one - eyed jacks
to compliment
one eyed jacks
will be the epic
napoleon
.
mrs miller, one - eyed jacks and the hired hand. i’d waited all my life to see one - eyed jacks properly and it was worth the wait .
marlon brando in a paramount publicity still for the film: one - eyed jacks .
marlon brando chatting with french film director jacques tati on the set on one - eyed jacks .
marlon brando and pina pellicer in one - eyed jacks (1961), directed by brando .
a few words about... ™ one - eyed jacks - - in blu - ray
one - eyed jacks for paramount pictures. kubrick never got to add one - eyed jacks to his list of films– he was soon on his way out the door before the cameras even started rolling .
one - eyed jacks– marlon brando as rio, and slim pickens as dad’s terminally despicable deputy, lon .
with the headline: screen: brando stars and directs;' one eyed jacks' in premiere at capitol .
marlon brando on the set of one - eyed jacks. — left image by © underwood & underwood / corbis
legendary character actor ben johnson as that scum - suckin’ pig, bob emory, in one - eyed jacks .
1961– marlon brando, from the 1961 film: one - eyed jacks. — image by © cinemaphoto / corbis
one eyed jack' s is named after the movie one - eyed jacks by marlon brando. donna hayward references the film when audrey horne tells her about the brothel. [ 11 ]
karl malden and marlon brando in one - eyed jacks, 1961. photograph: mondadori portfolio / mondadori via getty images
poster for the paramount pictures movie one - eyed jacks, 1961. photograph: movie poster image art / getty images
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing one - eyed jacks near you .
1959– marlon brando, director, on the set of one - eyed jacks. — image by © bettmann / corbis
1959– marlon brando and pina pellicer in scenes from the movie: one - eyed jacks. –image by © bettmann / corbis
a few words about - a few words about... ™ one - eyed jacks - - in blu - ray
d. i hope this bar can improve. if not i don' t see a very bright future for one eyed jacks .
one - eyed jacks is the eighth volume in the wild cards shared universe fiction series edited by george r. r. martin .
cinematographer charles lang and director marlon brando on location in monterey, california, for the first day of shooting one - eyed jacks .
this season is not limited to
one eyed jacks
and he won' t have to wait until next year, either .
in her latest column, critic imogen sara smith explores landmark moments in the intersection of noir and the western, including marlon brando’s one - eyed jacks .
marlon brando attempts a prison escape in the film one - eyed jacks in which he plays the outlaw rio. photograph: john kobal foundation / getty images
' one - eyed jacks' is slow, but very tough, realistic and softly romantic... the picture has excitement and violence ...
once a burlesque theater, one eyed jacks is the french quarter’s only rock and roll club with a sultry new orleans atmosphere and a discreet upstairs bar .
when asked who really wrote the story that became “one - eyed jacks, ” karl malden reportedly answered: “marlon brando, a genius in our time. ”
i highly recommend one eyed jacks, one more thing they were so big that neither me or my wife could only eat half of the burger. and also there chips and salsa were fantastic as well
one eyed jack' s was a brothel and casino located in canada, near the washington border .
in marlon brando' s world, there is no self, just inept flailing gestures pointing to the void. see one - eyed jacks at film forum this week .
“you may be a one eyed jack around here– but i’ve seen the other side of your face. ”
scorsese goes on to describe how the blend of the classic romance of the western and the brooding energy of the sixties makes “one - eyed jacks” a truly unique visual experience .
the shim sham club became available, you moved everything over from el matador and transformed the bigger space into one eyed jacks. what was your vision for the new club ?
the name is significant because
one - eyed jacks
is the name of a movie that was originally intended to be directed by stanley kubrick, who lynch has frequently cited as an influence and a reason why he started to direct. the film one - eyed jacks, which was eventually directed by marlon brando, also features twin peaks actor hank worden in a minor role. finally ,
one - eyed jack
is a euphemism for
penis .
one - eyed jacks could’ve been a great western to help take the 50s out on a high note (along with stuff like rio bravo and no name on the bullet) .
now the film, one - eyed jacks, has received a state - of - the - art restoration by nbcuniversal in collaboration with the film foundation, supervised by two filmmakers who had long pressed for its revival, martin scorsese and steven spielberg. the latter has called one - eyed jacks “one of my favorite westerns, ” just as brando called it, in his 1994 autobiography, songs my mother taught me, “one of my favorite pictures. ”
restoration titles include kenji mizoguchi’s
ugetsu ,
marlon brando’s
one - eyed jacks ,
edward yang’s
taipei story ,
and robert bresson' s
l' argent .
you won’t quite be mesmerized into overlooking these inconsistencies, as much as you’re lifted by the insipid welling of strings in hugo friedhofer’s score, which one - eyed jacks cultists nonetheless persist in applauding .
