I'm just guessing here, but I think that those who voted for this movie and somehow talked themselves into giving it a "10" rating are unabashed Willie Nelson fans whose views are unmarred by the requirements of reality. They must think that anything Willie does is perfect, by definition. Either that or they are family members of the film's director. In any case, it's really not a very good movie. Admittedly, it might be that the filmmakers were going for a sort of homage to the French new wave by having nothing but unlikable characters with unheroic actions, who somehow manage not to get their come-uppance by film's end. Or maybe they were just trying to capture the abject nastiness of the content of many country and western songs where wives leave husbands, who then proceed to shoot the wives. Whatever the case, or whatever the intentions, I really don't think the movie worked at all. Morgan Fairchild was a prop. Katharine Ross appeared very suddenly and very late in the movie, which to my thinking unbalanced the whole plot. The scene where Odie was hanged may have been well thought out...I imagine that a group of very dumb people in that situation would have acted very much as did the actors. However, any pathos that we the audience was supposed to feel was lost since the scene ended up being so darned funny.
Perhaps the worst problem of all with this film is the way it deals with themes. The message of the film seems to be "go ahead and shoot a bunch of women in the head...they deserve it." I wonder if the writer was in the midst of a divorce when he penned this thing. Now admittedly, in real life men shoot their wives and the wives' lovers. Horrible things happen. But I don't think this film was going for real life. I'm trying to skirt a spoiler here (not that you couldn't guess how the film ends), but if you haven't seen it and don't want it wrecked, don't read the rest of this. At the end, the hero/spouse-murderer still rides off into the sunset. That's not reality. That's a standard Hollywood happy ending. I don't know what it's doing at the end of this film, though. If Goddard had done this one, no one would have survived.
In Willie's defense, I don't think his performance was as bad as one might expect a singer's to be. I admit it lacked some levels, but I'm rather proud of him for just keeping it subtle and using that wonderful stoic face of his to some advantage. It doesn't save the movie, but hey, at least there's a bright point. Too bad he had to wreck it by playing a character who kept gunning down women.
I suppose the lesson learned here is that it's very hard to do a movie where the characters are stupider than the audience, and still make it interesting to the audience. Forrest Gump got away with it by being frightfully insightful into human emotions. This film didn't manage that. It just showed a lot of brain-weak people shooting each other and left a bad taste in my mouth. Sorry guys, if my rating is VERY low, but I felt it a duty to counterbalance all the rollicking 10's the film has received here on IMDb.
Perhaps the worst problem of all with this film is the way it deals with themes. The message of the film seems to be "go ahead and shoot a bunch of women in the head...they deserve it." I wonder if the writer was in the midst of a divorce when he penned this thing. Now admittedly, in real life men shoot their wives and the wives' lovers. Horrible things happen. But I don't think this film was going for real life. I'm trying to skirt a spoiler here (not that you couldn't guess how the film ends), but if you haven't seen it and don't want it wrecked, don't read the rest of this. At the end, the hero/spouse-murderer still rides off into the sunset. That's not reality. That's a standard Hollywood happy ending. I don't know what it's doing at the end of this film, though. If Goddard had done this one, no one would have survived.
In Willie's defense, I don't think his performance was as bad as one might expect a singer's to be. I admit it lacked some levels, but I'm rather proud of him for just keeping it subtle and using that wonderful stoic face of his to some advantage. It doesn't save the movie, but hey, at least there's a bright point. Too bad he had to wreck it by playing a character who kept gunning down women.
I suppose the lesson learned here is that it's very hard to do a movie where the characters are stupider than the audience, and still make it interesting to the audience. Forrest Gump got away with it by being frightfully insightful into human emotions. This film didn't manage that. It just showed a lot of brain-weak people shooting each other and left a bad taste in my mouth. Sorry guys, if my rating is VERY low, but I felt it a duty to counterbalance all the rollicking 10's the film has received here on IMDb.