Guest Review: A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

A Million Ways to Die in the West: A Western Comedy Snuff Film

By Jonas Schwartz

There are more elaborate and gory deaths in A Million Ways to Die in the West than in most episodes of the Friday the 13th series. People are engulfed in flames, skewered by bulls, poisoned, and shot at point- blank but always for a laugh. Seth MacFarlane’s latest gross-out comedy borrows many pages from horror movies, westerns, and Mel Brooks’ parodies and though MacFarlane’s laugh ratio isn’t half as high as Blazing Saddles (1974), he does have one thing that Brooks’ comedies rarely had: a real love story. Between the nuttiness and bathroom humor, the romance between MacFarlane’s character and Charlize Theron is legitimate and heartwarming.

In 1880’s Wild West, gutless sheep farmer Albert (MacFarlane) weasels his way out of gunfights, which wins the hearts and respect of no one, especially not his porcelain doll girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) who would rather date the rich town jerk (Neil Patrick Harris) than be seen with the town chicken.

Albert’s life is going nowhere and he considers packing up his wagon and traveling to San Francisco. His luck changes when the dastardly gunslinger Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson) drops off his wife Anna (Theron) in town.

After having been trapped in a loveless marriage with a psychopath, Anna takes an immediate liking to the kind, simple Albert and tutors him to be the sort of man Louise would crave.

A Million Ways to Die in the West follows many of the clichés found in Sergio Leone, Howard Hawks and John Ford westerns as well as the teen comedies of the ‘80s where the tomboy teaches the nerd how to get the popular girl only to fall hard for him.

Instead of hiding the fact that he’s stealing from everyone, MacFarlane revels in the homages. His characters are absurd but strangely relatable. The B-story of the hooker (Sarah Silverman) and her devoted, virgin boyfriend (Giovanni Ribisi) relies on sexual visual jokes and graphic details of a frontier whore, and yet Silverman and Ribisi play the relationship honestly, as a couple truly in love. 

Seyfried and Harris play more cartoonish characters, particularly Harris with his outrageously-styled mustache and sexual proclivities involving his hairy under-lip. Harris relishes playing a string-bean version of Foghorn Leghorn. 

As the monstrous Clinch, Neeson appears to be in a separate movie (which would normally ruin the tone but here gives an exciting sense of menace to the silly surroundings). Never winking at the audience, he plays Clinch as pure evil and MacFarlane never puts the audience in a position to laugh at him (except for one instance involving a flower).

MacFarlane is a surprisingly warm actor. With his wide eyes filled with dread and a klutzy demeanor, he’s as mismatched with his rough and tumble surroundings as is his royal-based first name (just how many Alberts were there really in Arizona in the 19^th century?) Theron brings elegance and gentleness to the frontier even when she’s sharp-shooting bottles.

The script by MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild (his co-producers of Family Guy and this year’s repugnantly unfunny Fox comedy Dads) mocks racism, cowardice and sexual hypocrisy, mostly in powerful manners. The writers walk a fine line of being offensive, particularly with their attacks on racism, but like MacFarlane’s hosting of the Oscars in 2013, he will delight some audience members and insult others. Some moments are too repulsive to be funny as he planned and some jokes are repeated so often they lose their potency, but overall, the jokes land.

The cinematography by Michael Barrett evokes the scope and fluidity of the grand westerns of the past. He helicopters his camera around Monument Valley (the site of many John Ford Films) giving the film an epic flair. It’s a heightened version of the west, perfect for a parody. Barrett is mostly known for Adam Sandler movies so his work here reveals an untapped beauty.

Composer Joel McNeely also steps into the big leagues with this film. Most of his works were for Disney straight-to-video and television. Here, he culls from Elmer Bernstein (Magnificent Seven), Alfred Newman (How The West Was Won) and Americana master Aaron Copland, lending grandeur to Barrett’s beautiful landscapes.

Seth MacFarlane is a funny guy. He may not be the genius that Mel Brooks had been in the ‘70s with his classic comedies, but he knows how to twist conventions in a hilarious way. What’s surprising about A Million Ways To Die in the West is his sense of pathos and romance as well as his directorial savvy in creating a visually striking world. It would be interesting to see what he does when he veers away from his satirical comfort zone and attempts something not a cartoon (even a live action one as here).

Jonas Schwartz is a voting member of the Los Angeles Drama Critics, and the West Coast Critic for TheaterMania. Check out his “Jonasat the Movies” reviews at Maryland Nightlife.