| Paint Your Wagon | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster by Ron Lesser | |
| Directed by | Joshua Logan |
| Screenplay by | Alan Jay Lerner |
| Adaptation by | Paddy Chayefsky |
| Based on | Paint Your Wagon byLerner and Loewe |
| Produced by | Alan Jay Lerner |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | William A. Fraker |
| Edited by | Robert C. Jones |
| Music by | Frederick Loewe |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 154 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million[3] |
| Box office | $31.6 million[4] |
Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 AmericanWestern[5]musical film starringLee Marvin,Clint Eastwood, andJean Seberg. The film wasadapted byPaddy Chayefsky from the1951 musical of the same name byLerner and Loewe. It is set in amining camp inGold Rush-eraCalifornia. It was directed byJoshua Logan. The film was released on October 15, 1969, in theUnited States byParamount Pictures.
When awagon crashes into a ravine,prospector Ben Rumson finds two adult occupants, brothers, one of whom is dead and the other of whom has a broken arm and leg. During the dead man's burial,gold dust is discovered at the grave site. Ben stakes a claim on the land and adopts the surviving brother as his "Pardner" while he recuperates.
Pardner hopes to make enough in thegold rush to buy some land and is suspicious of the fast-living Ben. Ben claims that while he is willing to fight, steal, and cheat at cards, he will never betray a partner. Ben will share the spoils of prospecting on the condition that Pardner take care of him in his moments of drunkenness and melancholy.
After the discovery of gold, "No Name City" springs up as atent city, with the miners alternating between wild parties and bouts of loneliness. The men become frustrated with the lack of female companionship, and the arrival of Jacob Woodling, aMormon withtwo wives, is enough to catch everyone's attention. The miners persuade Woodling to sell one of his wives to the highest bidder. Elizabeth, Jacob's younger wife, agrees to be sold, as she is unsatisfied with her current husband.
Still drunk, Ben winds up with the highest bid for Elizabeth. After being readied for the wedding by the other miners, he is married to Elizabeth under "mining law", with Ben being granted exclusive rights to her. Elizabeth, not content to be seen as property, threatens to shoot Ben on their wedding night if she is not treated with respect. Despite believing Ben is not the type to settle down, she views their arrangement as acceptable if he will build a cabin to provide her with some security for when he inevitably leaves. Ben, impressed by her determination, enlists the miners to help him keep this promise, and Elizabeth rejoices in having a proper home.
News comes of the pending arrival of "six Frenchtarts" to a neighboring town viastagecoach. A plan is hatched to divert the stagecoach under false pretenses and bring the women to "No Name City", thus providing the other miners with female companionship. Ben heads up the mission and leaves Elizabeth in the care of Pardner. The two fall in love. Elizabeth, also still loving Ben, convinces them that "if a Mormon man can have two wives, why can't a woman have two husbands?" Thepolyandrous arrangement works until the town becomes large enough that civilized people begin to settle there. A parson begins to make a determined effort to persuade the townsfolk to give up their evil ways. Meanwhile, Ben and a group of miners discover that gold dust is dropping through the floor boards of many saloons. They tunnel under all the businesses to get the gold.
A group of new settlers is rescued from the snow, and the strait-laced family is invited to spend the winter with Elizabeth and Pardner, who is assumed to be her only husband. Ben is left to fend for himself. In revenge, he introduces one of the family, the naive Horton Fenty, to the pleasures of a localsaloon andbrothel. This leads to Elizabeth dismissing both Ben and Pardner from the log cabin, and Pardner takes to gambling. During a bull-and-bear fight, the rampaging bull falls into the tunnel complex dug by Ben and the others and knocks out all of the support beams, causing the streets and buildings to collapse. Eventually, the town is destroyed entirely. Ben departs for other gold fields. Before this, Pardner reveals his real name to Ben: Sylvester Newel. Elizabeth and Pardner reconcile and plan to stay.
