The Man Behind the Cape
Taylor Hackford reveals how Boetticher battled the bulls in a rough-and-tumble movie world.
By: Henry Cabot Beck 01/01/2009
As the dust continues to settle, and the perspective changes in our grasp of what the Western was and who played a significant role in shaping it, or in some cases subverting it, certain figures rise to prominence.
With only a handful of low-budgeted films, all made within a few years in the second half of the 1950s, and all starring Randolph Scott, Oscar “Budd” Boetticher has become a giant among Western filmmakers. The problem is, Boetticher’s films are truly deceptive in their simplicity. Over-praising them can obscure their genuine virtues, because they’re great without being sensational.
These films—Seven Men From Now, The Tall T, Ride Lonesome, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone and Comanche Station—can be seen as a single long film with variations, and as an inextricable collaborative effort between Boetticher, Scott and, for the most part, screenwriter Burt Kennedy.
Boetticher’s first movie with Scott, Seven Men From Now, was issued in a DVD a couple of years ago. The rest were issued in a single DVD box set late last year, with first-rate remastering, abundant commentary and documentary extras. The collection made its way to the top of most reviewers’ lists as one of the best, if not the very best, package of 2008.
Among the principle commentators on the box set is filmmaker Taylor Hackford, a friend of Boetticher’s. Hackford—best known for his films Ray and An Officer and a Gentleman—offers insight on Boetticher the man, and his Westerns.
Taylor Hackford
“When I was moving from the mailroom, someone asked me if I could shoot film. I lied and said I could, and didn’t screw up too badly. I started working in both news and cultural affairs.... They said they were interested in doing pieces on people, artists, who may not be that well known, but who live in Southern California. I proposed two programs. One was about Charles Bukowski, the poet, who no one had done anything on (and it won the San Francisco Film Festival). The second one was about Budd. I did an hour special [on PBS].
I called him up and said I’d seen his films—he was living at that point on Franklin near La Brea, right in town, and he was very gracious. I went over to visit him; he lived in this high floor apartment looking over Los Angeles.
I went out to where he kept his Andalusian horses, which he had boarded out in Chatsworth. He would go out and ride all the time. We would go down to Tijuana to the bullfights; he was a great rejoneo fan, which is Portuguese bullfighting from horseback.
I talked about his Westerns and how influential I thought they were, and how film scholars thought they were. Even at that time, the French writers and critics believed he was one of the great auteurs of America, of the world actually.
We also talked a lot about his documentary on the bullfighter Aruzza, this obsession that he had, that had literally interceded and had taken away the prime years of his career.
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