#cinema western

[sparviero44]

[sparviero44]

Happy Birthday Mr Clint Eastwood 94

Good morning Mr Eastwood, on this very special day, I wish you my most sincere birthday wishes, because reaching 94 is not for everyone, especially because you are a very good director and also an actor. Congratulations!

[sparviero44]

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson,

the "death enforcer" died 20 years ago

Childhood in the mine, the name "Soviet" and the burp that started a career, everything you didn't know about the most famous icon with the grim look of cinema

Origins

Charles Dennis Buchinsky was born on November 3, 1921 in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, to parents who immigrated from Lithuania and was the eleventh of fifteen children, all of whom grew up in extreme poverty. In early childhood, Charles did not speak English, but he had to catch up quickly

Early fatigue

When Charles was ten, his father died and the boy followed in his footsteps by getting a job in the mine, like many of his peers, risking his life every day for about a dollar a week. Not too surprising that at that age the future stone face of American cinema was already a smoker.

War

After becoming the first of the Buchinsky family to graduate, in 1943 Charles enlisted in the United States Army and fought in World War II as a pilot in twenty-five aerial missions.

The name

At the beginning of his film career, Buchinsky had to stop for a moment to think about his own name. In the 1950s Senator Joe McCarthy launched a hunt for the alleged Communist who massacred intellectuals and artists across the country on charges of treason and collusion with the Soviet Union. Charles' Lithuanian surname might have made him an easy target, so the aspiring actor took on the all-American name of Bronson.

The first role

For his film debut in 1951's "Commander Johnny" Bronson resorted to a particular skill that no other of the suitors for the role of him had: that of burping on command.

European success

Before becoming an icon of genre cinema in America with "Death Wish" in 1974, Charles had difficulty breaking through in Hollywood, but by the late 1960s he was already a beloved face in Europe, thanks to western films such as “The Guns of San Sebastian” by Henri Verneuil and “Once Upon a Time in the West” by Sergio Leone.

Phobias

As a probable result of a childhood spent underground, Bronson suffered from claustrophobia, but he also had a constant fear of germs and infections, which perfectly explained his notorious aversion to handshakes.

Relations

In 1949 Bronson married colleague Harriet Tendler, with whom he had two children, Suzanne and Tony. The couple divorced in 1965 and three years later the actor returned to the altar with actress Jill Ireland, with whom he remained until her death in 1990 and with whom he had two more daughters, Zuleika and Katarina. Charles' third marriage was in 1998 to Kim Weeks.

The death

Charles Bronson died on August 30, 2003 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long hospital stay. The actor had been in failing health since the late 1990s, when he was hospitalized for hip surgery. In the following years, he was also diagnosed with lung cancer and Alzheimer's. His grave is in Brownsville Cemetery in the town of West Windsor, Vermont.

Charles Bronson,

il “giustiziere della notte” moriva 20 anni fa

L’infanzia in miniera, il nome “sovietico” e il rutto che avviò una carriera, tutto quello che non sapevate sull’icona dallo sguardo torvo più famoso del cinema

Origini

Charles Dennis Buchinsky è nato il 3 novembre 1921 a Ehrenfeld in Pennsylvania, da genitori immigrati dalla Lituania e fu l’undicesimo di quindici figli, tutti cresciuti in povertà estrema. Nella prima infanzia, Charles non parlava inglese, ma dovette mettersi in pari alla svelta

Fatica precoce

Quando Charles aveva dieci anni il padre morì e il bambino seguì le sue orme ottenendo un lavoro in miniera, come molti coetanei, rischiando la vita ogni giorno per circa un dollaro a settimana. Non sorprende troppo che a quell’età il futuro volto di pietra del cinema americano fosse già un fumatore.

La guerra

Dopo essere diventato il primo della famiglia Buchinsky a prendere il diploma, nel 1943 Charles si arruolò nell’esercito degli Stati Uniti e combatté nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale come pilota in venticinque missioni aeree.

Il nome

All’inizio della sua carriera cinematografica, Buchinsky dovette fermarsi un attimo a pensare al proprio nome. Negli anni ’50 il senatore Joe McCarthy dette il via a una caccia al presunto comunista che fece strage tra gli intellettuali e gli artisti di tutto il paese con l’accusa di tradimento e collusione con l’Unione Sovietica. Il cognome lituano di Charles avrebbe potuto farne un facile bersaglio, così l’aspirante attore prese il nome tutto americano di Bronson.

Il primo ruolo

Per il suo debutto cinematografico in “Il comandante Johnny” del 1951 Bronson ricorse a una particolare abilità che nessun altro dei pretendenti al ruolo aveva: quella di ruttare a comando.

