The Singing Detective & Ride the High Country

As a huge fan of the miniseries, I had low expectations for the Robert Downey, Jr. version of The Singing Detective. They were met. At least it wasn't a really long movie. The cuts in plot from the six hour miniseries to the under two hour long movie were just weak. Plus, the musical interludes were just too much, overshadowing it. Too much noise, too many camera movements, too much there. It was also messy as hell. And having Mel Gibson in it was disturbing. All in all, had it been an original movie, I probably wouldn't have been disappointed. Might even have liked it. But knowing how good it could have been was what sunk it.

Ride the High Country, Peckinpah's second western feature, is a fairly good, but somewhat bland western. That is, until the Hammond brothers show up again, and the shout-outs begin. Then it gets back to the Peckinpah I like. Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott were great. It's just that it takes way too long to get to the good part. The incest themes dominate most of the early parts, and that's a little weird, although it was after the Hays code had been effectively neutered.