One Eyed Jacks
1961’s epic western “One Eyed Jacks” is the one and only film directed by acting legend Marlon Brando. The film stars Brando as Rio and Karl Malden as Dad Longworth. Longworth and Rio are bank robbers operating in the old west of Mexico who, after there most recent robbery find themselves on the run from the federales. Cornered on a mountain Longworth goes to a nearby ranch for fresh mounts. He betrays Rio however, leaving him for the federales and taking the gold for himself. Rio ends up spending five years in a Mexican prison. When he escapes he understandably has only one thing on his mind, revenge against Longworth. Soon he hooks up with another robbery gang who agrees to tell him where Longworth is if he agrees to help them rob a bank. Turns out the two things are in the same place-Monterrey California where Longworth has jumped to the other side of the law-when Brando and his new gang arrive Longworth is the sheriff of Monterrey, where he lives with his Mexican wife Maria (Katy Jurado) and her daughter Louisa (Pina Pellicer). Thus begins a long standoff as Rio introduces himself to Longworth as still a friend-he assures him that he got away from the federales on that hill five years ago and he quickly begins to take an interest in Louisa. But Longworth isn’t an idiot, and Rio can only keep his true intentions hidden for so long.
Thus the setup for Brando’s epically filmed western, filmed on location in Big Sur, California. At nearly two and a half hour’s it is a bit long, and is a flawed film, but ultimately interesting if nothing else. Stories behind the filming explain why Brando only directed one film; Stanley Kubrick was the films initial director but issues with Brando led to his departure. As a director, Brando dragged on and on, shooting enormous amounts of film and spending even longer attempting to edit, finally having the studio pull the film away from him. Apparently they changed the ending as well, Brando’s preferred conclusion was much darker, but what we are left with is an interesting film about morally ambiguous characters. Take Brando’s Rio. Understandably driven by revenge it is certain that his quick seduction of Louisa is motivated by the same. But then something happens and he genuinely falls in love with her. However it is not always still possible to make right, sometimes circumstances step in the way. Then we have Malden’s Longworth; surely he was wrong to leave Rio on that hill all those years ago, but now he seems to have set himself up in a good situation, and not one he is exploiting. When Rio shows up, he apologizes, seemingly genuine in his apology, but at the same time ready to face up to what he did.
And our two leads, Malden and Brando, are predictably wonderful. Another interesting aspect of the script and film is how much Spanish, without subtitles, it includes. It seems that for such an old film it integrates the Hispanic culture rather admirably, both thru the language and thru the characters. Still though, at times the film drags and suffers from the over-dramatic feel of an older film. Perhaps ripe for a remake the story in “One Eyed Jacks” is suitably intriguing, and with some beautiful photography and nice touches here and there, Brando’s directorial debut and finish is a good film.
Story: B Revenge. I like the way it sets up its simple tale rather quickly and then introduces intangibles and has more than one standoff.
Acting: B Brando and Malden are wonderful as is Slim Pickens. Others not so much
Visuals: B Looks pretty good out there in big sur.
Originality/Innovation: B Dark characters, moral ambiguity and a few twists…
Enjoyability Grade: B At times a little dated and probably could have chopped ten minutes out but if you are a fan of westerns…
Overall Grade: B Great films for western fans and/or Brando enthusiasts, but by no means a great film.
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