''Blue'' is a 1968 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Silvio Narizzano Silvio Narizzano (8 February 192726 July 2011) was a Canadian film and television director, who lived and worked primarily in the United Kingdom. He is best known for directing the acclaimed 1966 comedy-drama film '' Georgy Girl,'' which is cons ...

and starring

Terence Stamp Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Known for his sophisticated villain roles, he was named by ''Empire (magazine), Empire'' as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995. He has received various accolades in ...

Joanna Pettet Joanna Pettet (born Joanna Jane Salmon; 16 November 1942) is a Canadian and English former actress. Early life Pettet was born in London, England, daughter of Harold Nigel Egerton Salmon and Cecily J. Tremaine, who were married in Chelsea, Lon ...

Karl Malden Karl Malden (born Mladen George Sekulovich; March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009) was an American stage, movie and television actor who first achieved acclaim in the original Broadway productions of Arthur Miller's '' All My Sons'' and Tennessee Will ...

, Ricardo Montalbán, and Stathis Giallelis. The film was made in

Panavision Panavision Inc. is an American motion picture equipment company (law), company founded in 1954 specializing in cameras and photographic lens, lenses, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk a ...

anamorphic Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native Aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film to create widescreen pres ...

and released by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

on May 10, 1968.

Plot

The year is 1880. Mexican bandit and revolutionary Ortega ( Ricardo Montalbán) has three sons, Xavier (Carlos East), Manuel ( Stathis Giallelis) and Antonio (Robert Lipton), and one adopted son, Azul (

), which means "Blue", the color of the young man's eyes. Antonio is fatally shot while attacking Texas settlers. Manuel attempts to rape Joanne (

), one of the settler women. Feeling pity for the woman, Azul fatally shoots Manuel just as one of the settlers shoots Azul. Joanne tells her father, Doc (

), that Azul saved her and they nurse him back to health in their home. Ortega finds Azul and asks him to return home, but when Azul refuses, Ortega threatens to wipe out the settlers. Azul organizes the settlers into a defense force that manages to destroy the attackers, including Ortega and Xavier. Before dying, Ortega asks Azul to bury him in Mexico. Carrying out Ortega's dying wish, Azul is shot by the fatally wounded Carlos ( Joe De Santis), Ortega's closest compatriot. Joanne brings Azul's body back for burial in Texas.

Cast

Production

Parts of the film were shot at Professor Valley, Sevenmile Canyon, Long Valley, Kane Creek Road, the Sand Flats, La Sal Mountains, and the Klondike Flats in

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. The production of the film in Utah was used for the 1968 film '' Fade In'' starring Burt Reynolds and Barbara Loden. Loden plays an assistant film editor who falls in love with a rancher played by Reynolds.

Evaluation in film guides

Steven H. Scheuer's Movies on TV Steven Henry Scheuer ( ) (January 9, 1926 – May 31, 2014) was a film and television historian and critic. He edited ''Movies on TV'' published between 1958 and 1993 and wrote ''The Movie Book'' (1974), subtitled ''A Comprehensive, Authoritative ...

'' gives ''Blue'' 1 star (out of 4), stating " took many celebrated names on both sides of the camera to botch up this western drama", continuing that " e tale... should have been more fascinating than it turns out" and concluding with " rector Silvio Narizzano was responsible for the lovely ''"

Georgy Girl ''Georgy Girl'' is a 1966 British romantic comedy film directed by Silvio Narizzano and starring Lynn Redgrave, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling, James Mason, and Rachel Kempson (Redgrave's mother). The screenplay was written by Margaret Fors ...

"'' so we can't blame him entirely for this no-color no-flavor western". Later editions retained the 1 star rating, but featured a shortened, rewritten review which called ''Blue'' a " stern oddity" that exhibited " peculiar blend of sagebrush and psychology". ''

Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally calle ...

'' did not have a much higher opinion, giving 1 stars (out of 4) and denigrating it as an " distinguished, poorly written Western". Later editions added the words "See also ''FADE-IN"'', which Maltin's review describes as an " d little film made concurrently with ''BLUE"'' and notes that ''"BLUE'' actors Terence Stamp, Joanna Pettet, Ricardo Montalbán and Sally Kirkland can be glimpsed here". As in ''Maltin'', '' The Motion Picture Guide'' assigned 1½ stars (out of 5), calling it "a waste of time from the outset" and pointing out " etentious direction by Narizzano with Leone-like close-ups and Peckinpah-like slow-motion". The write-up further states, " is movie cost about five million, more than two million over budget. A waste for everyone concerned." Near the end there is mention that " Giallelis (Manuel) made such a splash in

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

's ''

AMERICA, AMERICA ''America America'' (British title ''The Anatolian Smile'') is a 1963 American drama film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan. It was inspired by the struggle of his uncle, Avraam Elia Kazantzoglou, to work his way to America, a land o ...

'' that great things were expected of him. He never should have taken this role." Two additional guides also rank ''Blue'' at or near bottom. ''Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever'' threw the film one bone (out of possible four), describing it as " dull western", while Mick Martin's and Marsha Porter's ''DVD & Video Guide'' served its lowest rating, "Turkey", stating "God-awful, pretentious Western with Terence Stamp as a monosyllabic gunman." Among British references,

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...

, in his ''Film Guide'', gave no stars (Halliwell's top rating is 4), dismissing it as a " etentious, self-conscious, literary Western without much zest." A quote from

Rex Reed Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, journalist, and media personality. Raised throughout the southern United States and educated at Louisiana State University, Reed moved to New York City in the early 1960s to begi ...

was also included, "I don't know which is worse — bad cowboy movies or bad arty cowboy movies. ''Blue'' is both." '' TimeOut Film Guide'' founding editor Tom Milne was also dismissive, finding it " grotesque, pretension-ridden Western which falls flat on its face with a ponderous yarn about...", while adding that "Terence Stamp struggles unavailingly against the ludicrous dialogue and some fine

landscape photography Landscape photography (often shortened to landscape photos) captures the world's outdoor spaces, sometimes vast and unending and other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on human-ma ...

by Stanley Cortez is wrecked by a penchant for gaudy filters and even gaudier sunsets."

References

External links

* * * *
''Blue''
at ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' (revised form of this 1987 write-up was originally published in ''The Motion Picture Guide'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue 1968 films 1968 Western (genre) films Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Silvio Narizzano American Western (genre) films Films shot in Utah Films scored by Manos Hatzidakis 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language Western (genre) films