Mum's Monday: Wild Wild West

When I started watching this film I took it too seriously so it lost some of its comedic element for me.

This film is actually a clever blend of the past, present and futuristic technology, it brings to life the air craft that Leonardo da Vinci drew diagrams of and uses steam power of the day to create modern inspired vehicles, these being a motorbike and a battle tank. 

Captain James West (Will Smith) AKA Jim West is a ‘work alone’ kind. He is gun happy and doesn’t miss an opportunity to show it. Throughout, he becomes more accepting to working with other people and we see an insight to the real Jim West and we see him mellow and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, including wearing a dress. This shows a dramatic change in the character, but if the end goal is to get revenge for something that happened to your family then other people are willing to help and do what it takes to avenge those they care about; then you have to change as this film shows well.

U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline) is a master inventor extraordinaire. He hates guns and if he can invent something to replace a gun, then he will. Initially, he doesn’t want to work with Jim (and the feeling is mutual), but after learning the reason why Jim is on this particular mission, he is quick to be willing to help. This character is creative and placid, making his way through life as quietly as possible, doing his job of looking after the president Ulysses S. Grant, who is also played by Kevin Kline. But when he needs to he really steps up his game for Jim and Jim does what is necessary to help Artemus. The camera work is beneficial to make sure you don’t lose track of what’s going on, and you really wouldn’t know one actor was playing two characters.

General ‘Bloodbath’ McGrath (Ted Levine), is on the side of the enemy, Dr Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) until the enemy turned against him, and so, with nothing to lose he changes sides and helps Jim – or he would have if he hadn’t died from the gunshot wound he received from Arliss. This goes to show in life that we may never know who is a true friend or turn out to be the enemy when we meet people.

It turns out Jim is chasing the wrong person and McGrath wasn’t the brains behind the 360-degree gun-fire tank. It was Arliss. This character has been injured in such a way that only the top half of his body exists from the waist. This character even has a party to celebrate that he is still alive, despite his injury. The special effects with the wheel chair is very realistic and it looks like the actor is just half a person and the script around him kidnapping Rita Escobar (Salma Hayek) is very clever and tells us all we need to know. With a bit of trickery and a well-placed chain at the end we see Jim get his revenge.

Rita Escobar is the typical damsel in distress for this film, but she is not your usual distressed damsel and with a little lie and cunning she wins over Jim and Artemus, only to find herself back with Arliss. This character knows how to turn on the sweet innocent damsel when she chooses to, but she also has an ulterior motive as we see at the end. This is played out very well and the script cleverly works for the character. 

The comedic element interweaved in the with the characters and the storyline really makes this film work, just don’t take it too seriously as I did; you won’t see the cleverness of it all. I now see this film deserves a good credit, which it does.