This is an excellent melodrama in the key of a twilight western...
The English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) said that poetry is the spontaneous outpouring of strong feelings, but it is rather surprising that a Robert Aldrich film can remind us of this motto.
The Last Sunset is a lyrical and heartbreaking western that, apart from having a subconscious meaning that is difficult to codify, unless we want to play at psychoanalysis.
Beneath its concise narrative, the characters' gestures follow a variety of symptoms in addition to the formal symbols of a western.
This is one of Aldrich's funniest films, thanks to Dalton Trumbo's excellent screenplay from "The Blacklist" based on Howard Rigsby's novel, which creates a character with touches of tragedy and redemption.
The charming characters, admirably painted with the constants of the western western: the protagonism of an arid landscape, revenge, cattle drives, Indians, bandits and of course, the fatality of the hero who seeks to rediscover his past. All of this is imbued with an aura of intimacy and internal tension.
A well-made film, tense at times, the characters look at each other, appreciate each other, express themselves through words or silence, but the tension and the past always lurk within them.
Carefully photographed moments of rest convey sweet or painful feelings. The central axis is the man in black, his weapon his identity, O'Malley with the scarf around his neck moves to the rhythm of Ernest Gold's chords, the phrasing of the score reminiscent of the era created by the famous "Exodus".
Earlier. Shot in earthy Eastmancolor, the ochre tones highlight the aridity of the landscape, the dust storms and shifting sands, adding lustre to this vibrant story and its hidden, twisted passions.
