Word: clark
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...only thing disappointing in all this is the portrayal of Superman himself. Randy Stone stands out as the least successful figure in the show. His ingenuous good looks fit him perfectly to the role physically; however, as an actor he makes little differentiation between his treatment of characters Clark Kent and Superman. He plays both roles with a basically boring country-bumpkin naivete...
COMES A HORSEMAN Directed by Alan J. Pakula Screenplay by Dennis Lynton Clark...
...stylist who works equally well with actors and ideas. Cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather, Interiors), though overly enraptured with the poetic uses of shadows, is one of the top craftsmen in American movies. There's only one wild card in this impressive pack: first-time Screenwriter Dennis Lynton Clark. His script is dry, but that does not absolve his colleagues from the responsibility of juicing...
...Clark's story is a hybrid of The Rainmaker and the collected works of Larry McMurtry (Hud. The Last Picture Show). He tells of two antagonistic small-time ranchers, a tomboy spinster (Fonda) and a good-natured World War II veteran (Caan), who reluctantly pool their resources to battle a takeover by an expansionist landowner (Robards). The villain, meanwhile, has problems of his own-an oil-company executive (George Grizzard) wants to plunder the cattle fields for crude. It is not difficult to guess what follows. Like every other so-called modern western, this one features a trusty...
Since Pakula's recent films have dealt with little guys battling huge conspiracies of money and power, it is easy to see why he was drawn to Clark's script. What is missing here is the director's usual skill at transforming abstract evil into a palpable and frightening force. Perhaps Pakula has been lulled by Horseman's bucolic landscapes, because his characteristic tension is missing here. In this director's best movies, he arouses terror and paranoia by making it impossible to separate heroes from villains until the end. This time around the cast...