World Premiere of “The Ballad of Lefty Brown” Screens at SXSW

 

                    

Genre:  Western
Director/Screenwriter:  Jared Moshe
Length:  111 minutes
Cast:  Bill Pullman, Kathy Baker, Jim Caviezel, Tommy Flanagan, Peter Fonda, Joe Anderson, Diego Josef, Michael Spears, Lewis Pullman, Joseph Anderson
Reviewer:  Connie Wilson

 

Bill Pullman has been acting for 30 years and co-owns a cattle ranch in Montana with his brother near Whitehall, Montana.  The opportunity to star as Lefty Brown, the lead in the western “The Ballad of Lefty Brown,” set in Montana (which premiered at SXSW on Friday, March 10), was a rare confluence of star and role intersecting.

Lefty is a 63-year-old cowboy. Pullman is a 63-year-old actor.  Pullman told Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood: “I am doing a story about an old codger and most of the people I know in Montana are old codgers, so I even roped some of them into being extras.”

Pullman called Jared Moshe’s second directorial effort “a perfect storm” of coincidence and told interviewers that he lived (part-time) only twenty minutes away from the countryside where filming took place. The wide-screen vistas of Montana country are beautiful, indeed, especially when captured on Kodak film. The use of film was much remarked upon by the participants in the film, and the great cinematography by David McFarland reminds of old westerns. Director Moshe said, after the showing of the film, “You need real film in westerns to get the feel, the grain.” The sound was also wonderful.

The Ballad of Left Brown
Connie Wilson Photo

Lefty Brown is a throwback to the days of sidekicks like Gabby Hayes or Walter Brennan in classic westerns from Howard Hawks and John Ford. Lefty is a 63-year-old illiterate ranch hand who has ridden beside Eddie Johnson (Peter Fonda) for 40 years. As one line spoken by Lefty put it: “I’m the man who never got anything right in over 60 odd years.”

But now Eddie Johnson (Peter Fonda) and his wife Laura (Kathy Baker) are on their way to Washington, where Eddie is to be the new Senator from the state of Montana. Eddie (Fonda) has confidence in Lefty’s ability to keep the home spread running (although why is a good question.)

Mrs. Johnson, Laura, has her doubts about whether Lefty is up to the task. She shares those doubts with her husband just before the two men ride off to find out who has rustled three horses from their fields. It is not long after this that Eddie, (just as he is announcing his confidence in him to longtime friend Lefty and bestowing his treasured rifle on the old cowboy), is shot dead by a sniper, while Lefty is left in the dust. 

So, you’ve got Peter Fonda for roughly ten minutes of this film. When Lefty finally rises, he has the unenviable task of taking Fonda’s body back to the ranch, draped over his horse’s saddle horn. His wife is distraught and angry.

 Lefty vows to get revenge for the killing of his boss and friend, but “the bad guy” (Jim Caveziel as Governor James Bierce) sets Lefty up to take the fall. The tension does not ratchet up as it should in the third act. The IMDB ratings for the film from regular film-goers were in the 50-something range when last I checked. Yet “Variety” and others herald Pullman’s turn as Lefty as “his best acting in years.”

Pullman, who has been in such films as “Ruthless People,” “Spaceballs,” “The Accidental Tourist,” “Independence Day” and “While You Were Sleeping,” finally got the chance to play the lead. It’s too bad the character seems like a dim-wit and the script isn’t fast-paced enough to hold the attention of today’s audience(s).

I sat next to three publicists (working on another film) at SXSW, all young pretty girls. They pulled out their cell phones moments into the The Ballad of Lefty Brown(even though this is strictly verboten), never put them down, and, ultimately, got up and left. The three seats next to me were then filled by three others in search of entry to the sold-out showing. They also got up and left before the film’s finale.

You can draw any conclusions you want from the exit of six people seated next to me before the film’s finale.

The last occupant of the seat nearest me, noticing my notepad, said, “What did you think?”

My response? “Kind of slow-moving. But pretty.”

