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Goin' South

1978, Movie, PG, 105 mins

Goin' South: Review

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Horse thief Nicholson, who unsuccessfully tried to join the Younger gang, beats it across the Mexican border, but an unscrupulous posse ignores the international border laws and crosses the river to capture him. Nicholson brings about his own bad end by jeering and sneering at the exhausted pursuers. He is taken back to town and sentenced to death. Members of his old horse-thieving gang visit him in his last hours--his old flame, Cartwright, telling him sorrowfully, "You was the best I ever had, except for that circus fella." Desperate, Nicholson discovers in the 11th hour an old law that permits his release if a woman of the town agrees to marry him. He stands on the gallows like a slave on the block, begging any and all females in the crowd to select him as a husband. The rope goes around his neck, the executioner fondles the trap lever, but at the last moment an ancient woman (Schmidt) croaks out her willingness to marry Nicholson. She is overcome with anxiety at the hurried wedding ceremony, however, and drops dead. The horse thief is dragged back to the gallows and once more undergoes the ordeal. Then a high-pitched voice, that of Steenburgen, is heard offering to marry the condemned man. He is released and weds, on the proviso that he work her small ranch for her. Actually, she wants him to dig with her in an old gold mine to scratch out a dying yellow vein. This he does, rushing wearily with her to glean the meager riches before a railroad forecloses on the land and/or his old gang gets wind of the mine and takes what gold the two have clawed from the rocks. The couple warily takes time out to learn a bit about each other's personality and, tired of waiting, conducts an awkward husbandly rape of his headstrong wife. His triumph over her iron-willed aggressive nature apparently appeals to her because she later asks that he tie her up again and reenact the sexual attack. In the end, the gang arrives, pursued by another posse. A long, drawn-out shootout ensues while Nicholson and Steenburgen head south with their sacks of gold, moving like frantic gypsies toward the border and happiness. Although the premise of GOIN' SOUTH is clever, the story is unbelievable and, under Nicholson's first grip as a director, is unwieldy and directionless. The tale is presented in disjointed, confusing, poorly set sequences. Nicholson the actor is mildly amusing, as are some of his riotous gang members, DeVito and Belushi (the latter appearing only briefly, irrespective of his high billing). But the whole film deteriorates midway into amateurish mugging and slapstick. Steenburgen is a terrible mistake in her film debut--a leading lady with no sex appeal, no presence, no charisma, nothing. What is most memorable about her is one of the most annoyingly shrill, grating voices ever to go onto a sound track. And free ranch and mine labor don't seem enough to drive this young widow to marry--and make love to--such a dirty, foul-smelling, creepy little bum as Nicholson, even to save him from the hangman's rope. There wouldn't have been a story without the inexplicable decision, however--not that there is much after that. Poor direction and Nicholson playing a Smiley Burnette kind of character actor when a leading man was desperately needed add up to a boring waste of time. leave a comment
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