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THE MISSING by Tom McCurrie
After a long sojourn in the wilderness, the Western is back, riding roughshod over the nation's multiplexes. We had OPEN RANGE this summer, while remakes of THE LONE RANGER and THE WILD BUNCH are on the horizon. And what is Tom Cruise's latest, THE LAST SAMURAI, but a Western in a Kimono? (From a gander at the trailer, maybe the title should have been called DANCES WITH BUSHIDO.) In the middle of all this sagebrush comes another new release, Ron Howard's THE MISSING.
(Warning: Some Spoilers Ahead!)
Written by Ken Kaufman and based on the novel by Thomas Eidson, THE MISSING is about the search for a kidnapped girl in 1885 New Mexico. The hitch is, the searchers don't much cotton to each other. The kidnapped girl's mom (Cate Blanchett) resents her father bailing on her childhood to go native with the Indians. Unfortunately for Cate, that very same father (Tommy Lee Jones) is the only one with the skills (and desire) to track the kidnappers down. And they better do it soon, since the bad guys plan to sell the girl into slavery as soon as they reach the Mexican border.
Now the director of SPLASH and HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS isn't the first choice that comes to mind when thinking of rugged westerns, but Howard does quite nicely genre-wise, thank you very much. The action is as tough as Peckinpah, the vistas are as striking as Leone and the performances are as steely as a Winchester repeater. Kudos especially to Eric Schweig, who plays chief baddie Chidin. This shaman has the disposition of a rattlesnake and a face so ugly it'd make a train take a dirt road. Throw in his unusual habit of cutting his victims' hearts out and burying them in the dirt like apple seeds, and you have the most menacing Western heavy since Jack Palance got his kicks beating slower men to the draw in SHANE.
The only place Howard disappoints is in the pace. The Let's-Get-My-Daughter-Back plot is too simple to last 135 minutes. (With this and the 140 minute MASTER AND COMMANDER, can't anyone make a movie under two hours anymore?) MISSING's story is stretched too thin at this length, and without additional subplots and revelations the film seems draggy. This takes a toll on emotional pull -- and seat comfort.
Howard should've taken a cue from THE SEARCHERS (1956), directed by that Master of the Horse Opera, John Ford. MISSING and SEARCHERS have more or less the same plot, two family members (Father-Daughter and Uncle-Nephew respectively) searching for a girl kidnapped by Indians. But despite THE MISSING's moody cinematography, graphic violence and foul language, Ford's flick is the much tenser experience. And it's not just because THE SEARCHERS is over fifteen minutes shorter (though that helps). It's because its protagonist, the embittered Civil War vet played by John Wayne, has the stronger inner conflict, hands down. Part of Wayne wants to find his niece to save her. The other part wants to find her so he can blow her away. Wayne hates the Indians so much he'd rather sacrifice his own flesh and blood than accept the fact one of his own was sleeping with the enemy. So not only does the audience have to worry about Wayne getting shot by the Indians (the external conflict), they have to worry about him shooting his niece himself (the internal conflict). These two conflicts build on each other, boosting the tension to an almost unbearable level by the climax. Wayne's ferocious performance as the borderline psychopath generates even more suspense; we never know when this Bomb on the Range is going to go off. Always an underrated actor, Wayne should have won the Oscar for this role, instead of having to wait thirteen more years for TRUE GRIT.
Unfortunately, while THE SEARCHERS' inner conflict boosts tension, THE MISSING's inner conflict lessens it. Cate's struggle to forgive her errant father just isn't as high-stakes as Wayne's struggle to kill or not to kill. It also has nothing to do with the external conflict: the attempt to rescue the girl. After all, it's not as if Cate is going to stop searching just because she hates her father. Cate's struggle is blah compared to Wayne's, and every time we cut to it we spend less time with the more suspenseful Chidin chase. This causes THE MISSING to get too boring too often. And since neither Cate nor Tommy Lee has the psychopathic tendencies of the Wayne character, they're not going to be creating any suspense on their own. Despite some ornery moods, these two are good guys who will always do the right thing. That's all very sweet, but it keeps these characters from being dangerously unpredictable -- and from generating any sort of tension.
Still, despite its problems of pace and character, THE MISSING is a solid enough Western entertainment. It's not up to the standards of Ford, Hawks and Hathaway, but as Edmond O'Brien muttered at the end of THE WILD BUNCH, it'll do.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, they're archived on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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