In the Q&A following the Premiere, Writer/Director Jared Moshe said, “I wanted to know who’s this man behind the archetype,” noting that westerns are “our mythology.” The rest of the cast chimed in to laud Pullman’s role playing a man who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, saying, “It’s not one performance. It’s all of your performances. It’s all those aspects of Lefty Brown.”

 I tried to remember a performance from Pullman where he seemed quite as dumb. I came up short. This slow-witted demeanor can be attributed to portraying the character as scripted. All I can tell you is that it didn’t capture the attention of 6  people sitting next to me during the premiere. I hung in there till the end, to hear the actors Q&A onstage afterwards. (One exclaimed, “We’re shooting film!” as though he had just discovered gold).

Another said, “I loved it. For me, it was an amazing experience being out in the middle of Montana.”

 Pullman, himself, said, “I kind of felt they might take it (the role) away from me, but then I realized I didn’t want anyone else riding that horse.”

James Caviezel, most recently on the television series “Person of Interest,” but also memorable in “The Passion of the Christ” and “Frequency,” shared with the audience that this is the third film he has made with Bill Pullman, the other two being “The Thin Red Line,” where he portrayed Pvt. Witt, and “Wyatt Earp.” Caviezel praised Pullman’s hard-working skill as an actor, saying, “This man is special.  Seamless. No seams in it.  He had everything in his portrayal of Lefty—mannerisms and everything. We were shooting the climactic scene in the office late one night and I was running on empty, but Bill was right on the money. I was running on fumes. Afterwards, I went outside and threw up.”

Well, I did not go outside and throw up. I was sorry that I didn’t like the The Ballad of Lefty Brown more, because I like the actors in it and the cinematography and sound were great. It was just slow. To quote a line from the script, “Sorry don’t get it done.”

ACTING:  9/10

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  10/10

PLOT/SCREENPLAY:  5/10

SETTING/THEME:  7/10

BUYABILITY:  4/10

RECYCLABILITY:  4/10

Comment with Facebook
  • Acting - 9/10
    9/10
  • Cinematography - 10/10
    10/10
  • Plot/Screenplay - 5/10
    5/10
  • Setting/Theme - 7/10
    7/10
  • Buyability - 4/10
    4/10
  • Recyclability - 4/10
    4/10
Overall
6.5/10
6.5/10

Warning: Illegal string offset 'Movie' in /home/themov15/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-review-pro/includes/functions.php on line 2358

About Connie Wilson

Connie (Corcoran) Wilson (www.ConnieCWilson.com ) was the Quad City Times film and book critic for 15 years and has continued reviewing film uninterruptedly since 1970. She also publishes books in a variety of genres (www.quadcitieslearning.com), has taught writing or literature classes at 6 Iowa/Illinois colleges or universities as adjunct faculty, was Yahoo's Content Producer of the Year 2008 for Politics, is the author of It Came from the 70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now, and writes on a variety of topics at her own blog, www.WeeklyWilson.com. Weekly Wilson is also the name of her podcast on the Bold Brave Media Global Network on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. (CDT).

9 thoughts on “World Premiere of “The Ballad of Lefty Brown” Screens at SXSW

  1. True. Different strokes for different folks. The reason I couldn’t relate to Casey Affleck’s character in Manchester by the Sea, is because I am a psychotherapist, and I know that people with severe PTSD don’t grieve or behave the way his character did. They either dissociate, and function in denial, with occasional intense flashbacks, or they kill themselves. They do not behave like depressive volcanoes, always about to erupt. But, as you say of Pullman in the Ballad of Lefty Brown, Affleck played the role it as it was written. Meanwhile, you apparently experienced the disaffection for the film amongst the people around you in the theatre. Which day was it at the South by Southwest Festival that you saw the movie? I saw it at the premiere, on Saturday, March 11th at the Stateside, and the people around me seemed to love the film, and what seemed to be the whole audience broke into loud and sustained applause at the end. If you and I were at the same performance, we experienced the audience reaction in profoundly different lights. Clearly each of us has our own filter, through which we perceive reality. Another point: you wrote in your review that what you liked about the film was the actors. Now, you say that “Pullman is a good actor,” and that he played the part the way it was written (faint praise from my perspective), and that the rest of the cast performed “adequately.” Did you have a change of heart, or am I getting confused by your choice of words? Lastly, you cite Variety’s review (by Joe Leydon) to support one of your points, but you fail to mention that Variety’s overall review was extremely positive, and that Leydon apparently really liked the film.