brando' s' one - eyed jacks' comes on as taught and tight, acted with deep feeling and intense concentration... brando and malden play largely a stylistic battle ...
women? there are two major women in one - eyed jacks. one is dad’s mexican wife (the madonna), the other is his step - daughter (the virgin). there are also assorted garden - variety barmaids, prostitutes, senoritas and a contessa. well, the movie is called one - eyed jacks, after all (apparently penises was considered too on - the - nose). oh, and the mona lisa is seen hanging over a bar .
spielberg said in a statement, “ one - eyed jacks is one of my favorite westerns and it was more than a privilege to be on the team that restored it for audiences around the world to rediscover or fall under its spell for the first time. ”
rio: you may be a one eyed jack around here, but i' ve seen the other side of your face. see more »
i always have a great time at one eyed jacks gigs dancing � and singing my little heart out. i got the pleasure of featuring in their first music video. these are ones to watch, y' all best remember me
the stunning new restoration of one - eyed jacks from universal pictures and the film foundation premiered yesterday at the cannes film festival. i' m pleased to report it was presented in the miracle of 1. 85: 1, which was the intended aspect ratio for vistavision from day one. urltoken
universal’s partner in the one - eyed jacks project, the film foundation, is a nonprofit organization that martin scorsese set up in 1990 to promote film history and preservation. it has worked with archives and studios to restore almost 700 films .
great stuff! at the end of last year we had, spartacus & my fair lady, & this year it' s one - eyed jacks, i wonder what the goodie will be late next year? [... ]
after years of cultivating his immortal on - screen persona as a handsome, brooding outsider, marlon brando expanded his creative ambitions when he both directed and starred in one - eyed jacks, his first and only time behind the camera. boasting vistavi…
17. one - eyed jacks (marlon brando, 1961) brando fell out with original director stanley kubrick, leaving the star to helm the only film he directed, a take on the billy the kid legend. one - eyed jacks became famous for brando’s excesses with an original running time of over four hours, but is now viewed as a fascinating, brooding masterpiece, and thanks to its stunning monterey and big sur locations, one of the most aesthetically beautiful westerns ever made. a restored version was shown at this year’s cannes film festival .
one - eyed jacks ‘ reception has been curious. filmmaker peter bogdanovich told indiewire it was “the last time brando acted out of true commitment, an uncynical passion for the material, ” and that he gave “one of his best performances… his direction is perceptive and effective — all the actors are uniformly excellent. ”
bohemian hipsters, artists and rockers flock to the music club seeking alternative rock and underground theater. a popular hangout for famous musicians and actors, one eyed jacks is—as was its predecessor el matador to which it’s inextricably linked—a pillar in the rock music scene .
and while all of one eyed jacks current business is above board, hesseling is glad that a naughty aura remains. when asked about the building’s often sordid past, he says, “i’m rather proud to be a part of that tradition’s continued evolution. ”
renault further employed jennings and ernie niles in the drug trafficking operation [ 8 ] and effectively took over one eyed jack' s from horne. [ 9 ]
look carefully, the next time you watch the magnificent seven, and you may spot marlon brando' s saddle from one - eyed, beneath eli wallach .
when audrey horne is hired at one eyed jack' s, she gives her name as hester prynne, the protagonist of nathaniel hawthorne' s the scarlet letter .
film forum will present one - eyed jacks from 14 - 20 october in a beautifully restored print. for years this film was only available in a degraded manner. whether it is a failure in adorno’s first or second sense (whether it' s a minor film or a great one), it is worth seeing in its original splendor .
brando, always the realist as actor or director, (left) showing malden how he wanted him to play a love scene in one - eyed jacks. the paramount film, a western starring brando, is the actor’s first directorial assignment. — image by © bettmann / corbis
one of the major film restoration events of 2016 was universal’s digital overhaul of marlon brando ’s one - eyed jacks (1961), an important bridge between the classical westerns of john ford and the genre - busting revisionism of sam peckinpah and sergio leone, not to mention arthur penn, who would work with brando on another great iconoclastic western, the missouri breaks, around 15 years later. like the missouri breaks, one - eyed jacks is an unruly passion project filled with idiosyncratic touches and auteurist preoccupations. yet since brando never directed another movie before or after, the motifs connect not to his other work behind the camera [ … ]
originally released in 1961, one - eyed jacks stars brando as a bank robber who is betrayed by his partner (karl malden) and arrested in mexico. years later, he escapes from prison and seeks vengeance but falls in love with his former accomplice’s stepdaughter (pina pellicer) .
