Hello, and thanks for the question
The following is abstracted from many different web pages, film sites,
books on my shelves etc. You said you didn't want the links, so I've
left them out.
Here's what I found on each of the films:
WAGON MASTER
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Summary
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Wagon Master is an epic Western without major stars, it features Ward
Bond as Jonathan Wiggs, a sardonic Mormon taking a wagon train of his
people to Utah's San Juan Valley with cowboys Travis Blue (Ben
Johnson) and Sandy Owens (Harry Carey Jr.) as guides.
On the way they come upon a medicine show troupe, run by Dr. A.
Locksley Hall (Alan Mowbray), that is heavily under the influence of
drink and out of water, and they too become part of the wagon train.
As the trek continues, the Mormons also start to run low on water, but
their big problems start when they meet the murderous Clegg family,
led by Uncle Shiloh (Charles Kemper), who claims that he and his five
"boys" are simple cowhands.
To avoid a fight, Wiggs allows them to join the convoy but regrets it
when the medicine troupe attempts to leave the wagon train and is
stopped at gunpoint by the Cleggs.
This film emphasizes the virtues of solidarity, sacrifice and
tolerance, and shows John Ford at his most masterful, in total control
of the production from the casting to the bit players to the grandeur
and scope of the visual compositions. The film, with its breathtaking
scenery, brilliant performances by a cast of character actors, and an
engaging sense of humor, is a superlative example of the American
western.
A character-based excursion that draws humor from the uneasy
coexistence of a wide range of social types, WAGON MASTER showcases
the gruff and appealing Bond in a role that he would repeat, with
little alteration (and great popular success), on television's WAGON
TRAIN.
Production History
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Ford moved to Hollywood in 1914 and started his career as an actor and
assistant cameraman for his brother Francis Ford, an established
director, writer, and star. He was soon directing, making seven to
ten feature films per year. A love of American history and location
filming, particularly in Utah, drew Ford to the western. He spent
much of the next three decades making westerns of increasing depth,
beauty, and ambiguity. The eternal conflicts between order and chaos,
nature and civilization, the law and the hero’s code of ethics, and
fact and legend are explored with nostalgia and cynicism The lyrical
quality that characterises his work was to shine through in Wagon
Master.
It has been noted that Ford tried to promote Ward Bond, Ben Johnson,
Harry Carey, Jr., and Joanne Dru; he listed their parts next to their
names in the opening credits—the only time he was ever to do so. And
each of them gets plenty of evocative cameo shots, with the three men
frequently lined up in front of the camera to trade remarks and
gesticulate. In doing this Ford was ignoring current (at the time)
Western conventions - directors weren’t meant to slow things down with
dialogue and character study, but Ford ignored them and made his own
film. As Lindsay Anderson observed, Wagon Master is an "avant-garde
Western . . . one of the most purely lyrical films Ford has yet made."
Ford tells the story casually and often elliptically. His editing of
the screenplay pruned away extraneous talk to concentrate on
essentials
When Ford returned from the Utah location after shooting, he
mischievously told the writers, "I liked your script, boys. In fact, I
actually shot a few pages of it." Said Frank Nugent, who is also
credited as a writer on the film,: "We did not work at all closely. .
. . His script cutting—especially of dialogue—was rather harsh." Of
all his pictures, said Ford, "Wagon Master came closest to what I had
hoped to achieve. It is the purest and simplest western I have made."
In Wagon Master Ford is not really interested in plot, more in
studying character relationships among the variety of "pioneer"
spirits in the Old West. It is also a movie about journeying, and the
trip West, a trip away from anything that could be called home. The
movie keeps harking back to the past in flashback, as if to show how
far the characters have travelled, and how far they have yet to
travel.
The movie fades out during a panning shot showing a young horse
stepping out of a river, a symbol of the voyagers themselves perhaps,
finishing one journey and eagerly looking ahead to the next
"adventure", always moving on to something new.
Wagon Master grossed about a third of any of Ford’s cavalry westerns.
It was a personal project, with no stars, little story, deflated
drama, almost nothing to attract box office or critics. It is now seen
as one of his most successful movies.
Cast and Credits
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Starring: Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr., Charles
Kemper
Director: John Ford
Producer: Merian C. Cooper , John Ford
Screenwriter: Patrick Ford , Frank S. Nugent
Cinematographer: Bert Glennon
Composer: Richard Hageman
Editor: Jack Murray
Running time: 85 minutes
MEAN STREETS
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Summary
_______
Made nearly thirty years ago, "Mean Streets" is just as strong today
as it was then today. Like his later films "Goodfellas" and "Casino,"
"Mean Streets" is about wise and not so wise guys.
Harvey Keitel is excellent as Charlie, a small time hood who hopes to
move up the ranks of the mob by running a restaurant they're getting
ready to foreclose on. He needs his Uncle Giovanni's (Cesare Danova)
help, which means keeping his distance from Johnny Boy (De Niro), bad
news on two feet.
He works as a collector for Giovanni, hearing the sad story of a
restaurant owner who has no money. Charlie is being groomed to run the
restaurant, but must obey Giovanni, who forbids him to associate with
Johnny Boy (``honorable men go with honorable men'') and with Teresa,
whose epilepsy is equated in Giovanni's mind with madness.
