Indy and Han Solo, assumes the more mature role of Dolarhyde with a gruff humor. Rockwell, fast developing into one of the most intriguing actors in Hollywood, transforms the archetypal saloon owner into a likable and ornery man whose depth goes further than the bottom of the whiskey barrel.
Though the title is reminiscent of Snakes on a Plane, the film does not rely on a single gimmick to drive its action. While unconventional, the melding of the Western and Sci-Fi genre is seamlessly drawn together to set a straightforward film without any reference to morally ambiguous aliens as seen in the disappointing Super 8. While the message represented in Westerns is generally frowned upon, the sentiment behind it is recognizable--the cowboys of lore were just humans facing a force that they believed to be terribly strong, confusing, and terrifying. Was battling against the last frontier with all of its perils and often dangerous inhabitants so different from the battling against the unknown that finds its place in so many human versus alien films? It is refreshing to watch a movie where the bad is so plainly bad and the good is so plainly good. Combining this moral simplicity with a light shade of character development and director Jon Favreau’s taste for action, Cowboys and Aliens is exactly what it sounds like, pulling off a genre fusion as rare as gold.
Now comes Cowboys and Aliens, a Western with an out of this world storyline hell-bent on changing up the formula.
Based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, Cowboys and Aliens has all of the Western’s general hallmarks. There is the lone wolf outlaw, Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig). There is the capitalist tycoon, Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). There is the mysterious saloon waif, Ella (Olivia Wilde). There is the saloon owner for comic relief, Doc (Sam Rockwell). And then, there are aliens.
The film begins with a dusty, befuddled Lonergan, who, having lost his memory, wakes in an unknown place with a bizarre metal cuff on his wrist. Craig plays the part with extraordinary control, using the harsh lines of his face to their full advantage as he scowls and huffs but rarely speaks. While Craig comes off more as a displaced James Bond than a traditional cowboy, his coldly placid face and tense body recreate the Western antihero in a way that spoken lines or plot development can’t. Before Craig utters a word, we know that he is a skilled fighter, a punch first, ask questions later sort.
Lonergan’s quest to recover his memory takes him to the town of Absolution, where he encounters Dolarhyde’s dramatically wayward son, Percy (Paul Dano). Things are going along the route of a traditional western, with Lonergan shaking up the town’s status quo, Dolarhyde making menacing statements, and an impending hanging. Cue: aliens.
Though the title is reminiscent of Snakes on a Plane, the film does not rely on a single gimmick to drive its action. While unconventional, the melding of the Western and Sci-Fi genre is seamlessly drawn together to set a straightforward film without any reference to morally ambiguous aliens as seen in the disappointing Super 8. While the message represented in Westerns is generally frowned upon, the sentiment behind it is recognizable--the cowboys of lore were just humans facing a force that they believed to be terribly strong, confusing, and terrifying. Was battling against the last frontier with all of its perils and often dangerous inhabitants so different from the battling against the unknown that finds its place in so many human versus alien films? It is refreshing to watch a movie where the bad is so plainly bad and the good is so plainly good. Combining this moral simplicity with a light shade of character development and director Jon Favreau’s taste for action, Cowboys and Aliens is exactly what it sounds like, pulling off a genre fusion as rare as gold.
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