Directed By: Tom Gries
Starring: Charlton Heston, Joan Hackett, Donald Pleasence
Tag line: "The Brute in Every man Was Also in Him - And the Love and the Violence"
Trivia: First credited role in a theatrical film for Lee Majors.
In movies such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and El-Cid, Charlton Heston played imposing characters whose courage and strength inspired those around them. In Will Penny, a 1967 western written and directed by Tom Gries, Heston portrays a different sort of hero altogether, a simple cowboy who has spent his life in the saddle, and doesn’t know how to live any other way.
After finishing a cattle run for boss Anse Howard (G.D. Spradlin), 50-year-old cowhand Will Penny (Heston) finds himself in need of a job. Tagging along with fellow cowboys Blue (Lee Majors) and Dutchy (Anthony Zerbe), Will sets off in search of work, hoping to secure a position before winter.
Along the way, the three have a run-in with an overzealous preacher named Quint (Donald Pleasance), who is traveling with his adult sons Rafe (Brice Dern), Romulus (Matt Clark) and Rufus (Gene Rutherford). A fight ensues, during which Will shoots Rufus dead, and a grief-stricken Quint vows to one day take his revenge on the aging cowboy.
Saying goodbye to Blue and Dutchy, Will pays a visit to the Flat Iron Ranch and is hired by the foreman (Ben Johnson) to be one of the company’s new line riders, acting as caretaker for a remote section of the ranch during the winter months. X When Will arrives at the cabin assigned to him, he finds it is already occupied. Catherine Allen (Joan Hackett) and her son Horace (Jon Gries) moved in some time ago when their guide, who was hired by Catherine’s husband to lead the two westward, abandoned them in the middle of nowhere.
Instead of kicking them out, Will allows Catherine and Horace to stay in the cabin while he’s riding the line. Unfortunately, during his travels, Will once again encounters Quint and his sons, who savagely beat him and leave him for dead.
Making his way back to the cabin, a badly injured Will is cared for by Catherine, who nurses him back to health. As thanks, Will lets Catherine and Horace stay for the winter, during which he experiences something entirely new to him: family life. Over time, Will and Catherine develop feelings for one another, but does the cowboy have what it takes to be a family man, or is it too late for Will Penny?
What sets Will Penny apart from most screen westerns is its realistic depiction of cowboy life. Unlike most western heroes, Will Penny is not a sheriff or gunslinger; he’s a hired hand, and worries what will happen to him when he is out of work.
Even more revealing are the scenes in which Will interacts with Catherine and Horace. Accustomed to living alone, Will is suddenly sharing a cabin with two other people, and it’s a difficult adjustment for him. Even the simple things most of us take for granted are a challenge; In one of the film’s more poignant scenes, Catherine tries to teach Will a Christmas song, so that he can join in the next time she and Horace are singing (to her amazement, Will doesn’t know a single carol).
Over time, Will and Catherine fall in love, which leads to even more complications (Will has a hard enough time providing for himself, let alone a small family). Though excellent throughout, Heston is particularly superb in these scenes, capturing the shyness and uncertainly of a man out of his element, who believes he may very well be too old to change his ways.
There are a handful of action scenes scattered throughout Will Penny, not the least of which is the exciting finale. But despite the occasional thrill, the movie is more a character study than it is a traditional western, and thanks to the excellent work of it’s star (with an assist from Gries' intelligent script), it’s a damn fine character study.
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