Jim and Leonard have that kind of well‐meaning but dumb egotism that assumes the world revolves around them. Listening to the film is like listening to a friend who refers to everyone by his first name, even when the references are to complete strangers. ![]() It's no accident, I think, that much of the dialogue in Terry Malick's screenplay is made up of almost incomprehensible cowboy jargon. It moves in little fits and starts and then it tends to daydream, to become involved in subsidiary business that has no real plot point though it has a great deal to do with character and mood. It takes a little while to catch on to the rhythm of “Picket Money,” which, like the temper of its hero, is erratic. Leonard, an old Mexico hand boozes most of the day and dreams of getting rich quick one way or another, through a land scheme, perhaps, or possibly by coloring table salt (so you know when you've put too much on). Not the least of Jim's faults is that he believes in his own, inevitably faulty, first impressions.Įverything Jim does in Mexico goes a little wrong despite advice and assistance provided by his old friend, Leonard (Lee Marvin), who is only slightly less naive than Jim. In desperation for money, Jim agrees to return to Mexico to buy 250 steers for a croaked rodeo supplier named Garrett (Strother Martin), whom Jim likes and trusts. ![]() When he brings a bunch of Appaloosa horses across the border from Mexico, they wind up in quarantine, suffering the equine equivalent of a disease sometimes said to be no worse than the common cold. Jim Kane (Paul Newman) is a good‐natured, none‐toocanny Texas cowboy who owns a pickup truck, owes money to the bank and to his ex‐wife, and has a perfect knack for making bad bargains. ![]() The action solves no problems but Jim Kane feels better for having done it. Instead, “Pocket Money” deals in small, mostly comic tests of the spirit, like the one in which its hardluck hero, to make his point, finally heaves a television set through a motel window. The Old West has already declined and there are no shootouts at the O.K. Money” is a very appealing movie that might be loosely described as a contemporary Western.
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