If I was casting in 1980

Good choices. I see you love 1900 too!

I think the cast is perfect as it is, but just for the hell of it:

Jim: I'd be interested to see how Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas or Ian McShane would have carried it. Maybe Jeff Bridges if he'd been about a decade older at the time. Funny how him and Kristofferson so resemble each other now.

Nate: Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland... someone who could be a little "spooky" like Walken.

Ella: The studios were furious that Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway were not cast, this makes sense because they were easily the 2 greatest American actresses of the seventies. Catherine Deneuve would have been interesting if they felt like keeping with a French actress. Personally I feel Margot Kidder would have been excellent... she's so tough and was never given enough purely dramatic roles! I think Huppert resembles Kidder as well... pale, smoky voice, dark eyes.

Canton: Orson Welles would have been grand, imposing and certainly over-the-top. James Coburn would have given it a more traditional western flavor (love his cursing and spitting in Pat Garrett). And I agree, Burt Lancaster would have been excellent... perhaps a bit too charistmatic. Sam Waterston's smarmy and somewhat asexual delivery is great.

I get the whole "someone else would be better than Kristofferson" line of thinking, even though I think you're wrong (Kristofferson IS Averill)... but I don't see how anyone can think Walken can be replaced. He's perfect here.

If you read Steven Bachs book about the film - Cimino wrote the part of Averill with John Wayne in mind - and would have used a different actor to portray the character when he was younger.



"Thank God For Darwin"