Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford star in this
preposterous epic which I loved and hated simultaneously. It is grim and it is
stupid but it was full of adventure and depression.The cowboys are dour and
hard, the aliens are mean and bad things, and it all seems fascinating. This is
an unloved film for sure, but since it’s been on the Movie Channel this month
I’ve taken a shine to it.
The Old West, where a lone cowboy (Daniel
Craig) leads an uprising against a terror from beyond our world. 1873 Arizona
Territory, a stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert
town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that
encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don't
welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do
so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). It's a town that lives
in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend
as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with
breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one,
these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the
stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger
slowly starts to remember who he is and where he's been, he realizes he holds a
secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With
the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse
comprised of former opponents-townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and
Apache warriors-all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy,
they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival. ( Written by Universal Pictures)
The hardest part
of this movie to swallow is the part that amazes me most. I realized through
this movie that I believe in the popular culture version of the space alien.
Clearly to me, aliens can only exist as Ancient Aliens (space creatures in
prehistoric times), building pyramids etc., and our own post-Roswell aliens,
coming to earth since the 50’s. It was simply too hard to imagine aliens here
in 1872.
Definitely a
worth see, not a hot property, but an interesting film with really good actors
and dumb scenes.
Wikipedia says:
The project began development in 1997, when Universal Pictures and DreamWorks bought film rights to a concept pitched by Rosenberg, former president at Malibu Comics, which he described as a graphic novel in development. After the graphic novel was published in 2006, development on the film was begun again, and Favreau signed on as director in September 2009. On a budget of $163 million, filming for Cowboys & Aliens began in June 2010, in New Mexico and California. Despite studio pressure to release the film in 3-D, Favreau chose to film traditionally and in anamorphic format (widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film) to further a "classic movie feel". Measures were taken to maintain a serious Western element despite the film's "inherently comic" title and premise. The film's aliens were designed to be "cool and captivating", with some details, such as a fungus that grows on their wounds, created to depict the creatures as frontiersmen facing adversity in an unfamiliar place.
Cowboys & Aliens premiered at the2011 San Diego Comic-Con and was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on July 29, 2011. The film, though having grossed its budget back, is considered to be a financial disappointment, taking $174.8 million in box office receipts on a $163 million budget. Cowboys & Aliens received mixed reviews, with critics generally praising its acting but critical of its blend of the Western and science fiction genres.
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