Fly Away

rating: ** 1/2

I didn't see this movie from the beginning. I only saw the last thirty minutes or so, but understood the whole plot (probably also because we talked about it in class xP). This movie, at first sight, gave me an impression of a typical western movie and yes, my presumption was correct! I never actually sat down and watched through an entire western style movie before, and not that I did for the entire movie for this one either, but this one was probably my first western movie that I've seen without changing the channel.

I was kind of confused in the beginning (not really "the" beginning). I didn't know what was going on but it didn't take long for me to catch up. One interesting(?) thing though was that I thought the main character was Gary Grant from Hitchcock's North by Northwest. In the manger scene, when Marshal Kane, the protagonist, and the other guy (don't know his name) were talking before they began fist-fighting, I kept on seeing two differenct faces for the main character. At one angle he looked like Gary Grant (older than when he was in N by NW), but at a different angle he seemed like a different person--the real one, Gary Cooper. (Is it a coincidence that their first names are the same??) I kept on seeing two people for one character and even thought "maybe they used two different similar looking people for this character". I thought the protagonist was played by Gary Grant until I came home and found out on imdb.

Although I've only seen the last portion of this movie, I got the gist of the whole plot. I didn't see much techniques in this movie other than long shot and different angles of shots; it's probably due to the time period it was filmed. I also noticed a bit of difference in the atmosphere(? I don't know how to describe it :X) compared to the recent movies. The movies these days are generally more narrative and engaging (in my opinion), as opposed to High Noon, which was sorta boring and a bit slow-paced. It was probably the least-liked movie out of the movies we've seen in class so far, but it wasn't as bad as how I always imagined the western movies be.