Trouble is brewing because Johnny Boy owes money to Michael, who is
growing increasingly unhappy about his inability to collect. De Niro
plays Johnny almost as a holy fool: a smiling jokester with no sense
of time or money, and a streak of self-destruction. The first time we
see him in the film, he blows up a corner mailbox.
In a pivotal scene of the kind that Keitel and De Niro would play out
on numerous occasions in their later careers, Charlie is earnest,
frightened, telling Johnny he has to pay the money. Johnny launches on
a rambling, improvised cock-and-bull story about a poker game, a
police raid, a fight--finally even losing the thread himself.
As the city’s San Gennaro Festival takes over the streets of Little
Italy, Michael seeks revenge on Johnny Boy once and for all.
Production Details
_______________
From the beginning Scorsese used imaginative and tricky camera work to
tell his story. "Mean Streets" is filled with the now patented
"Scorsese" camera work that puts us right in the middle of the action,
employing long one-takes and handheld cameras to add even greater
tension to the proceedings.
A perfect example of the style is shown when as Charlie and friends go
to collect protection money from a pool hall manager. When Johnny Boy
is called a ``mook,'' , nobody seems quite sure what a mook is, but it
leads to a wild, disorganized fight. It is obvious from the way the
film is shot that these are not stuntmen choreographed down to the
final detail, but kids in their early 20s who smoke too much, drink
too much, and fight as if they don't want to get their shirts torn.
The camera follows them in a rush, and as, Johnny Boy leaps onto a
pool table, awkwardly practicing the karate kicks he's learned in 42nd
Street grind houses; on the soundtrack is ``Please Mr. Postman'' by
the Marvelettes. The whole thing has a style that Scorsese has since
made his own….the close-up look at some not-very-pleasant people.
Director of photography Kent Wakeford gives Scorsese exactly what he
wants. Scorsese also likes to fuel his action with classic rock songs,
and "Mean Streets" is no exception. From the opening strains of "Be My
Baby" by the Ronettes, "Mean Streets" uses more than two dozen songs
to help set the mood. "Mean Streets" is filled with colorful
characters and very adult dialogue and sexual situations. Working from
a script by Scorsese and Mardik Martin, the actors create characters
that are memorable. Keitel is outstanding as the loyal friend, while
De Niro proves early in his career that he was great already.
Shot on location in New York City and Los Angeles. MEAN STREETS was
added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1997. De
Niro's performance as the out-of-control Johnny Boy earned him awards
from the New York and National Society of Film Critics. Much like
Scorsese's earlier WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR?, MEAN STREETS is a
deeply personal film that deals with issues Scorsese himself had seen
and experienced while growing up in New York City. Part of the film
was shot in the cemetery of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan's
Chinatown. Scorsese had been an altar boy at the cathedral.
The film also explores many religious motifs, and Scorses has admitted
that it is nearly biographical, detailing his youmg life in New York.
(He has also said in interviews that "Goodfellas" are the guys from
"Mean Streets" grown up.)
1973 was a great year for films and film makers. The competition that
year included "Save the Tiger," "Paper Moon," American Graffiti,"
"Paper Chase," "The Way We Were," "Sleeper," "The Exorcist,' "The
Sting," "Serpico" and "The Last Detail." Not to mention half-a-dozen
films starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Still, Scorsese's
semi-autobiographical tale of four friends doing what it takes to
survive in New York's Little Italy left an impression that is still
remembered after many of the above have faded..
Cast and Credits
_____________
Starring:
Harvey Keitel as Charlie
Robert De Niro as Johnny Boy
Amy Robinson as Teresa
David Proval as Tony
Richard Romanus as Michael
Cesare Danova as Giovanni
Victor Argo as Mario
George Memmoli as Joey Catucci
Lenny Scaletta as Jimmy
Jeannie Bell as Diane
Murray Moston as Oscar
David Carradine as Drunk
Robert Carradine as The Young Assassin
Lois Walden as Jewish Girl
Catherine Scorsese (Marty's Mom) as Woman on the Landing
Martin Scorsese as Shorty, the Killer in the Car
Director: Martin Scorsese
Producer: Jonathan Taplin
Screenwriter: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Mardik Martin
Cinematographer: Kent Wakeford
Editor: Sidney Levin
Running time 1hr 50min
Parallels between the two movies
__________________________
Scorsese has admitted in interviews to being influenced by John Ford
movies, and in one scene in Mean Streets, the guys are at a movie
theatre watching Ford’s movie: The Searchers. Scorsese’s style
sometimes mimics Fords, particularly with comparison to Ford’s 1950
movie "Wagon Train". Both directors like to slow things down,
analysing what makes character’s tick, particularly those that live on
the "edges" of normal life, like John Wayne in the Searchers, the
Mormons in "Wagon Master" and Harvey Keitel as Charlie in "Mean
Streets"
Virtually plotless, like "Wagon Master", Mean Streets offers a series
of vignettes detailing life in a natural progression of situations
that are so lifelike that little plot is necessary, and the characters
are so realistic, and the film’s sense of place so deep and believable
that you go along with them to the end. Whether in the Utah desert, or
the streets of New York, both directors knew that it’s the characters,
and the places they inhabit, that count.
Hope that's what you were after, but if you need any clarification,
just ask.
willie-ga |