Successo europeo

Prima di diventare un’icona del cinema di genere in America con “Il giustiziere della notte” del 1974, Charles ebbe difficoltà a sfondare a Hollywood, ma già dalla fine degli anni ’60 fu un volto amatissimo in Europa, grazie a film western come “I cannoni di San Sebastian” di Henri Verneuil e “C’era una volta il West” di Sergio Leone.

Fobie

Come probabile risultato di un’infanzia passata sotto terra Bronson soffrì di claustrofobia, ma ebbe anche un terrore continuo di germi e infezioni, il che spiegava perfettamente la sua nota repulsione per le stette di mano.

Relazioni

Nel 1949 Bronson sposò la collega Harriet Tendler, con la quale ebbe due figli, Suzanne e Tony. La coppia divorziò nel 1965 e tre anni dopo l’attore tornò all’altare con l’attrice Jill Ireland, con la quale rimase fino alla sua morte nel 1990 e con la quale ebbe altre due figlie, Zuleika e Katarina. Il terzo matrimonio di Charles fu nel 1998 con Kim Weeks.

La morte

Charles Bronson morì il 30 agosto 2003 al Cedars-Sinai Medical Center di Los Angeles dopo una lunga degenza. L’attore era ormai di salute cagionevole dalla fine degli anni ’90, quando fu ricoverato per un’operazione all’anca. Negli anni successivi gli furono diagnosticati anche un tumore ai polmoni e l’Alzheimer. La sua tomba si trova al cimitero di Brownsville nella cittadina di West Windsor, Vermont.

[cinemotions]

Janet Leigh & James Stewart in The Naked Spur (1950) dir. by Anthony Mann - poster & prom pic

In The Naked Spur, Stewart plays Howard Kemp, a Civil War veteran who returns home to find that he has lost his land. To get his property back, Stewart decides to become a bounty hunter and he enters the Colorado territory in pursuit of outlaw Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan). Along the way, Stewart picks up two companions, played by Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell. Vandergroat is accompanied by the young and beautiful Lina Patch (Janet Leigh). In this physical and psychological journey, the five characters shift alliances and blur moral lines until, at last, Stewart's deeply buried humanity rises to the surface. But this is at the film's end. Throughout most of The Naked Spur, Stewart is as unsympathetic as the villain. In one scene, Stewart uses his gun to beat an Indian to death and his vengeful demons keep him beating the man until long after his death is apparent. Not until John Wayne's portrayal of Ethan Edwards in John Ford's The Searchers (1956), would audiences see a Western hero more tortured, more possessed of hatred. 

With the exception of the dark scene in the cave, the entire film was shot on location in Rocky Mountain National Park. Cinematographer William Mellor (who won Oscars for his work on A Place in the Sun [1951] andThe Diary of Anne Frank, 1959) uses crisp Technicolor to capture the harsh landscape. Mann's films regularly use the landscape to express the characters' inner states. As critic Jim Kitses notes, "the terrain is so colored by the action that finally it seems an inner landscape, the unnatural world of a disturbed mind." During filming, the actors stayed in cabins 25 miles from the town of Durango, Colorado. According to Janet Leigh, Jimmy Stewart and his wife, Gloria, stayed "in the same quarters Clark Gable and Lady Ashley lived in when Gable shot Lone Star (1951) in this area a year or so before. Evidently Lady Ashley had done some remodeling so theirs boasted the most modern decor." On the set, Stewart was as nice as they came. Leigh tells of a scene between she, Ryan and Stewart. Because of lighting problems, they weren't able to shoot Leigh and Ryan's close-ups. According to Leigh: "Howard Koch, the A.D. dismissed Jimmy for the day, since his work was done. Jimmy, as only he can, said, "Well, I can't do that, you see, because, well, that just wouldn't be right, now would it? I think I'll just - hang around - and be off camera - for my friends there." And he stayed the entire tedious afternoon, only to play the scene in back of the camera, while it was focused on us. Now, that is a pro!" For Leigh, The Naked Spur was a major departure from the forgettable ingenue roles that MGM had foisted on her. Her husband, Tony Curtis, had a minor role in Winchester '73, Mann and Stewart's first Western collaboration, but this was of little help to Leigh as Curtis' career had yet to prosper. Leigh did a screen test with Stewart and, as she says in her autobiography, they "sparked the proper chemistry." The rest of the cast is superb, especially Robert Ryan, whose portrayal of the laughing Vandergroat almost steals the movie (Mann so liked Ryan that he cast him in two of his non-Westerns: Men in War (1957) and God's Little Acre, 1958). Stewart, though, remains the focal point. His performance here is so good, so brutal, that his former aw-shucks persona is most definitely laid to rest. (by Mark Frankel  for Turner Classic Movies)