Josh Logan's "Paint Your Wagon" was produced when the big budget musical genre had fallen out of favor with audiences and does not meet the expectations raised by teaming two of the manliest actors in Hollywood, Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin by putting them in a big budget musical.
In a energetic performance, Lee Marvin plays his usual drunken,but lovable scoundrel who teams up with Clint Eastwood after discovering gold while burying Eastwood's brother. Enter Jean Seberg as the extra wife of a Mormon who is auctioned off to high bidder Marvin. After a musical montage Eastwood also falls in love with Seberg leading to an odd three way marriage.
The movie suffers from a hopelessly bloated running time (164 minutes!) and is filled with truly forgettable songs. The apathy of Eastwood's character leads to his being overshadowed by the charismatic, overblown Marvin. By this time Eastwood has established his tough guy persona so watching him croon lovesick ballads like a second rate Ricky Nelson is disheartening. Where Eastwood's singing has a thin, light quality that may be grounded in his love of jazz, Marvin opts for a less challenging speak-singing style that provides a mumbled rendition of "Wand'rin Star" that surprisingly rose to number one on the charts. Yes, that's right Lee F'ing Marvin sang a hit single.
You would think a film with a three-way marriage, debauchery, polygamy, Paddy Chayevsky script, and the star power of Eastwood and Marvin would be more fun or at least interesting. In the case of "Paint Your Wagon" you would be wrong.
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