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The Furies

June 11 @ 6:00 pm

Playing in the CCA Cinema

Part of CCA’s monthly Closer Looks film discussion series

(United States, 1950)/ Selected by David N. Meyer

“Anthony Mann directed three classic Noirs – T-Men; Border Incident; and Raw Deal – the only Noir in which a woman’s perspective dominates. Mann then brought his Noir sensibility to the Western: People treat each other poorly, love spells doom, men’s obsessions obliterate all common sense or worthy purpose, the landscape – the world itself – overwhelms human intention, and all effort comes to naught. Unless that effort involves killing somebody, and then it’s rewarded, no matter how difficult the aftermath. Lots of people die in Mann westerns. It’s usually the vanity of others that kills them.

The Furies remains Mann’s masterpiece, the apotheosis of his style and themes. Barbara Stanwyck stars as the toughest, most independent, strong-willed and daddy-fixated woman in the history of Westerns. Walter Huston is her mean-spirited, controlling father. Victor Milner provides the epic, operatic B/W cinematography.

The Furies concerns will, and how the world bends in the face of it. Stanwyck wants what she wants, and when she and her dad’s wills align, none can stand against them. When they clash, the collateral damage scorches the land and the soul of both combatants. Folks die, too, of course, in an absolutely jaw-dropping spectacular shootout on the rock-strewn face of a cliff.

None of the male characters can match Huston and all the women quaver before Stanwyck’s gender-bending authority. Mann’s ruthless view of human nature elevates the story to another realm of profundity. The Furies claims to be a Western, but it plays like Greek tragedy. When the gods rumble, look out below.”

–– David N. Meyer

Director: Anthony Mann
Writers: Charles Schnee, Niven Busch
Features: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Robert Huston
Run time: 1 hr. 49 min.
 
Film: Western
Language: English

Closer Looks is an in-depth cinema series curated by the award-winning filmmaker and editor Paul Barnes, film critic and writer David N. Meyer, and founder/programmer of local microcinema No Name Cinema, Justin Clifford Rhody. The series showcases a broad range of eras, regions, and subjects, all unified by their integral contribution to the history of cinema as an art form. Each film screening is followed by an in-depth overview and audience conversation by the presenters to contextualize and explore the importance of the evening’s film.

$15

Note: Tickets are only $3.00 for EBT cardholders

1050 Old Pecos Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87505 United States
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(505) 982-1338
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