Will Penny | | Cast : | Charlton Heston, Joan Hackett | | Director : | Tom Gries | | Studio : | Paramount Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | April 10, 1968 | | DVD Released Date : | May 13, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 22, 2005 | | Summary | 3 1/2 Stars - A Frustratingly Good Movie | Content
 | For me, watching Will Penny was a very frustrating experience. The performances of Charlton Heston, Lee Majors, Anthony Zerbe, and Ben Johnson were all quite good - especially Charlton Heston's. The script is excellent in most areas, and the direction & photography are often inspired. What goes wrong with Will Penny is the one part of the script that doesn't work.
The villians of the story are so unbelievable and unrealistic that they seem like they came out of a Western spoof, rather than the serious, realistic Western which Will Penny attempts to be. It's hard to figure just where the heck Donald Pleasance's character is supposed to come from as his accent is all over the place. It's also hard to figure out just how this family of nut-jobs hadn't been killed long before they could encounter Will Penny. They would have either been killed or jailed for their pattern of committing crimes based on their warped religious beliefs. These characters are both written and performed as such over the top crazies that they don't come across as real people, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the characters in the movie. As noted before, it almost seems like they came out of a spoof of a Western movie rather than a serious one.
And that's the shame of the whole thing - if the villians of the movie had been just a little more realistic Will Penny could have easily been one of the best Westerns of the 60's and 70's. As it is Will Penny is still a good movie (great in spots), but because of the way that the villians were scripted (and acted) the movie is brought down a notch or two from what it could have, and should have been. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 07, 2005 | | Summary | Good Enough to Watch More than Once | Content
| I've seen this movie several times. I never cease to be drawn in by the characters and the sets. This movie is one of the best westerns I've ever seen and worthy of addition to a library of westerns. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 25, 2004 | | Summary | Almost perfect... | Content
| "Will Penny" was the pet project of then untested director/writer Tom Gries. Charlton Heston was very taken with the script, but had hoped for an experienced director ala William Wyler to realize the film. In the end, Gries won the day, and did a laudable job. The film succeeds on many levels, although the climax is quite cliche, and poorly edited to boot.
But "Penny" is primarily about character development, and is a depiction of the severity of life in the West during the 19th century. Here it is very compelling.
Heston plays Will, an aging, illiterate cowboy, who is quite aware of his diminishing place in life. Nevertheless, his single source of pride is 'cowboying', and his bread and butter requires an itinerant, solitary lifestyle. He has never had anything in the way of culture, and never known a conventional love relationship with a woman. He is possessed of, by accident or design, a rather strong moral compass, which is evident in a strong work ethic, honesty, and kindness.
Almost simultaneously, Will runs afoul of some mean ol' boys (rawhiders), led by the completely unhinged Preacher Quint (Donald Pleasence doing the dirty work), and finds budding romance and family with a rather fetching and refined woman (the wonderful Joan Hackett) and her son. The particulars here are not terribly essential, except that the drama unfolds as Will contends with the vendetta of Quint, and agonizes over the 11th hour possibilty of love in his life. Heston delivers a superb performance, nearly being reduced to tears as he considers the life he never had, and the one he feels unfit to take on. He has seen the harshness of debilitating injury and death, and can't seem to reconcile his myopic sense of life with the optimistic picture Cath (Hackett) paints.
"Will Penny" ultimately offers stunning scenery, a superb score by David Raksin, top notch performances by Heston, Hacket, Pleasence, Anthony Zerbe, Clifton James, and Ben Johnson, and weaves fine human drama into an otherwise conventional Western script. It is not perfect, but it's a wonderful watch. It is said to be Heston's personal favorite performance. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 04, 2004 | | Summary | another casuality for "realism" | Content
| The big claim made for this movie is that it is realistic. That is the usual claim made for movies that have little else going for them. The definition of "realistic" relied on for such movies is: boring, dirty, and ends unhappily. (That there are other aspects of reality does not seem to occur to them.) So, all right, I give the movie a star for realism. I can't give it a star for "gripping" because it isn't. I can't give it a star for "moving" because it isn't. I can't give it stars for photography, music or acting because these are adequate but not outstanding.
Even the "realistic" claim won't stand scrutiny. Are we supposed to believe that a seriously wounded man could walk through snow with no clothes on all the way back to the cabin? Are we supposed to believe that these three stereotypical villains would wait two days for the lady to make up her mind? Nonsense! They'd rape her then and there. Are we to believe that a real down-and-dirty cowpoke would turn down a beautiful woman? This isn't realism. This is chivalry! This is a Romantic Hero!
The only reason to watch this film is to study it in contrast to Shane. After all, the movie strains to be another Shane. Why isn't it? Why is Shane all of the above and more and this movie isn't? Why do the characters in Shane stick in your mind the rest of your life and you can't remember most of the characters in this movie the next day and none of them the next year?
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| Rating | | | Date | July 02, 2004 | | Summary | Heston Classic | Content
| I usually don't waste my time on thes matters but in responce to the reviewer "ageofanxiety", it is typical like that reviewer to "stereotype" Heston into the catagory of what the previous reviewer states that Heston is a actor that has "pompous roles" and STEROTYPES Heston as a "Conservative" in most of his films.Well, that is that person's opinion and it is wrong to put a great actor such as Heston into that catagory.Typical of today's reviewer that think they are experts in "avante cinnema garde" films or whatever that crap means. A movie is a MOVIE. Your so-called form of "art" is your OPINION and nothing else!This was a classic Heston role and if you want to see Heston really ACT, then I suggest you see his dual acting role in the classic movie "Mother Lode". |
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