When not living in my apartment in Cannes, I live on a 6,000 acre cattle ranch in the High Sonoran Desert about two hours northeast of Phoenix, Arizona.The ranch is situated in a desert valley surrounded by “purple” mountains and “a river runs through it.” When I ride into the mountains and look back at the ranch, the main house, and the other 14 buildings, I find it to be breathtaking! It sits all by itself in this beautiful valley, punctuated by thousands of majestic saguaro cacti which tower over the other forms of high desert flora. When they are in bloom in the spring the desert is so startling in its beauty that you can easily forget that this desert also has, for us, an abundance of poisonous rattle snakes, deadly scorpions, tarantulas, buzzards, gila monsters, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, etc. It is a dangerous place with temperatures regularly between 100 and 120 each day of June, July, August and September.

An aerial shot of the Hassayampa River Ranch.

But I love it!I have five beautiful horses; four quarterhorses and one, very large, retired racehorse “Tajabo” which I have broken for trail riding. My other horses include a somewhat dangerous white mare (“White Light”), a beautiful, blue-eyed palamino (“Charlie the Gent”), my favorite (a young and large, sorrel gelding, “Red”) who rides like velvet and runs faster than I really want to go – but do anyway, and "Runaway Dexter", another (now retired) sorrel gelding. 

The writer and the photographer, riding Red and Dex.

My very good friend Destry is a cowboy, who also manages the ranch. He put all the finishing cowboy touches on my riding lessons and introduced me to the cowboy culture. So I have, and wear or use, among other things, silver spurs, a handmade saddle, handmade and made to measure chaps studded with 25 silver conchos, silk neckerchiefs, a Stetson blocked a la Tom Mix and a .45 calibre six shooter!I ride most every day in this seemingly empty desert and cannot help but feel profoundly graced as I, with my great dog and companion, Jake, travel through this elemental landscape that has changed so little in centuries. And it is Apache land – the home of Geronimo!

The Grand Canyon is close to the Ranch.

It took General Crook and 5,000 U.S. Cavalry men years to capture Geronimo and 17 braves in this very desert in the 1860’s – there are arrowheads and disintegrating cavalry saddles to be found which prove the point!I feel that I know now why holy men go to the desert to fast and meditate – it’s primordial and seemingly brushes against other dimensions – much the way I imagine the space experience to be! (writ much larger, of course).So, when I am not in Cannes, I “think” I am a cowboy. Around my horses I dress like one and when riding (which is often), I suppose I act like one. When my mother died many years ago, she had, in a small collection of “snapshots” a picture of me at 6 or 7 years old posing under a Christmas tree, dressed like a cowboy – boots, vest, hat, toy six-shooter and all – I actually dress like that today when riding!I think it’s a little weird.But it must be said that cowboy paraphernalia, from clothing to equipment, is acutely utilitarian and practical. They just began to decorate and spruce up the utilitarian accoutrements – often with silver. So spurs are necessary, saddle bags are necessary, special boots are necessary, etc. and in this desert (particularly if you are riding alone), a pistol is necessary.

Gun collections such as this are not rare.

And in Arizona it is perfectly legal for a citizen to walk about in public wearing a sidearm. You see it all the time – in banks, in restaurants (fancy or otherwise), on the streets, in supermarkets, in short – everywhere! For most visitors to Arizona it’s a disconcerting sight.Now out where I live it makes some sense to wear a gun as regularly as a pocket knife. But also where I live there are a good many hermits (and just plain odd people) who have chosen to live out in what amounts to a wilderness. And — no surprise here either — many of these individuals drink to excess. So when odd people wear guns and drink to excess there are examples of “gunplay” and the sheriff is called.There are a lot of handguns in Arizona. You see many of them in this state, and occasionally one is “pulled” and pointed at either you or someone you know. I have no opinion on the subject except to say that, when riding, I avoid a certain area where there have been instances of “claim-jumping” reported! And with evidence of the trading of gunshots!The American culture, particularly in the West, loves guns. I like guns too. 

The Sonoran Desert is as beautiful as the photographs.

But the gun culture in parts of the U.S. is different than as I understand and like it – and, I suppose anything but a healthy fear and distrust of guns is dangerous!Oh well. Two good movies to watch are "The Killers," from an Ernerst Hemingway short story, and “Gun Crazy.” "The Killers" featured the debut of Burt Lancaster and also stars Ava Gardner as the femme fatale. Made in 1949 and directed by Joseph Lewis, "Gun Crazy" an excellent “Film Noir” story of love on the run propelled by a youthful fascination and love of guns – “amoral and gripping” says “Time Out.”