“you don’t have to judge one - eyed jacks as just ‘entertainment’, not like a couple of hours excitement and escape from reality. it comes up to scratch even without the forgiving attitude usually adopted when faced with the stereotypical characters used in a western” (karin michael, aftonbladet) .
milne also allowed, however, that one - eyed jacks was a bit of a mess, and he pointed to one fount of the confusion, the psychological complexities that brando had grappled to inject into his characters, when he wrote: “the result, laced with some fine traditional sequences and stretches of masochistic violence, is a western of remarkable though sometimes muddled power. ”
> one - eyed jacks (1961) for several months with marlon brando, but the creative differences between the two finally became too great, and kubrick left the project, which was ultimately directed by brando himself. kubrick then accepted douglas’s offer to take over the direction of spartacus (1960) …
five and a half decades after its original release, marlon brando’s only film as a director will be back on the big screen and looking better than ever. the brooding western one - eyed jacks has been restored by universal pictures and the film foundation and will be unveiled monday evening at the cannes film festival .
o ne - eyed jacks finally began shooting in late 1958, and went months and months over schedule, and cost paramount millions over the film’s original budget. beyond the cost of cast, crew and location– one - eyed jacks was being shot in vistavision, an expensive filming process that cost 50 cents a foot back then. brando was camera happy and had reportedly shot hundreds of thousands of feet of footage, as he sought artistic inspiration for both himself and his actors– particularly the young mexican actress, pina pellicer, with whom he had a special connection .
viewed so long in subpar quality for a movie so gorgeously shot, underrated but admired by many, and with a fascinating, tangled backstory to its production, marlon brando’s beautifully acted, moody and unique as hell one - eyed jacks finally got the respect and restoration it deserved, complete with loving tribute from martin scorsese .
as martin scorsese says in the introduction recorded for this blu - ray, one - eyed jacks serves as a bridge between old and new hollywood. broadly speaking, old hollywood was firstly concerned with filmmaking as a business with attractions to keep audiences enticed, such as movie stars, technicolor, and vistavision—all of which are incorporated into one - eyed jacks. by contrast, new hollywood, often associated with directors such as scorsese, dennis hopper, francis ford coppola, and others, was self - consciously occupied with personal expression, which it achieved by using the genre strictures of old hollywood productions as a bedrock foundation, a safe space from which expressionism could grow and take root .
if life is the sea, then one eyed jack' s was nassau. she was the best pirate bar i had ever been to. the drink was good, decently priced (with amazing specials) .
the end of a clockwork orange is different from the one in the burgess book .
which now makes this bd one of the no - brainer purchases of the season .
' one - eyed jacks' might be considered the most self - consciously western of the sixties, and possibly of all time... it contains undoubted visual attributes, gorgeous photographic sequences of an immense sandy desert, and panoramas of the spectacular california coast... not often does one get to see the sea in a western... another of the film' s great assets is its beautiful music ...
1958, monterey ca– playing a cowboy role for the first time in his movie career, marlon brando looks like an hombre to wreckon with as he handles a six - shooter on location at monterey, calif. brando is both the star and the director of “one - eyed jacks, ” a pennebaker paramount production. — image by © bettmann / corbis
marlon brando - one - eyed jacks [ blu - ray ] [ 1961 ]: urltoken marlon brando, karl malden, pina pellicier, katy jurado, ben johnson, slim pickens, larry duran, sam gilman, timothy carey, miriam colon, charles lang jnr, frank p. rosenberg, guy trosper, calder willingham: dvd & blu - ray
i appreciate jazz as the heritage and history of new orleans, but one eyed jacks first and foremost is a rock ’n’ roll club. but we leave the door open for everyone. with the burlesque shows and other jazz stuff that we offer, showing movies and the ’80s dance night, there is a variety; it does have something for everybody .
' one - eyed jacks is largely a story of vengeance... the film begins with two american outlaws operating in mexico... rio (brando), a happy - go - lucky man who considers himself a don juan, and dad longworth (karl malden), a crooked man looking for the opportunity to settle down ...
the group of artists that released on, or remixed for, one eyed jacks include tiago, pal +, roundhouse kick, ivvvo, sabre, auxon, snuff crew, auntie flo, chrononautz, worker / parasite, violet, infestus aka dj downrock, galaxian, kruton aka bintus, voiron, ursa' s reef, lake haze and photonz themselves .
this, again, is a description of a technique rather than a guarantee of quality. the final scene of one - eyed jacks, for example, fails to achieve full closure because the film does not provide a convincing future for rio and his partner, yet the closing is framed as if no questions remain about their happiness or what will happen to them .
so even though the film’s main revenge plotline really never comes together (the final showdown between rio and dad is a little underwhelming), there is still plenty to respect about this film. for one, it looks gorgeous. of course, a lot of the westerns from this time that were shot on location in the vast expanses of america’s southwestern region tend to look pretty breathtaking, but one - eyed jacks in particular has a lot of great imagery .