  2. That is true. Different strokes for different folks. I couldn’t identify with Casey Affleck’s character in Manchester by the Sea, mostly because I am a psychotherapist, and I know that people with severe PTSD don’t grieve the way his character did, like a depressed volcano always about to erupt. They either dissociate and function most of the time in denial, with intermittent intense flashbacks, or they kill themselves. So, his character’s behavior did not ring true to me at all. But as you say of Pullman, Affleck played the part the way it was written. Meanwhile, you experienced disaffection for the film amongst people around you. I don’t know which day it was that you saw the film, but I saw it on Saturday at Stateside for the premiere, and all the people around me seemed to love the film, as did the larger audience when they broke into enthusiastic and sustained applause at the end. But clearly, we all have our own filters, which influence how we perceive things. Another thing: in your review you wrote that what you liked about the film was the actors. In your comments now, you say that Pullman is a “good actor,” who played the part the way it was written (faint praise from my perspective), and the rest of the cast was “adequate.” Did you have a change of heart, or am I getting confused by your word choice? Also, you mention Variety’s review (by Joe Leydon), to support one of your points, which is accurate, but you seem to overlook the fact that Leydon wrote a really strong review, which indicates that overall he loved the film.

  3. You are correct that (and I quote) “one’s perception of pace has to do with our identification with the characters and their drama.” You mention “Manchester by the Sea” as a film that you “had trouble relating to the central character, and so it felt slow to me.” I was thoroughly invested in Casey Affleck’s angst and guilt; it held my interest throughout.However, I experienced a similar inability to fully relate to the characters in “Moonlight,” which the Chicago Independent Film Critics’ Circle (to which I belong), voted Best Picture of the Year. It certainly was a good film, but relating to the experience(s) of Little was more difficult for me than relating to “La La Land,” for example. Or “Twentieth Century Women.” Or “Captain Fantastic.” As I said before, Bill Pullman is a good actor. He played the part as written. It simply seemed to me (and those around me) that the film, itself, failed to engage well enough to hold readers’ interest in this day and age of short attention spans. Especially the ending did not “ramp up” to grab us more successfully. Since my reviewing goes back to 1970, I hang in there pretty well while plots are set up in a more leisurely fashion, but, as I quoted, no less a source than “Variety” noted some third act problems engaging with the audience. The film, shot on Kodak film, had beautiful Montana cinematography. The cast, in general, performed adequately. I was sorry, given all that, that I did not like the movie more. But, as the old saying goes, “different strokes for different folks.”

  4. Well, this discrepancy between our perceptions of pace and level of engagement provided by The Ballad of Lefty Brown, may demonstrate how subjective film watching can be. Unlike you, the people with whom I attended the premiere and I found the movie to be fully engaging and not slow at all. I think that part of one’s perception of pace has to do with our identification with the characters and their drama. You referred to Lefty as a “dim-wit,” so you seemingly couldn’t particularly relate to his travails. That has happened to me before while watching movies (Manchester by the Sea, for instance), in which I had trouble relating to the central character, and so it felt slow to me. But, I did relate very strongly to Pullman’s Lefty, as I tend to relate to underdogs in general. I found this particular underdog to be poignant and lovable, and my interest in his trajectory stimulated my perception of pace. I found the denouement to be very satisfying, in large part because it felt like a triumph of will and moral good, in the face of daunting personal limitations.

  5. Pullman is a good actor. The film is slow, but pretty. And I’m sorry that it was so slow, because I would have enjoyed it being much, much more engrossing.

