FEBRUARY 22, 2008 - VOL. 1, ISSUE 3

You know it did wrong because I say so. I watch westerns with incredible mercy. I let everything go. To prove it… I loved Paint Your Wagon. I can’t find fault in the western ideals, even if the plot is hollow. I spend a good deal of time wandering around in a poncho and cowboy hat. Despite this I cannot justify praising The Tonto Woman, one of this years Oscar nominated live action shorts. It’s rotten.

Danial Barber’s attempt at a western begins with Ruben Vega, played by Francesco Quinn, giving confession in a run down frontier church. “Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been twenty-seven years since my last confession. In that time I have fornicated with many women- maybe three hundred, but maybe not that many, cause of my work. Maybe only two hundred…. They were all good Padre. I’ve stolen twenty-thousand head of cattle, but only fifteen horses.” Vega, bleeding from the stomach and gasping, explains that he has killed in self-defense. When the Padre responds that there is no distinction when it comes to murder, Vega stumbles out from the dark church into the bright desert sun.

The film jumps back in time and tells the story of how Vega came to be shot. Like all good westerns this film uses the empty sounds of the desert to build eerie suspense. Once Vega leaves the church, great story potential is set-up when he confronts a lonely pioneer woman, Sarah Isham, played by Charlotte Asprey, after watching her bathe topless from a rusted pump in front of her wind-blown shack. Sarah’s naturally beautiful red hair, freckles and milky skin are overshadowed by a tribal looking tattoo that pushes down from her lip to her chin and sprouts from the corners of her mouth into sharp black spikes. Vega, our unlikely hero, immediately recognizes that she has been marked by the local Mojave Indians. He understands that her husband, Isham, has hidden Sarah alone in the dangerous desert because he is ashamed of the tattoo, and her past.

It becomes instantly clear that Sarah is intrigued by the Mexican loner’s acceptance and curiosity, even as she tells him to go away. Reciprocally, Vega seems to fall in love with the outcast instantly. This is where I started seeing problems. During a second visit Vega has to ward off Isham’s cronies and we soon see the couple having fun together by a lake. Sarah, completely unashamed, steps out of the lake fully nude for Vega to see.

I understand that Sarah might be relieved to finally meet someone that doesn’t judge her, but it seems awfully strange for her to instantly trust this stranger without him putting his cards on the table first. We don’t see any motive for her to trust this man besides his apparent interest in her. It wasn’t enough.

As far as Vega goes, we get no insight into his motives for taking interest in a woman that is generally seen as spoiled meat. The loner later reveals that he is only in the area to steal her husband’s cattle. For some unjustified reason he decides to put this plan at risk in order to have more time with Sarah. The film does not develop this relationship and leaves it meekly with Vega admitting that he will leave soon and Isham lying that he will take Sarah into his own home. We believe the caricatured weasel momentarily until we see his cronies outside surround Vega and hear the gunshots as the camera illuminates Sarah’s reaction. The film closes by repeating the confessional scene from the beginning. It made me yawn.

I was upset on two fronts. First: The film is gorgeous! The whole film is shot beautifully and the camera tells a marvelous story. Second: When Vega first meets Sarah there is amazing story potential set up. I’m upset because the film has so much potential and simply does not reach for it!

I want to see a rewrite of this film. I wont give up on its story possibility but I am surely disappointed in its execution.