indeed, coherence serves as the central heuristic approach to the film and is the source of the failure (whether “accidental” or a sign of greatness, in adorno’s sense, remains to be seen) of one - eyed jacks. alongside the strikingly incongruous structural conflict between the revenge and romance plots run a series of other contradictions that threaten to reduce the film to dramatic nonsense .
in a pivotal moment near the end of the film, rio accuses dad of being a “one - eyed jack” that only shows most people one side of his personality while rio knows the other side. the same is true of rio, of course, except that he seems to be far less calculating as to when he shows his “other” side. in the world of one - eyed jacks people are not coherent selves. they may present (as does dad) a coherent façade to others in a self - serving manner, in an effort to be accepted and gain influence. alternatively, the can (like rio) allow any sense of coherence to disintegrate into a series of actions, none of which absolutely represents the subject behind the action insofar as there is no one subject to be found .
well, he also fired sam peckinpah, who later did the “two friends on either side of the law” thing with pat garrett and billy the kid. (it’s worth noting that the novel one - eyed jacks is based on was a novelization of the career of billy the kid. perhaps garrett was merely peckinpah’s adaptation of the script he tried to get brando to do. )
horne arranged for cooper to go to one eyed jack' s with the assignment of delivering ransom money and rescuing his daughter. however, horne assigned hank jennings to follow cooper and bring back the money along with audrey. [ 7 ]
two rival motorcycle gangs terrorize a small town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail .
keep your eyes peeled for
mr. deeds goes to town
and one other title .
. to my enormous relief jacks didn’t feel cut off or cramped in the slightest. and that, to me, spells 1. 75 .
back to one podcast: keith poulson on developing as an actor in the ny indie film scene .
disruption set reaffirming alan clarke’s status as one of the key british filmmakers of the past 50 years .
racism / class: as a western, one - eyed jacks is one of the few films of its genre to treat mexicans in more than a caricatural way (the magnificent seven is a prime example of the opposite). brando has been a long - time supporter of america ’s hispanic population (see king040596 + 000. htm for an interview with larry king on television on 5 april 1996 after a racial incident involving the police). rosita (rita) moreno was credited as a technical advisor .
in his latest effort to protect and preserve motion picture history, martin scorsese proudly presented the latest restoration of “ one - eyed jacks ” at the 54th new york film festival, the only film directed by marlon brando. the restoration was helmed by the film foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to film restoration founded by scorsese himself, and played at the 2016 cannes film festival before making its way to new york .
ww2 drama that follows the lives of three young men, one german and two americans, during wartime .
ed... sat there 30 minutes and no one ever cane to help us... never
“we’re really the only independent rock and roll club in the french quarter, ” says ryan hesseling, co - owner of perennially popular club and bar, one eyed jacks. while most locals think of it as a music venue for local and mid - size traveling acts or for its famous thursday 80s night, the front bar is such a perfect encapsulation of new orleans vintage style that it’s worth a round for atmosphere alone .
so, there he goes, brando’s pal, destined to play that two - faced one - eyed jack, dad longworth, a few years down the road. if i close my eyes, i can see him again, moving along hatless, around the crowd .
marlon brandos only directorial effort, one - eyed jacks, receives a much needed upgrade from criterion, who present the film on blu - ray in its original aspect ratio of 1. 85: 1. the 1080p / 24hz high - definition presentation comes from a new 4k restoration of the film undertaken by universal pictures and the film foundation, and was scanned from the original 35mm 8 - perforation vistavision negative and a y - separation master .
i am told that brando’s original cut of the movie ran over five hours and was greatly concerned with the shades of gray in all the characters’ lives. touches of that ambiguity still remain, but as it is, one - eyed jacks seems very much like a typical early - 60s studio product. the score, too, seems rote and uninspired. the movie was, apparently, a hit, but brando disowned it and never directed again .
some of the films in the lineup include plenty of nyff debuts returning once again: gillo pontecorvo’s “the battle of algiers, ” which was the the nyff opening night selection in 1967, robert bresson’s “l’argent, ” and barbara kopple’s “harlan county usa. ” also included are a program of jacques rivette’s early short films, edward yang’s second feature “taipei story, ” kenji mizoguchi’s “ugetsu, ” and marlon brando’s solo directorial effort “one - eyed jacks. ”
journalists, famously averse to editors cutting their golden words, might sympathize with actual creators in the arts whose work meets fates like brando did, with one - eyed jacks. but, judging by what we see in the film, and can glean from brando biographies and autobiographies, his grappling with his characters’ psychology would not likely have been resolved if he had had free rein to explore and develop it during the hours’ more running time he had sought .
while on the waterfront and streetcar named desire, both directed by elia kazan, are landmark hollywood films featuring two of the most celebrated performances brando ever gave (he and malden both won oscars, malden for streetcar, brando for waterfront), one - eyed jacks is one of those compulsively quotable movies, so crazed and quirky, so rich in style, detail, and language, mood and movement, that people who “know it by heart” take it into their lives to the point where kindred spirits recognize one another whenever their paths cross. once the contact is made, these fanatics will begin reciting favorite passages, assuming the voices of the characters, and all but singing brando’s lines .
the restoration has been doing the festival circuit, and criterion collection will issue home - video packages on dvd and blu - ray, late in 2016. admirers have for years generally had to view the film in sub - standard copies, so the new release presumably will only boost the cult status of one - eyed jacks, which has stemmed from the film’s oblique take on hollywood genre conventions, and from its faithful followers’ considering it psychologically compelling and visually memorable .
