Paint Your Wagon; An Oddly Entertaining Musical

Back in September 2013, former heavyweight tough guy for the Boston Bruins, John ‘Moose’ Wensink, was roasted in Cornwall to raise money for the Children’s Treatment Centre.  Following the event, I interviewed the former NHLer. When asked what his favourite film of all-time was, he quickly proclaimed Paint Your Wagon. When asked why, he simply replied, “Why not?”  This article, with a few changes added, is the same that was published back on December 17th, 2014.  I recently golfed with Wensink at Upper Canada Golf Course in Morrisburg, Ontario (on July 22nd, 2016), and he was gracious enough to expand on the interview we did back in 2013.  You can see the video interview down below, where the man takes us through his storied career and expands on his love of Paint Your Wagon.

This 1969 movie almost seems to come from some kind of Bizarro world, or alternate universe, in which Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood star in a western (sounds great) . . . musical?! Though I am well aware that Eastwood can sing – having gruffed his way through the final song in Gran Torino, it seems like a confounding premise, though for the most part, it works.

The flick begins with Eastwood’s character, primarily called Pardner throughout the picture, and his brother, plummeting down a hill in their wagon. Ben (Marvin) comes to help, but it is too late for the brother. Pardner is wounded but okay, and the two discover gold at the crash site, becoming instant partners. A small town comprised of only men builds up around this mining settlement.

One day, a man arrives with his two wives and decides to sell one off as he needs the money. Marvin buys the lady (named Elizabeth, played by Jean Seberg) and makes her his wife, but soon after becomes unnerved as he believes every man in the town is after her. So, along with his partner, he devises a plan in which a group of men will kidnap several ‘women of the night’ who are on the move to a neighbouring city. The plan goes off without a hitch and a saloon/brothel town is born, one that would make Las Vegas blush (if cities could blush). To add to the drama, Pardner and Elizabeth begin to fall for each other, yet she still loves her husband too. This creates a love-triangle with an unusual twist. As the city grows, preachers begin to arrive to warn of the coming smite and religious farmers begin to populate the surrounding areas. Will this town that gold built be able to survive the wave of newcomers, or will it sink into the quagmire of sin that has grown within the village?

The story is based on a musical (a classic score by Lerner and Loewe) and I must say that the songs are well-written, humourous and entertaining (and this is coming from someone who is not usually a huge fan of musicals). The dialogue is often snappy, quick and witty. The actors also do solid jobs. Marvin is great as the multidimensional character; from drunk and happy-go-lucky, to having fits of depression as well as being a romantic. Though he will never be known as the velvet fog or even close to it, he does do a solid job with the extensive vocals(you should check out the song ‘I Was Born Under a Wandering Star’ – which was even featured in a recent Amazon Prime commercial).  Eastwood is probably as far from his typical persona as you can get. At the beginning he mentions that he does not like violence because he is good at it. As a result, we the audience think this will come up at some point later on in the film, yet the rather stoic man rarely lets any anger out, tricking us and making this role the antithesis of what we have come to expect from Clint.

Paint Your Wagon has been spoofed countless times, most memorably when Homer Simpson rents the film thinking it is going to be filled with action and violence, yet Marvin and Eastwood simply dance, prance and sing throughout (infuriating the patriarch of the family). Despite this movie’s unusual elements and easy spoof-ability, it is actually quite entertaining and draws you in. So, grab a brush and join in on this toe-tapping adventure.