All songs written byAlan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, unless otherwise noted.
| Chart (1970) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[6] | 6 |
Multiple attempts were made to adaptAlan Jay Lerner'sPaint Your Wagon into a film.Warner Bros. considered making the film withDoris Day andParamount Pictures considered making it withBing Crosby.Louis B. Mayer purchased the film rights before his death in 1957, and Paramount bought the rights from his estate.[7]
Lerner, who wrote the screenplays forAn American in Paris,Gigi, andMy Fair Lady, produced the film. Lerner selectedJoshua Logan, who previously directed thefilm adaption of Lerner'sCamelot, to direct the film.Blake Edwards wanted to direct the film, but Lerner declined his offer and Edwards instead directedDarling Lili. The plot was significantly changed from the stage play. Lerner attempted to haveFrederick Loewe compose the film's soundtrack, but he declined and instead suggestedAndré Previn.[8]
Clint Eastwood was selected instead ofGeorge Maharis.[9]Lee Marvin accepted the lead role instead of appearing inThe Wild Bunch.[3] He received $1 million, while Eastwood was paid $750,000.[3][10]Faye Dunaway,[11]Mia Farrow[12] andTuesday Weld[13] turned down the role of Elizabeth before Seberg was cast.Julie Andrews,Sally Ann Howes, andDiana Rigg were also considered for the role.[3][9]Lesley Ann Warren, who was under contract to Paramount, had to bow out after she became pregnant.[14]
Eastwood and Marvin did their own singing, while Seberg's songs were dubbed byAnita Gordon.Agnes de Mille was asked to choreograph the film, but declined.[9][15]
Paint Your Wagon was shot nearBaker City,Oregon, with filming beginning in May 1968 and ending that October.[3] Other locations includedBig Bear Lake,California, and theSan Bernardino National Forest; the interiors were filmed atParamount Studios, with Joshua Logan directing. The film's initial budget was $10 million, before it eventually doubled to $20 million. A daily expense of $80,000 was incurred to transport cast and crew to the filming location, as the closest hotel was nearly 60 miles away. The elaborate camp used in the film cost $2.4 million to build.[3][16]
A rainstorm destroyed the road connecting the set to Baker City and Paramount had to pay $10,000 per mile to rebuild the road. Lerner almost fell down a 400-foot cliff during filming. Hippies who had been cast as extras formed a union and threatened to strike unless their daily pay was increased to $25.[17]
The film was released at a time whenmovie musicals were going out of fashion, especially with younger audiences. Its overblown budget and nearly three-hour length became notorious in the press. Eastwood was frustrated by the long delays in the making of the film, later saying that the experience strengthened his resolve to become a director. According toRobert Osborne, Marvin drank heavily during filming, which may have enhanced his screen appearance, but led to delays and many retakes.[citation needed]
Paint Your Wagon opened atLoew's State II theatre inNew York City on October 15, 1969.[1] In theUK,Paint Your Wagon had a 79-week 70mm roadshow run at theAstoria Theatre inLondon.[citation needed]
The film was first released on VHS 1991 byParamount Home Entertainment with an original PG rated from MPAA. In 2001, Paramount released this film on DVD, and it was re-rated to PG-13 for thematic material by the MPAA. In the digital versions, the Intermission scene was removed from the film. In March 2024,Kino Lorber releasedPaint Your Wagon on4K Ultra Blu-Ray and standardBlu-Ray versions.
Paint Your Wagon received mixed reviews from critics. Vincent Canby, in his October 16, 1969, review forThe New York Times, wrote that the film was "amiable... However, because amiability is never in over-abundant supply, especially in Hollywood super-productions, the movie can be enjoyed more than simply tolerated." He ended the review by expanding on its pleasantness:
Most of the time,Paint Your Wagon is very easy to take, as amiable as Marvin, Eastwood, and Miss Seberg, whose contemporary movie presences give an old property brand-new cool.
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave this film 2/4 stars in his October 31, 1969 review, describing the film to be "loud and officially stereophonic, all right. But it’s studio music — cold, aloof".[18]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45%, based on reviews from 20 critics.[19] On Metacritic, it has a 50/100 based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[20]
The film grossed $50,506 in its first week.[21] It opened inLos Angeles the following week[1] and immediately expanded to another 12 cities.[22] It reached number one at the US box office in its eighth week of release.[23] Due to its large budget and disappointing returns, Paramount took an initial write-off of $11 million; however, the film performed better during the summer of 1970 and they reversed around $6 million of the write off.[24] The film became Paramount's sixth-largest success up to that point (and the seventh highest-grossing film of 1969); over its release, it grossed $31.6 million, although the earnings never offset the cost of production and marketing.[25]
Marvin's rendition of "Wand'rin' Star," accompanied by the film's choir, became a number one hit in the UK.[26] His voice was described byJean Seberg as "like rain gurgling down a rusty pipe". Interviewed onNPR, Marvin said that the song was a hit in Australia, and someone there described it as "The first 33⅓ recorded at 45.In 2021, "paint your wagon" was adopted by Sunderland AFC and would be played after games"