Rancho Deluxe **** (1975, Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, Elizabeth Ashley, Charlene Dallas, Clifton James, Slim Pickens, Harry Dean Stanton, Patti D’Arbanville) – Classic Movie Review 5099

Director Frank Perry’s 1975 updated Western, set in contemporary Montana, is quirky, cynical and highly appealing. In the Seventies-style modern-day setting, Navajo rugs are cleaned with a vacuum, Holiday Inns scar the Montana landscape and buffalo guns fell Lincoln Continentals.

Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston star as Jack McKee and Cecil Colson, an American East Coast young dude and his Caucasian/ Native American buddy, drifters who make their living rustling cattle in the wilds of Montana. They rustle cattle from conceited ranch owner John Brown (Clifton James), who hires a pair of inept ranch hands, Burt and Curt (Richard Bright and Harry Dean Stanton), and then former rustler Henry Beige (Slim Pickens) to find the rustlers.

The engaging cult cast thoroughly enjoy themselves and so do audiences charmed by the laid-back humour of this estimable Seventies cult movie.

Thomas McGuane’s screenplay is a winner, and so is the young Bridges. William A Fraker’s cinematography and Jimmy Buffett’s score are also outstanding.

Also in the cast are Elizabeth Ashley, Charlene Dallas, Joe Spinell and Patti D’Arbanville.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5099

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