22 june 1961: brando’s directorial debut brings back to the western genre a sense of period and a sense of community with the arrival of marlon brando ’s one - eyed jacks, possibly the best western film since shane, one begins to speculate all over again on the future of this thankfully inexhaustible genre. and perhaps the most important and impressive feature of brando’s piece is that it brings back to the western a sense of period, a sense of community, decidedly lacking during the last few years. related: lonely rangers: the dark side of westerns continue reading ...
jacks, however, this seems like a byproduct of a film that just went through too many rewrites in preproduction combined with an inexperienced director at the helm known for his indulgences .
in this year’s cannes and new york film festivals, martin scorsese presented a restored version of the classic western one - eyed jacks (1961), directed by film legend marlon brando. it’s the best restoration to date according to scorsese, who wanted to recover, or reproduce to some degree, the original size and quality of the vista vision format, which was used during the 50s in such movies as the ten commandments (1956) and vertigo (1958) .
and film noir, and there are certainly thematic similarities. plot - wise, one could compare this to robert siodmak’s
but the many, many delays made it one of the best (and most overlooked) westerns of the 60s .
one of the uk' s leading independent distributors of world cinema, cult, arthouse, horror and classic films .
the one - armed man named philip gerard is a reference to similarly - named lt. philip gerard from the fugitive, who was looking for richard kimble, who was himself looking for a one - armed man. [ 14 ]
, marlon brando saunters into a saloon in the dusty town of sonora, mexico. with sun - bronzed skin, slicked back hair, holster slung low, he surveys the place with a slow sweep of the head and a keen eye on the denizens. “you know that’s the movie i was named after, ” rio hackford, owner of the rock ’n’ roll bar and live - music venue one eyed jacks, tells me. “brando’s character is rio the kid. it’s one of my dad’s favorite movies. ” with a lean frame, purposeful swagger and affinity for mexican culture, hackford
and it would be easy to believe them given one eyed jacks’ gilt - framed collection of nude velvet paintings that adorn its red flocked damask wallpaper. despite the fact that only the building’s facade could be the considered of historic value, step inside for a drink and you’ll find that new orleans aesthetic style that so many visitors fall for. elements like banquette style seating, an oversized chandelier and spotty gold mirror make for the vintage, shabby glam synonymous with the city. it’s an atmosphere that draws on historical decor but one that exalts character, imperfection and exudes a strong scent of impropriety .
one - eyed jacks also has a second, even smaller bar upstairs, the matador. dark and discreet, the space evokes a 1960s feel. true to its name, velvet paintings of bulls dominate. so do echoes of james bond and secret trysts. matador’s hours are erratic and based on crowd - size and unless you’re in the know, you’d probably miss the door leading upstairs. but if you’re there on a happening night, it’s worth inquiring if the matador is open .
the studio got its misbegotten way after wearing brando down to the point he walked away and left the final editing to others. long after, when newsweek asked him about one - eyed jacks, he said: “any pretension i’ve had sometimes of being artistic is now just a long, chilly hope. ” malden claimed: “if we’d made it the way marlon wanted it made, like a greek tragedy, it could have been a breakthrough western. it could have been a classic. ”
one - eyed jacks turns many of the billy the kid clichés inside out without any obvious references to the myth, though peter manso’s biography of brando says many incidents were taken directly from the life of billy the kid and that brando had consulted many of the kid’s bios before starting filming (1994: 484). the kid' s arrest, incarceration and escape come close to the western legend about billy the kid, as seen in pekinpah' s pat garrett and billy the kid .
one - eyed jacks presents itself as the classic moral tale in asking “is rio justified in his desire to kill dad? ” and then fails to provide an adequate answer to that question. that failure is absolutely necessary in that the film puts forward a vision of the self as cipher, an incoherent jumble of actions without purpose, without cause, without explanation (beyond banalities and clichés that no one really believes in the first place - - the characters insist that those around them are liars). in this world, more accurately, there is no self, just inept flailing gestures pointing to the void .
one of several projects kubrick and harris worked on but was never film in the hiatus between paths of glory and spartacus .
