The Stepford Wives (1975)

Director: Bryan Forbes

Cast: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman

Have I Seen it Before: Never. I have a vague memory of seeing the remake during one of those summers when I just ended up seeing everything, but only just now have come around to watching the original, and that DVD has been sitting on my shelf for 8 years.

Did I Like It: Okay, so it’s a little weird to write this review right now. I watched it yesterday, which was Election Day 2020. Today is odd. One would be forgiven if they read this in years to come, they might think that other issues are really at play here

But with that being said: white people are the worst. Issues of race are hinted at and alluded to by the end of the film, and Jordan Peele took the spirit of this film and ran with it in Get Out (2017), but the problems these characters face wouldn’t happen to anyone other than white people. We’re pretty terrible, and that doesn’t even begin to get into our voting behaviors*.

I don’t think anyone should be murdered and replaced by more docile robots, for the record, but I can’t help but find the protagonists of the story somewhat unsympathetic. They’re yearning for self-actualization at the forefront of second or third wave feminism is good, but with their upper-class trappings, are they not—to follow the film’s central metaphor all the way through—just as guilty of keeping people down?

That, combined with the schmaltzy, almost TV-movie-of-the-week milieu of the film, I can’t stop thinking about the film and its setting, even though it’s becoming increasingly clear I may have missed the point.

I think that’s actually a positive review, as it turns out.

*All right, so this will get a little into the election. Polling shows that 20% of Trump voters this cycle lied to their friends about voting for him. That means both you and I (assuming you were a Biden supporter—if you’re not, how the hell did you get here?) have friends who are far fascistic and racist (among other things) than they let on. Where’s the horror movie about that? Oh, right. Get Out. Withdrawn.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Title: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Director: George Roy Hill

Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin

Have I Seen It Before?: I have a vague memory of catching it on cable at some point in the last twenty years, but it certainly isn’t in my pantheon of re-watched films.

Did I like it: There’s no deny the film’s place among the great Westerns. Every dusty gunfight and wide view of picturesque landscapes make it clear that while there is plenty of the spaghetti westerns in Red Dead Redemption, there is plenty of this film as well.

Redford and Newman were never better or more charming here. Redford especially disposes of his often too-earnest screen persona to be just as funny as Newman. It is slow to start, which his far from any sort of sin, but for someone who hasn’t spent the last 50 years in love with the film, it can be a little hard to get into. How many films can we the same about from the era? Probably a lot.

But here’s the thing. I don’t think it is the fault of any of the filmmakers here, but after Spider-Man 3 (2007) I can’t help but the only reason to include “Raindrops keep Fallin’ on My Head” in a film is because the film has completely run out of ideas. I’m sure when this film was released, the song was a nice little interlude, but it feels so out of place in a western this many years later. Now that I think about it, all of Bacharach’s score feels more out of place than not during the run time. I don’t want to blame that on films like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), mainly because such an assessment makes me look like a cinematic rube. But I also can’t help but think I’m not alone in thinking that the iconic qualities in this film have only hurt it over time, as other, lesser films have imitated it to diminished effect.