On L List of Movie Reviews

(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)


Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970)

Rate: 1
Viewed: 7/25

Fauss
7/25: I've just seen the worst film of Robert Redford's career: Little Fauss and Big Halsy.

But what about Havana or Up Close & Personal? No, this is worse. Yes, Robert Redford looks gorgeous, and he's shirtless 75% of the time, but is that reason enough to avoid the '1' rating? I'll have to say no. His character has a broken back and yet is able to ride motorcycles full-on? Yeah, right. There are other major issues that are impossible to overlook.

The first is pairing of Michael J. Pollard with Robert Redford. He sucks and doesn't belong in the film. What's with his stupid glasses? I've never seen anybody wear them in my life. On the other hand, hadn't the powers that be seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Whatever the answer is, they should've kept watching it a dozen times more.

Next is the atrocious writing. Nothing the characters said makes sense. It's full of random talk. I had to check out the internet to see who came up with this crap, and it turned out to be Charles Eastman. I said, "Not familiar." When I proceeded to look over his tiny body of work, I was like, "No fucking surprise." This is the same guy who produced one of the worst scripts ever in the history of motion pictures for Second-Hand Hearts. The movie has to be seen to believe which caused millions and millions of dollars in losses, and Paramount still refused to release it theatrically across the country and prevented its availability in DVD until 2013. The other that met a similar fate is The All-American Boy.

The third is the editing and the camera work. Both are consistently awful. I had no idea what's going on in any of the motorcycle races. There's no way that Robert Redford and Michael J. Pollard did the riding except for the very easy, baby-like stuff. Anytime either actor is in a close-up with others in the background, that's definitely a truck holding him.

All in all, there's no doubt that Steve McQueen, once upon a time, laughed at Robert Redford for Little Fauss and Big Halsy and went on to do a far superior documentary film: On Any Sunday.