one - eyed jacks is a deeply introspective western, with most of the hallmarks of the genre, that’s viscerally eaten up with the alienation of its director - actor, marlon brando. contemporary audiences who know brando less by his acting than by his tabloid reputation as a prodigious indulger, a man given to bountiful food and women, who was prone to endless re - takes on sets, might be astonished by the sense of authorial control that he exhibits here, both as filmmaker and star. the authorship of the film is somewhat debatable, of course, as brando shot miles of footage, went over budget, and reportedly turned in a five - and - a - half - hour cut that was shortened by paramount and tamed with reshoots. what scans in the surviving one - eyed jacks, however, is a sense of orchestrated chaos and blooming obsession. brando and his collaborators revel in psychological textures that retrospectively suggest a merging of the sensibilities of john ford and michelangelo antonioni .
the same questions apply to brando’s directing effort in one - eyed jacks. it' s an action film with precious little action. it' s a romance that seems almost devoid of genuine emotion. it' s a character study without coherent characters. the film acts as though it offers explanations. the characters hold forth, telling of their past, their interpretations of that past, and their hopes for a future. but nothing is explained, really. every effort is mere grasping at sand .
for one, setting it in the seaside town of monterey leads to plenty of fantastic looking shots of its characters set against these vistas where the land meets the sea (supposedly brando spent hours waiting to set up the film’s ocean shots so they looked just right). also, the fact that it was paramount’s final film to be shot in vistavision, which offers a crystal clear, expansive look to its locations and characters, helps. which also makes it come as no surprise that despite the film’s disappointing critical and box office reception, cinematographer charles lang was nominated for an oscar for his work on one - eyed jacks .
all smiles: everything looks deceptively convivial as dad longworth (karl malden), his wife (katy jurado) and stepdaughter luisa (pina pellicier) host dads old sidekick, rio, the kid (marlon brando), except that rio is planning to seduce luisa and kill dad. among the many beauties in one - eyed jacks is the scene where luisa confesses to her mother. pelliciers performance is unforgettable and is marked by an all - too convincing vulnerability. in 1964, she took her own life .
one - eyed jacks came into a particular time of his life. in the 50s he had consolidated himself as the biggest movie actor in the world but a particular personal tragedy eclipsed all the joys of success and lust. his mother, the only person who had encouraged his sensitive acting side, died while he was making on the waterfront (1954). after that he basically stopped caring that much for the industry and his idea of directing was influenced is some part by this feeling of disbelief. he had become a truly indomitable force and felt that there was no one out there but himself that could tame that rage and frustration .
marlon brando' s only directorial effort, one - eyed jacks, has always stood outside of the norm. positioned between old and new hollywood, in both style as well as technical attributes, it was a film that 1961 audiences found confusing in some ways. bosley crowther, then lead critic for the new york times, commented :
what is extraordinary about it is that it proceeds in two contrasting styles. one is hard and realistic; the other is romantic and lush. all the way through it runs a jangle of artistic ambivalence. it is as if it had been directed jointly by john huston and raoul walsh .
a standard riff among champions of one - eyed jacks is that paramount foiled brando’s grand conception. in the record of tussle between auteur and studio executives, they have no trouble finding reasons to flatter their idol. brando wanted paramount to take a 4 - hour - 42 - minute cut to the cinemas – the cut he had reduced his original eight hours to, under studio pressure – but paramount, already perturbed at how over budget the production was, managed to pare him back to 141 minutes, fully one - half his preferred length. paramount did that by, for example, losing sequences in the sonoro prison where rio nurtured his thirst for revenge .
for years i have been waiting for a good print of this very fine western. mandacy dvd has a version that is terrible. then the other day i' m at best buy, and i see one - eyed jacks in a widescreen version from diamond video on dvd. for $ 7. 99! !! i figure, what - the - hell. i can always get my money back. it is a great transfer. it is the best money i have ever spent on a dvd. this is one of my favorite westerns. a real brooding film about revenge. marlon brando made this his only directing effort. to bad. this is one of his best performances. if you' ve never seen it, treat yourself. you won' t be sorry .
as it finally appeared, one - eyed jacks is the story of “kid” rio (marlon brando), a bank - robber on the mexican border who is abandoned to the police by his partner “dad” longworth. when rio, now planning a robbery with another gang, tracks down “dad” again, the older man has married a mexican woman with a grown daughter and become sheriff of the small town of monterrey, california, where the bank raid is to take place. rio visits “dad” at home and meets the step - daughter .
