Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Macho Callahan (1970)

Director: Bernard L. Kowalski

Writers: Richard Carr, Cliff Gould

Composer: Patrick Williams

Starring: David Janssen, Jean Seberg, Lee J. Cobb, James Booth, Pedro Armendariz Jr., David Carradine, Bo Hopkins, Anne Revere, Richard Anderson, Diane Ladd, Matt Clark, Hugo Stiglitz

More info: IMDb

Tagline: David Janssen - A fugitive exploding from prison! Hunted by killers! Led by the woman who wanted him...beaten, broken, or dead!

Plot: Macho Callahan breaks out of a Confederate military prison, intent on revenge against the man responsible for his imprisonment. Unfortunately, along the way, he kills another man and that man's vengeful widow tracks down Callahan.



My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I'd score this lower but the first half hour is very solid, compelling, interesting and mean.  I loved that but the second half gets weird story wise.  Not long after Callahan (Janssen) violently brutalizes Alexandra (Seberg), she falls for him.  Uh, OK.  I guess I can kind of see how this could happen but considering that first half hour, it feels partially at odds with what the film wants to be.  Then there's the final third which happens pretty quick until the pair share tender words which goes on for a very long six minutes and then guess what?  There's less than two minutes to go.  Shots are fired and it's over just like that.  It doesn't work.  I mean the last two thirds don't work well with the first third of the picture.  I just didn't like the story after that first half hour.  It's like the picture's been hijacked and there's no going back.  Does anyone have a spin on this that I'm not seeing?  I'm all about movies taking chances but this on feels like a failure because of it.







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