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Man Called Gannon (A)
R2 - United Kingdom - Simply Media Review written by and copyright: Matthew Crossman (21st March 2016). |
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The Film
 Gannon (Anthony Franciosa) is a seasoned cowboy who drives cattle across the country. Work is beginning to become thin on the ground since the expansions of the railroads across the West of America and Gannon illegally rides these trains looking for work. Whilst on such a train he witnesses a young man called Jess Washburn (Michael Sarrazin) get thrown off the train and beaten by the conductor. As the train begins to pull out Jess’ hand lays across the tracks with him unconscious. Gannon jumps down and rescues Jess before hauling him onto the train. During their ride the conductor finds another stowaway and whilst trying to evict him from the train a fight ensues. Gannon and Jess witness the fight and see the stowaway pull a knife on the conductor and kill him. The next morning the train is halted and two deputies from town haul the stowaways off the train, all six of them, including Gannon and Jess, in an effort to find out who killed the conductor. Jess is accused but Gannon forces the real perpetrator to show himself. When he does he attacks Gannon with the knife but Gannon overpowers him. The deputies arrest the man and agree to split the reward with Gannon. To get his reward Gannon must stay in town for a few days. At the lodging house Gannon meets up, quite unexpectedly, with an old flame called Matty (Susan Oliver). Matty manages to persuade Gannon to stay on in town and take a job at the ranch. Jess also joins up with the ranch. Their first morning on the job Jess antagonises the top hand of the ranch and Gannon takes Jess under his wing by teaching him about being a ranch hand. Jess learns quickly and becomes a valuable member of the team. The owner of the ranch, Beth Cross (Judi West), has a head of thirteen hundred cattle coming in but the problem is that she shares the range with another ranch. The owner of the other ranch believes that the range cannot cope a winter with the extra cattle that Beth is brining in and starts to divide the range with posts and barbed wire, something that most cowboys and ranch owners despise but it is seen as some as the civilisation of the West. Jess continues to antagonise the top hand of Beth’s ranch and after a brutal fight, a fight that Gannon intercedes in, Jess storms off the ranch believing his right to a fight with the top hand has been denied him and he blames Gannon. Meanwhile Beth asks Gannon to help her stop the barbed wire going up but Gannon refuses and instead asks her to sell the cattle coming in. Events eventually come to ahead when Jess decides to help Beth and Matty tells Gannon that he has to start to accept responsibility for Jess as it was Gannon that taught him to shoot and put a horse underneath him, all things that could end up getting Jess killed. ‘A Man Called Gannon’ is based on the book ‘A Man Without A Star’ by Dee Lindford. The book had previously been filmed in 1955 starring Kirk Douglas. This version veers off on a different tangent from the former film and cannot quite make up it’s mind about what sort of film it wants to be. At times ‘A Man Called Gannon’ is comedic, serious, and off beat without ever settling on one overall tone. It’s a rather unusual western in many respects featuring ranch wars as it does and portraying it’s females characters in a strong light (although both the women to heavily feature still have rather loose morals.) Both the leading men are portrayed extremely well with Franciosa especially revelling in the role. His easy going ruggedness is completely believable and this viewer could not help but be charmed by the character. As Matty says to Gannon towards the end of the movie; ‘A lot of people have met you, Gannon, but very few forget you’. The film is peppered with lots of folksy songs which date it to the late sixties and on occasion seem rather out of place. Director James Goldstone appears to be aiming for realism in his sets and locations rather than putting up on screen what we perceive to be ‘the wild west’ and this is to the Director’s credit and seats the movie in a realistic manner which only aides the overall effect. Whilst ‘A Man Called Gannon’ is never going to be in any Western fan’s top ten (or even twenty) favourite films it most definitely is worth seeking out for a well acted, well scripted, alternative view of life was like at the later end of the nineteenth century.
Video
This DVD from Simply Media presents ‘A Man Called Gannon’ in it’s original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Despite a caveat at the beginning of the DVD warning the viewer of the archival nature of the film the presentation is really rather good. I doubt very much that much, or any for that matter, restoration work has been carried out on the print, but it looks absolutely fine. There are no scratches, speckles or heavy grain whatsoever and whilst the picture, occasionally, may look a little on the soft side, I suspect that this is a very good representation of how the film looked upon it’s original release in 1969.
Audio
The only option is the English Dolby Digital dual mono soundtrack. It’s a very clear soundtrack with the dialogue of the film at the forefront throughout. The musical interludes are strong through the speakers but never overpowering. The presentation of gunfire on the soundtrack seems a little hollow but this stage I’m being picky. The film is a talky drama and the audio presentation on this DVD is well presented and perfectly acceptable for a film approaching it’s fiftieth birthday. There are no subtitles available on this disc.
Extras
None.
Overall
I really enjoyed ‘A Man Called Gannon’. All the characters are well portrayed and have decent back stories which are nicely introduced to the viewer. Many of the usual clichés found in Westerns are missing (all though some still remain) and the movie comes across as a relatively fresh approach to the genre. Whilst it doesn’t have the dramatic impact that many Westerns have it is a good story, well told and well worth seeking out if men astride horses wearing big hats is your particular affection when it comes to the movies.
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