Nooooooooo!
The commentary track calls Emperor of the North "a larger archetypal battle between two men: a force of evil and a force - well, maybe not so much of good, but of lesser evil." (Record needle scritch). Dude! Give it up! That's just a bunch of fifty dollar words for action movie. I just came here to see Ernest Borgnine hunt hoboes with a hammer! No analysis necessary!
Marvin is “A Number 1,” king of the hoboes, and he takes up the challenge to ride the full route of the Number 19, a train captained by sadistic, hobo-hating Borgnine. Keith Carradine plays "Cigaret," a young hobo who takes Marvin on for the title of Emperor of the North Pole, or toughest tramp. The sentimental Marty Robbins soundtrack is a little incongruous and there's a couple of goofy hobo motivational speeches ("I'm gonna make you a jungle cat!") but otherwise this is just straight-shooting, no BS action movie. The simplicity of this flick, which is basically two middle-aged guys fighting with their bare hands, is just beautiful.
I’m not sure why everyone feels it’s necessary to abbreviate the already brief “hobo” to “’bo” but then again, I’m not up on my hobo lore. And if you do want to get all academic about it, check out Robert Ito's "An Occasional Hobo," a review of the strange but true life story of Josiah Flynt Willard, who transformed from hobo to hobo informant for the railways; it appears in this month's The Believer. http://www.believermag.com/issues/201106/?read=article_ito
This is what I signed up for: a bow-legged Ernest Borgnine laughing and taunting an axe-wielding Lee Marvin in a ten-minute fight scene.
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