Use
of Budget
Considering
the meager $10,000 budget, this film had a fairly good-sized
cast--which bears the ear-mark of the first co-director
(and co-star) of the film, Michael Kastenbaum. Kastenbaum
is known in Los Angeles micro-cinema circles for starting
Zero Pictures, a company that works as a turn-key filmmaking
company for no-budget directors. They've gained renown
as the hired guns of the micro-budget community.
The
acting of the main characters was very good; I'm impressed
that the filmmakers were able to find such skilled actors
on such limited funds. (Of course, the fact that the co-directors
co-starred as the main leads in the film saved a lot of
money, I'm sure.) And, of course, they had to fly at least
the main characters and crew to Wyoming from LA. Then,
of course, the original score - which is excellent - couldn't
have been cheap. And - the most impressive element of
the whole film - the horses! They say never to act with
animals, children, or Stewart Granger, so I'm amazed that
these filmmakers took the ambitious step of using horses
so often in the film (of course, it's nearly unavoidable
in a Western.) In any case, that couldn't have been cheap,
so I'm impressed that they were able to get this much
use out of the horses and that they were so well-behaved.
There
are a few contrast issues, some re-edits, and a few audio
problems that could be addressed in post, though they
should be minor enough to not cost too much more money.
Lasting
Appeal
As I said, I was raised on Westerns, and I'm sure that
many of my friends and family members would really enjoy
this movie. I've been disappointed by too many of the
newer westerns because they simply don't measure up to
the standards that I'm used to in the old classics. Fortunately,
The Wooden Gun does not fall into that category.
Conclusion
This
film does an excellent job of mixing the black and white
film, wide vistas, and classic looks of the old-school
westerns with the darker anti-hero characters, emotional
moments, and tragic elements of the newer spaghetti westerns.
Each of these eras have two distinct and beautiful styles,
and for the filmmakers of The Wooden Gun to find a way
to combine them is quite impressive. There a few minor
elements that could stand to be fixed, but overall this
is an amazing creation - I would pay money to see it on
the big screen!
