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Boetticher, Budd [Oscar] (1916)
Direc?tor. Boetticher is the
perfect example of the auteur: his Westerns gain immeasurably when viewed as a
totality. This is especially true of the series with Randolph Scott, beginning
with Seven Men from Now, most of which were produced by Harry Joe Brown
and scripted by Burt Kennedy. Working in the tradition of the B-Western, with
modest resources, Boetticher achieved works of great beauty, formally precise
in structure and visually elegant, notably in their use of the distinctive
landscape of the California Sierras. As the hero of these 'floating poker
games' (as Andrew Sarris called them), Scott tempers their innately
pessimistic view of the world with quiet, stoical humour, as he pits his wits
against such charming villains as Richard Boone in The Tall T and Claude
Akins in Comanche Station. Boetticher had trained as a bullfighter and
made several films about matadors. His Westerns are concerned exclusively with
individual courage and self-reliance, showing none of Ford's interest in the
values of the com?munity or sense of historical tradition. Jim Kitses in his
book Horizons West, the best description of Boetticher's work, calls his
films 'small, glittering morality plays'. Yet characteristically, even overt
statements of this morality emerge in stylishly laconic form: 'There are some
things a man can't ride around.
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