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The perfect middle age angst movie!
by Sally (movies profile)
Apr 23, 2007
2
of
3 people found this review helpful
I've climbed three mountain ranges, I've hiked a ten mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail, I've survived hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, blizzards, a terrifying night in sub-freezing temperatures in a van on a lonely stretch of Georgia road, I've primitive camped on a stretch of Rocky Mountain high prairie in Western Canada - in short, I have tested myself physically and found something of a spiritually cleansing nature in doing so, which is why this movie, "City Slickers", is something I can totally identify with.
Ed (Bruno Kirby), Mitch (Billy Crystal) and Phil (Daniel Stern) have screwed up their lives in ways that most middle aged people can identify with. You get to that point where you have to ask yourself, "How did I get here and why?" and you don't quite know the answer to that one. Well, these three gentlemen decide to find out some answers to their life dilemmas by going out on a cattle drive in the Wild West and end up having themselves pushed in ways that they could never have imagined.
Their leathery trail boss, Curly (Jack Palance) dies on them, two other professional cowboys on the drive to assist the "city slickers" skidaddle on the group when Phil, driven to the point of madness, ends up with one of them at the point of a gun, and retreating to his tent after the encounter, ends up crying over his situation as Mitch, hugging him, reassures him that he has a chance for a "do over", a second chance at life. When it is revealed that the other trail cowboys have left after their encounter with Phil, Mitch and the rest of the party decide to quit the entire venture and leave, while Ed and Phil decide that they'll stick it out and bring the herd in themselves.
Find this more difficult than they imagined, they are elated when Mitch eventually returns and the three of them bring in the herd alone, but not before Mitch nearly drowns in a rain swollen river saving a calf he helped birth with Curly, the late trail boss. They eventually succeed in their mission to finish what they had begun, and in so doing, find within themselves whatever it was that they were missing when they started out. They are able to return home changed men.
This movie will have you laughing and crying at the same time. There are some powerfully moving moments throughout the film as well as some extremely funny ones, and the entire ensemble works beautifully well together. Excellent chemistry in the cast does a great deal to cement the story together and to prevent any one person from stealing the show. A great movie if you are going through a mid-life crisis or have never done anything to push yourself to the limit physically and wondered what it would be like to do so.
One of my all time favourite films, a must-see for the entire family! |
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