Forty Guns

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Alec B 02/20/2024 A lean, mean noir western. Unsurprisingly, Stanwyck knocks it out of the park here See more Steve D 07/08/2023 B-western but a good one. See more 04/17/2022 You have got to hand it to Barbara Stanwyck, she just has to sit still, unmoving and she still conveys a sense of authority. Her expression and her intensity is nearly unmatched among her contemporaries. "Forty Guns" is wonderful whenever she is on the screen. It is a beautifully filmed western that blurs the lines of hero and villain. It obviously borrows heavily from the Earp's of Tombstone, though that is rarely commented on. See more 03/18/2022 A lean, mean noir western. Unsurprisingly, Stanwyck knocks it out of the park here. See more 02/12/2021 Campy double entendres crackle throughout, writerly to the core, and all classically Fuller. It's a two-way race for best exchange in Forty Guns, the first being the aftermath of a first kiss between a female gunsmith and her new beau. "Any recoil?," she coyly asks. The other, between Jessica and Griff, climaxes as she's asking to see his gun. "It might go off in your face," he warns. "I'll take a chance,"she replies. And she takes the chance, indeed. The characters make hard-bitten pronouncements, observations gleaned through their palpable years of experience. Griff, desperate to preserve his younger brother's innocence in terms of having never taken human life, tells him, "In my heart I've always asked forgiveness before I kill, just like an Indian asking for forgiveness from an animal before the slaughter. You can't ask after you kill- it's too late then." The arc of this relationship might be the true tragedy of the piece. Fuller's dialogue, like the stories they're masterfully woven into, isn't intended to be "historical". It is, however, rooted firmly in emotional truth- real truths, independent to each picture. Fuller didn't care to recreate reality; he was in the business of spinning what he referred to as "yarns". And he spun ‘em hard and memorable, wherever he went. See more 06/16/2020 This is not your stereotypical western; I've never seen a western movie that is so effectively and artistically dramatic! Yes, its a black and white movie, but it is filmed in stunning, enhancing cinemascope! Samuel Fuller used the cinematography perfectly in this movie to display a dark and dreary tone. See more Read all reviews

Forty Guns

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