Lucky Luke, Go West: The Movie. Out tomorrow. (*******7/10)
I remember, as a kid, going to the library and checking out the giant French Lucky Luke comic books. I read every single one the library had, and so began my infatuation with Western culture. Luke, the fastest gun in the West, and his adventures in continuously catching the notorious Dalton gang proved to be a terrific way to entertain myself over the course of a weekend, and also a great way to learn French. Now, the comic book series comes to DVD in the movie Lucky Luke: Go West, The Movie, out Tuesday August 26th from Alliance Films.
The movie is available in both French and English, and hilariously there is a third language available on the DVD - Quebecois. So you can watch in either French, or Quebecois, depending on your preference. I couldn’t tell the difference, so I chose “French”. The movie is much like the comic books. Silly, over-the-top, and yet somehow still steeped in Western lore. Luke, escorting a group of settlers from New York to California, has the Dalton gang in tow and in captivity. The Daltons, obeying their own code of the West, resent the attempts of the evil guy to break them out and set them free. They’ll free themselves, you see. They don’t need any help. Some funny pop culture references are thrown in throughout the film - an Indian attack on the caravan is represented from overhead like an old-fashioned musical dance number. Luke, after delivering the Daltons to the New York City courthouse in a suit, ducks into a phone booth to quickly change into his cowboy outfit. And the Indian smoke signals are represented, for the modern audience, as emoticons.
Watching this DVD brought back a lot of pleasant childhood memories for me, and I recommend this film as a terrific way to teach French to your kids. Full of ridiculous humour and endless silly action, Lucky Luke: Go West is a throroughly worthwhile way to entertain yourself for a weekend. Or even two.