You have to remember the environment that Catlow was being made in and who was making it. Early 1970s, Euro Western/Spaghetti Western ... it was a time when EVERYONE felt that the western needed to be re-imagined because it had been so over done in the 30 years prior. It just wasn't a good time.There is something about Dad's work that inspires bad film making. Something about it makes filmmakers think it's easy, or that you can "just shoot the book," whatever the heck THAT means. I've seen it over and over.
I worked on The Empty Land with two academy award winning screen writers and was amazed to watch their IQs plummet as they interacted with the material. That's not the only time, and it would not have been an easy adaptation, but those were the highest profile writers.
I've adapted his work myself and never felt it was all that challenging but I also never approached it like it was easy. You have to study the story, decide what it's ABOUT (as opposed to what happens in it) and then design the best film to best support that goal. To do so you really have to look INSIDE the story ... and you have to understand the genre, whatever genre it is.
Typically, a Western is a story about two strong characters learning to respect one another. Usually they are men but in say Hondo and say, True Grit or Rooster Cogburn, you have that same relationship with a woman. There are a few other typical stories but this is the most common. In Hollywood they used to joke that it was a love story among men. Red River is a classic.
Catlow is one of these. It's not that good but I have great regard for the film makers because they allowed the relationship to project a sense of humor. The great mistake, the thing that no one seemed to be able to see, with The Empty Land was that it needed to be a buddy picture or "love story between men" too. The men who oppose one another are Felton (the owner of the original claim and the head of the town council) and Coburn, the town taming marshal. They want the same thing but they have different ways of getting there. The conflict is really between THEM, the various "bad guys" are just problems to be solved, the weather, the nature of a boom town.
Unfortunately Dad wrote Felton poorly, at least once Coburn (a more typical western hero) appeared. When I was working on it Sam Elliot was being considered for Coburn. In the opinion of the others involved no one else was important. I kept saying: "Hire a powerhouse actor to play Felton, someone unexpected. Ray Liotta. James Woods." Someone who could give Sam a run for his money. Someone who would inspire good writing and allow him to be equal. Then you'd have a good film. They all looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. Maybe I had, but the film didn't get made.
Perhaps that's a good thing.
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