Sci-fi meets the Western in the blockbuster genre mash-up Cowboys & Aliens. Set in the late 1800s, C&A stars Daniel Craig (not exactly playing James Bond here, but close) as a man who wakes up in the middle of nowhere with no idea who he his. Wearing a metallic bracelet on his wrist and nursing a gash on his side, he wanders into the barren town of Absolution, which is populated by a classic Midwestern preacher (Clancy Brown), a harmless bar owner (Sam Rockwell, comic relief) and a wrinkled, worn down Colonel with the impressive name of Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). There’s also a beautiful young woman (Olivia Wilde) who takes an interest in the stranger, but there’s more to her than just the pretty view.
The town Sheriff (Keith Carradine, fitting the part) soon matches the stranger to a wanted poster in his office. He’s Jake Lonergan, accused of murder and a slew of other felonies. Before the wheels of justice can run Lonergan over, blue lights appear in the sky and throw the town into disarray. Absolution has an alien invasion on its hands, and insect-like crafts are hovering over the town and snatching residents with mechanical claws.
Lonergan looks like he would be just fine handling a gun, but that bracelet he’s wearing works better than any sidearm in repelling the alien invaders — making him both the town’s most feared man and its most valuable asset. After the attack, the survivors set out to find those who were taken. Along the way, they run into a rebel group of dentally challenged misfits and a tribe of Indians, both of which are asking the same questions — where did our people go, and what happened to all the gold? It’s only fitting that the aliens (or demons, as the town folk refer to them) may also be wondering the same thing.
In blending vastly different genres, C&A had to find the right mix for the audience to swallow it. Fortunately, the film finds a solid balance, largely through moderation. On the Sci-fi side of things, effort was clearly made to give the E.T.s and their technology a distinctive look (unlike, say, Battle: LA), and the F/X artists have succeeded in making the creatures menacing, intricate and disgusting to look at. And like any good Western, C&A has to have a memorable score; Harry Gregson-Williams’ (The Town and Gone Baby Gone, to name a few) music is equal parts western twang and modern action-thriller. The dialogue has a colloquial feel, but wisely doesn’t go overboard trying to convince us that yes, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde live in the Old West.
As Lonergan recalls his past, we put the pieces together with him. And while the payoff of the film is certainly not stunning, director Jon Favreau and his characters take us along for an explosive and engaging ride. After directing both Iron Man movies (not to mention the overlooked PG adventure film Zathura), Favreau knows how to effectively create boisterous action sequences. Which is good, because with all the explosions and gunfire, Favreau needed to control his chaos just enough so that the audience could follow who is doing what to who and why. It all works well.
C&A takes stabs at lessons on salvation and redemption, but the film never develops these underlying themes enough for them to resonate with the audience. (I appreciated the effort, though.) Nor does the film ever journey outside the box of a standard, action-laden Sci-fi yarn. But it doesn’t really need to, either. The audience I saw C&A with laughed at every one-liner and applauded when an alien took a bullet square between its lopsided eyes. So it’s not Stagecoach or Close Encounters. Cowboys & Aliens is still good ole’ summer fun with chunks of dead alien sprinkled on top.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2011.