Susan Granger's review of "HI-LO COUNTRY" (Gramercy Pictures)
Leave it to an English director, Stephen Frears ("The Grifters," "Dangerous Liaisons," "Mary Reilly'), to combine American idealism with fading cowboy credos. Adapted by Walon Green ("The Wild Bunch") from a 1961 novel by Max Evans, the story, set in a prairie town called Hi-Lo in rural New Mexico, revolves around Woody Harrelson as Big Boy Matson. He's still into hard livin' - drivin' cattle, drinkin', fightin', and chasin' women - but - in the post W.W. II era - he's out of place. He's like a demented Peter Pan, a boastful kid who won't grow up. The story begins with Billy Crudup sitting in a van with a shotgun across his lap, saying, "I once set out to kill someone." Utilizing flashbacks, we learn the circumstances which led up to his dilemma. Pivotal to the problem is his obsession with flirtatious Patricia Arquette, who is unhappily married to a spineless wimp and hot for his rough-and-ready best friend and business partner. "A good woman is like a good horse 'n she's got bottom" is the way Big Boy puts it. Then there's wily Sam Elliott as a cold-blooded, land-grabbing, wealthy rancher, an obvious villain. "Trust is everything" is Big Boy's motto but, nevertheless, their friendship is at stake. All of this violent, macho turmoil is set against Oliver Stapleton's magnificent big sky cinematography and to the music of Carter Burdwell's evocative score. It's no wonder that the late Sam Peckinpah struggled for years to try to get this picture made. Acting-wise, Harrelson and Crudup are bold and me morable but Ms. Arquette is, at best, insipid. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Hi-Lo Country" is a simmering 7, a lusty homespun homage to the traditional Old West of John Ford and Howard Hawks.
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