Renegade



I’m thinking one of my future Bottom Shelf columns for the High Hat should tackle the Peyote Western. This means I would someday have to sit through Zachariah. Since I’ve already survived Renegade, that might not be so bad. This is a French oater that seems largely inspired by the Simpsons episode where the coyote speaks to Homer in Johnny Cash’s voice. In reality it’s based on a comic book by Moebius called Blueberry, unread by me.

To the extent that I could make heads or tails of the movie, it seems to star Vincent Cassel as Mike Blueberry, a cowboy whose French accent we are meant to accept as Cajun. (I believe this tactic was utilized in several Van Damme films, to similar comical effect.) As a teenager, Blueberry was traumatized by the violent death of a whore he loved and had known all of 45 seconds. Many years later, he seeks vengeance on the apparent perpetrator, an especially raspy Michael Madsen. Mostly, though, he hangs out with his Indian friends, who blow smoke into him and send him careening about in wild computer-generated hallucinations.

I may have been hallucinating also, but I believe I saw: 1) Ernest Borgnine as a wheelchair-bound sheriff; 2) Eddie Izzard as some sort of freaky Prussian geologist; and 3) Juliette Lewis singing “Danny Boy” and skinnydipping in full-on, spread-eagle fashion, though thankfully not at the same time. I don’t know much about director Jan Kounen, but I do have the feeling that, if he were alive today, Sam Peckinpah would kick his ass.

One more note: for the third week in a row, I have watched and reported to you on a western that features Geoffrey Lewis in the cast. This was unplanned and remains unexplained. This is who I’m talking about:



Now, granted, it’s not surprising he would turn up in Bad Company and The Culpepper Cattle Company, as he appeared in approximately 539 westerns in the ’70s. In Renegade, he plays the father of Juliette Lewis, which he, in fact, is. So I guess that explains it as well as anything.