in april 2002, hackford and ryan hesseling, along with general manger cory allen, founded one eyed jacks. the seductive red, black and gold decor echoes mexican saloons and bordellos: velvet - flocked damask wallpaper, black - velvet paintings of half - clad senoritas and matadors, votives, mirrors, a giant chandelier. a horseshoe - shaped bar dominates the main room and a heavily draped stage evokes the toulouse theatre that was housed in the building so long ago. tucked in a cozy corner above a padded booth hangs a framed
mrs miller and its release of marlon brando’s one eyed jacks. in the end i opted for the latter, based solely on the power of the truly staggering restoration that carries the brando film. this disc has the potential to be legacy - salvaging, with the film having unfairly languished in public - domain limbo for the past couple of decades. coincidentally my favourite masters of cinema disc was also a western, its release of anthony mann’s the man from laramie, presented via a 4k restoration and with a number of handsome extras .
always a blast with great food and awesome service. one of the few places still around where local music and art can thrive !
the best of several dvd versions of “one - eyed jacks” is from platinum video. maybe malden’s death will encourage paramount to finally put out a special edition. now if only someone could dig up the four hours of lost scenes in the prison and japanese fishing village. of the numerous books about brando, the latest is stefan kanfer’s “somebody: the reckless life and remarkable career of marlon brando” (knopf 2008), which i’ve consulted for this column. malden’s “anonymity” quote is from an interview on serbblog by m. v. pejakovich .
i found myself thinking about the aesthetic qualities of failure when viewing the film one - eyed jacks (1961), marlon brando’s only directorial effort, which will be running in new york city at film forum 14 - 20 october. the production history of the film is fascinating. it was originally to be scripted by sam peciknpah (an even earlier script was penned by rod serling) and directed by stanley kubrick. brando’s production company paid for the rights to the story and he soon fired peckinpah and then kubrick. brando decided to direct .
brandoland, a website that tracks all matters relating to marlon brando, noted: “one eyed jacks” is considered by many movie critics to be a classic. [ … ] and in europe, the film is a cult classic. ” manso focuses on its many good reviews: “the new york daily news gave it four stars, calling the film ‘stunning, ’ just as time, the new york post, and the new yorker used words like ‘startlingly beautiful, ’ ‘top - hole, forceful, and lively, ’ and ‘spectacular…graphic and sickening. ’”
1959, hollywood, ca– realism gets too real for actor marlon brando in the pennebaker - paramount western “one - eyed jacks” as he fights with actor slim pickens. brando, (facing camera), is attempting a jailbreak, is spotted by pickens, who hits him with the butt of his rifle. in the scuffle, brando was gashed over the right eye, which required several stitches. brando who directed the picture, told the cameraman to print the shot, as he did not want the realism lost. — image by © bettmann / corbis
, but brando was adamant that it go to his good friend karl malden. according to one account, a frustrated kubrick confronted brando :
i don' t remember if this is the only thread about the coming restored release but it' s the only one i found .
well it' s now official that one - eyed jacks will finally be seen properly on home video via the criterion collection in blu ray come nov 22. what i don' t fully understand why the great music score by hugo friedhofer isn' t going to be in stereo when it was recorded that way. kritzerland records released a very fine 2 disc recording of the original score and soundtrack album all in stereo. why couldn' t the people' in charge' think of friedhofer' s score and present it in it' s best light ?
12. the gunfighter (henry king, 1950) with a theme resembling a greek tragedy that evolved into one of the great western clichés, ageing gunslinger gregory peck tries to put his bloody past behind him only to find that there’s always one more little squirt kid to outdraw .
the first saturday of jazz fest 10 years ago was the opening of el matador. and the first saturday of jazz fest this year i got terry reid, who’s a total idol of mine, to play at one eyed jacks. he’s the guy who originally turned down jimmy page [ when ] asked to sing in led zeppelin. he was doing his own thing at the time opening up for the rolling stones, and said, ‘no, i can’t, but go check out my pals [ robert plant and john bonham ]. ’ unfortunately that’s what he’s most known for .
great stuff! at the end of last year we had, spartacus & my fair lady, & this year it' s one - eyed jacks, i wonder what the goodie will be late next year? i do have a multi - region player (although it is still in the box), but i' m going to wait for a bit, it' s bound to be released in europe (b) & i' d like to support that, if the wait is too long, i' m sure i' ll cave in & buy the criterion .
although brando would never again find himself behind the camera, he acquitted himself well, winning favourable—if not enthusiastic—reviews as both director and star. however, his lack of discipline resulted in costly budget overruns. his final cut ran more than five hours, and paramount executives eventually shortened the film into a still - leisurely 141 minutes. although occasionally uneven, one - eyed jacks is a compelling morality tale, with strong chemistry between brando and malden. brando’s reputation suffered further in 1962 when the box - office failure of mgm ’s mutiny on the bounty was blamed on his recalcitrant behaviour during production .