  6. In my previous, un-posted reaction to Connie Wilson’s review of The Ballad of Lefty Brown, I misnamed MovieManChad, who also reviewed the movie. In this era of “fake news,” I strive to be accurate, so my apologies for that one. Also, one more thought I had about Ms. Wilson’s review: I was perplexed by her comment: ” I tried to remember a performance from Pullman where he seemed quite as dumb. I came up short. This slow-witted demeanor can be attributed to portraying the character as scripted.” Exactly, this is why they call it acting! Lefty is a CHARACTER, not Bill Pullman. Although I think it is mostly irrelevant, Pullman HAS, in fact, played a dumber character than Lefty, to equally good effect. As I recall, he played the hilariously hapless Earl in Ruthless People. That may have been his first movie. But Earl was also a CHARACTER, not the real life Bill Pullman. His film performances as very different characters (in which he also played lead roles), in such movies as Lost Highway, While you Were Sleeping, Casper and The Last Seduction, show Pullman’s great range as an actor. The fact that he could play those characters, who obviously don’t fit Wilson’s description of Pullman’s Lefty as “not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” and also play the beleaguered Lefty so believably, has nothing to do with Pullman’s own character, but everything to do with his skill as an actor.

  7. In my previous, yet to be posted reaction to Connie Wilson’s review of The Ballad of Lefty Brown, I misnamed MovieManChad, who also reviewed the movie. In this era of “fake news,” I strive to be accurate, so my apologies for that one. Also, one more thought I had about Ms. Wilson’s review: I was perplexed by her comment: ” I tried to remember a performance from Pullman where he seemed quite as dumb. I came up short. This slow-witted demeanor can be attributed to portraying the character as scripted.” Exactly, Lefty is a CHARACTER, not Bill Pullman. Although I think it is mostly irrelevant, Pullman HAS, in fact, played a dumber character than Lefty, to equally good effect. As I recall, he played the hilariously hapless Earl in Ruthless People. That may have been his first movie. But Earl was also a CHARACTER, not the real life Bill Pullman. His film performances as very different characters (in which he also played lead roles), in such movies as Lost Highway, While you Were Sleeping, and The Last Seduction, show Pullman’s great range as an actor. The fact that he could play those characters, who obviously don’t fit Wilson’s description of Pullman’s Lefty as “not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” and also play the beleaguered Lefty so believably, has nothing to do with Pullman’s own character, but everything to do with his skill as an actor.

    1. Here are my comments written previously, which I apparently failed to post adequately.

      Connie Wilson’s review of The Ballad of Left Brown was disappointing to me, as someone who loves this film. She bases much of her criticism of the film on the fact that three “young pretty girls” working as publicists for another film, used their cell phones while watching the film, and seemed disinterested. She also writes, “It’s too bad the character seems like a dim-wit and the script isn’t fast-paced enough to hold the attention of today’s audience(s).” Firstly, Bill Pullman’s sublime characterization of Lefty does not represent Lefty as a “dim-wit” at all. He represents him poignantly and lovingly as the illiterate, sidekick follower, suddenly way over his head, after his boss, the legendary cowboy is killed. Lefty’s struggles “to transcend his limitations” (as another critic wrote) are epic and universal. This film is beautifully human, in it’s courage to represent “everyman” as the hero. As to Wilson’s complaint that the movie was too slow paced for today’s audience, I have two comments. One is that she references the third act as the slowest, when, in my perception the third act was the quickest and most exciting. Perhaps she had tuned about by then, maybe distracted by the cell phones of her seat-mates, and possibly by movie fatigue, assuming she had been watching films at the festival all day. Secondly, if she thinks that this film is too slow paced for today’s audience, how does she account for the fact that the audience at the premiere broke into prolonged, spontaneous applause as soon as the film ended. Fortunately, there are many other reviews that really got this film, and fully appreciated Pullman’s sensational acting. If you want, check out my “user” review of The Ballad of Lefty Brown on IMDb, or Joe Leydon’s review in Variety, Chadthemovieman’s review on Youtube etc.. I believe Ms. Wilson will prove to be on the wrong side of history, when Bill Pullman is nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Ballad of Lefty Brown.

Leave a Reply