Movie Review:

The Killers

Directed by Robert Siodmek — Produced by Mark Hellinger — Screenplay by John Huston and Anthony Veiller — Based upon the story by Ernest Hemingway — Universal Pictures 1946
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O’Brien

I first saw this movie at the Colonial Theatre in Port Arthur when I was ten years old. I loved it — probably more for the title, the killers themselves being depicted by William Conrad and Charles McGraw, and the overall menace and danger oozing from the 20 to 30 foot screen in this “film noir” classic!

The Killers.

Robert Siodmek (the director) was a German expatriate who —along with Fritz Lang and Otto Preminger — married German cinematic expressionism with American, hard-boiled fiction such as Hemingway’s “The Killers,” resulting in splendid manifestations of the “noir” genre.There was a remake in 1964 directed by the very good Don Siegel, starring Lee Marvin and Clu Galager as the killers with John Cassavetes in the “Swede” role, along with Angie Dickenson as the femme fatale! But as one critic put it, Angie Dickenson doesn’t rise much above the “level of arm candy.” As well, the remake was originally made for television — thus the lighting is 1964 flat and uninteresting – a noir story delivered in a bright style!

Lee Marvin as one of the killers in the 1964 remake.

The original however is very good with excellent performances from Burt Lancaster as the Swede, an ex-fighter caught in a deadly trap set by a “dame you can’t trust.” The dialogue is taut — particularly between the killers themselves as they wisecrack and talk about bacon and eggs while preparing to murder the Swede – the roots of Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.”

The killers make amusing smalltalk.

The Criterion Collection offers a digitally remastered box set of both versions of “The Killers” — I bought mine from Amazon for $31.99.All three movies are good with the two original ones almost a must for noir buffs. But I enjoy movies to an extent not shared by everyone and I recognize that, so let’s say that these three are not necessarily for everybody.However these first 26 “Movies that Matter” would — in my opinion — grace anyone’s collection.

Movie Review:

Gun Crazy

Directed by Joseph H. Lewis — Warner Bros 1949
Starring: Peggy Cummins and John Dall

The acknowledged precursor to “Bonnie and Clyde” (Arthur Penn) “Bad Lands” (Terrance Malick) and “Natural Born Killers” (Oliver Stone), “Gun Crazy” is a little corny, replete with stock situations and characters along with some stiff acting (no “method” here) but it moves quickly, holds your interest and, in the great tradition of “film noir”, expresses an underlying theme that strikes to the heart of the matter. Crime is exciting, guns and violence are fun – and sex is just around the corner (if not already firmly ensconced in the unfolding of the adventure – for an adventure it is.)

Peggy Cummins plays the femme fatale to noir perfection.

“Gun Crazy” is thought of as a Top Ten Noir example. I’m not sure I agree but I like it, not as much as when I was 13 years old but I bet that my critical index of that year, while different then than now, would have rated it below, say “White Heat” (directed by Raoul Walsh in the same year) with the diminutive but charismatic and powerful James Cagney. However the sexy, pointy breasts of Peggy Cummins surely provided provocation and dangerous allure for a young boy who also was fascinated with guns and “mature” women. It is a good “B” movie, not too long and a must for the buff interested in Film Noir and the “Bonnie and Clyde” string.

Young Bart is fascinated and obsessed with guns, in a perfeft noir setting.

“Film Noir” to me, by the way, is a movie story shot mostly at night, across rain swept streets and through menacing back alleys (see opening sequence) telling how, usually a man and a woman, down and out “Little People”, make a grab for the “brass ring”. The means are generally shady and most often, if not always, lead to violence and murder. Our protagonists, of course, fail – no “brass ring” for them! Society, our society won’t allow it; so their message is clear – to inhabit a spot up here, you better be prepared to “play along” and work very hard but most of all, you better be damn lucky!As an aside, and as an example of how times change, I’ve gone from the excitement of “pointy” breasts in a 1949 movie to glancing up from my cafe au lait and pad of paper when at the Cannes Plage Bar to acres of “bare” breasts of all shapes and sizes as far as you can see in any direction!

A fantasy of many young boys.

And, when at the ranch, I have my very own six-shooter; allowing me to fantasize as much as I like to how I would deal with the ever-present “bad guys” from all social and political strata!