one - eyed jacks has been in public domain long enough to inspire many infamously and dispiritingly faded cheapie dvds, designed to court your western - loving dad' s eye in a discount walmart bin. working with universal pictures and filmmakers martin scorsese and steven spielberg, criterion has restored to the film its epic formal majesty. the technicolor is ravishing, with deep reds and blacks, and multifaceted browns and grays. the clarity of this restoration also reminds one of the intoxicating sense of detail that vistavision can provide. facial contours, obviously important to a study of faces, are pristine and tactile. the soundtrack resounds with booming body, which is particularly evident when rendering the waves crashing against the california coastline. a gorgeous and important restoration .
three book editors decide as a joke to invent a world wide conspiracy theory. the game turns deadly when they start to disappear one by one. foucault' s pendulum is italian semiotics professor umberto eco' s satirical take on conspiracy theories, the illuminati and secularisation of religion in the modern age .
he was preparing
ai
for some time, as he was
eyes wide shut
and he was determined after the screenplay that collectively we did not go forward on it, which was really his choice. he decided to have more than one choice the next time. so he took an extra year or two and was working on more than one project at the same time. one was eyes wide shut and the other was ai .
that all led brando to hire guy trosper, who until that point was known for writing two baseball movies — the stratton story in 1949 which had starred james stewart, and the pride of st. louis in 1952, which drew an oscars nomination — and the execrable 1957 elvis presley star turn, jailhouse rock. (curiously, the willingham script of one - eyed jacks that trosper completed was adapted by bülent oran in 1965 for a turkish bandit potboiler, daglarin oglu (“son of the mountain”), by the prolific yilmaz atadeniz. (you’d hardly credit it, but an atrocious copy is on youtube. )
there are so many of these references that some have suggested the links might mean sk is creating one giant film over the course of his whole career .
one - eyed jacks broadly retells the story of pat garrett and billy the kid, in which an outlaw goes straight and pursues his former ally. dad abandons rio in the mexican desert, which brando renders in astonishingly intense wind - swept tableaus that synonymize rio’s entrapment and heartbreak. years later, after a bold ellipsis, rio escapes prison and tracks dad down to monterey, discerning this information in one of the film’s greatest scenes. sitting in a nearly empty bar, rio is approached by bob emory (ben johnson) about a bank heist, which the men discuss in poetically terse stanzas of one - upmanship. bob baits rio with knowledge of dad’s whereabouts, and brando conveys rio’s curiosity with a sigh of accommodation that’s so pregnant with emotion yet so submerged that it’s purposefully comical. this is brando at the peak of his powers, playing with an audience’s expectations of the moment, while coloring in contours of personality between the lines .
that made this splendid re - release possible. as marlon brando’s sole directorial effort, it perfectly encapsulates his position as a movie star, one foot in the old studio system, one foot in the new cinema school, but his head entirely in the clouds, above it all, pursuing his own dream .
for universal pictures, one - eyed jacks is about the thirtieth project it has completed since announcing a restoration agenda during universal’s centennial in 2012; among them has been another iconic western, clint eastwood’s high plains drifter. the company plans another 25 releases during the next year or so. in 2015, it announced a silent - film initiative in which it will restore about 15 films from its first decades, including murder drama the last warning, oh doctor starring reginald denny and mary astor, tod browning’s outside the law, and sensation seekers, about a “man of god” who falls in love with a “jazz - crazed butterfly. ”
“it is an oddity of this film, ” a variety review held, “that both its strength and its weakness lie in the area of characterization. brando’s concept calls, above all, for depth of character, for human figures endowed with overlapping good and bad sides to their nature. ” instead, the release of a restored one - eyed jacks brings into sharper focus that brando was unable to separate his own psychology from what his characters’ might have been. dave kehr in chicago reader observed: “the most memorable scenes have a fierce masochistic intensity, as if brando were taking the opportunity to punish himself for some unknown crime. ”
one-eyed jacks is a 1961 western film directed by marlon brando ; it was the first and only film directed by him . it was originally planned to be directed by stanley kubrick from a screenplay by sam peckinpah , but studio disputes led to their replacement by brando and guy trosper . brando portrays the lead character rio , and karl malden plays his partner , " dad " longworth . the supporting cast features katy jurado , ben johnson , and slim pickens . 
one-eyed jacks is a 1961 western film directed by marlon brando; it was the first and only film directed by him. it was originally planned to be directed by stanley kubrick from a screenplay by sam peckinpah, but studio disputes led to their replacement by brando and guy trosper. brando portrays the lead character rio, and karl malden plays his partner, " dad " longworth. the supporting cast features katy jurado, ben johnson, and slim pickens.
one-eyed jacks is a 1961 western film directed by marlon brando; it was the first and only film directed by him. it was originally planned to be directed by stanley kubrick from a screenplay by sam peckinpah, but studio disputes led to their replacement by brando and guy trosper. brando portrays the lead character rio, and karl malden plays his partner, " dad " longworth. the supporting cast features katy jurado, ben johnson, and slim pickens.