Ride the High Country
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Movie Reviews of Ride the High Country
Movie Review: Classic Early Peckinpah
Summary: 5 Stars
"Ride the High Country" is a remarkable film, probably one of the 10 best westerns ever made. Directed by a young Sam Peckinpah fresh off his successes on TV ("Gunsmoke", "Broken Arrow", "The Rifleman" and the best damn TV western ever "The Westerner"), it stars Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea.
Joel McCrea was in his late 50s when the film was made. He had a long career starting in the silent film era, and appeared in more than 50 films, usually as a hero in westerns - "Wells Fargo" (1937), "Union Pacific" (1939), "The Virginian" (1946), and "Four Faces West" (1948). But McCrea wasn't limited to western films, and he gave good performances in films such as "Foreign Correspondent" (1940) and "Sullivan's Travels" (1941). By the time of "High Country" his career had faltered and he was making forgettable westerns at 1 to 3 per year. Although some people claim McCrea retired after "High Country", the truth is he did 4 more films, retiring in 1976.
Randolph Scott was in his early 60s when "High Country" was filmed. Like McCrea, he started in silent films and like McCrea his early career involved playing a variety of characters in a variety of films - "My Favorite Wife" (1940), "To the Shores of Tripoli" (1941), "Captain Kidd" (1945), "Home Sweet Homicide" (1946) - but by the 50s he too was appearing exclusively in B westerns - "Sugarfoot" (1951), "Carson City" (1952), "The Bounty Hunter" (1954), "7th Calvary" (1956), "Westbound" (1958) - most of which were directed by Budd Boetticher (7 films) or Andre de Toth (6 films). By the time of "High Country" Scott had amassed a fortune from California real estate investments, and he retired from film making because he considered his performance in "High Country" to be a good note to go out on.
Scott and McCreas are virtually interchangeable for the two parts. In fact, they were originally signed to play the other's part, but changed their minds and swapped. Indeed the original ending was also swapped around. Billing for the film was also decided by the toss of a coin, which Scott won.
"High Country" was Peckinpah's second film. He would follow this with "Major Dundee" (1965) and then go on to make "The Wild Bunch" (1969) and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973), two of the finest westerns ever made, giving Peckinpah 3 of the top 10. But here at the beginning there is none of the slow motion violence that would characterize his later films. Instead, this film is character based, as are his later films, and focused on the transition when the old west was ending and the new west hadn't yet begun. In such times, what is a man's obligation to himself and to his friends? This was Peckinpah's gold and he mined it better than any other director.
Peckinpah regulars Warren Oates and L.Q. Jones appear in "High Country". Jones met Peckinpah while he was doing the "Klondike" TV series and followed him to the big screen where he would be the one actor to appear in more Peckinpah films than any other (5). Jones continued to act well into his 70s with roles in "Prairie Home Companion" (2006) and "The Mask of Zorro" (1998)
Warren Oates met Peckinpah during filming of "The Westerner" and like Jones, followed him for the next two decades, appearing in "Major Dundee" (1965), "The Wild Bunch" (1969), and "Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974). Oates was a prolific actor, appearing in more than 50 films and more than 100 TV shows. He starred as "Dillinger" (1973) in which gave one of the best performances ever.
Mariette Hartley makes her screen debut in "High Country" but quickly found more
fertile ground in TV appearing in episodes of "Twilight Zone", "Star Trek", "Peyton Place" etc. She won an Emmy for her role in "The Incredible Hulk" (1978) and had 5 more nominations. In "High Country" she plays a teenage girl trying to get out from under the harsh hand of her religious father.
R.G. Armstrong, as the religious fanatic, is a scene stealer which is saying something for a film that has such a distinguished cast. Like Scott and McCrea, Armstrong was generally known for playing westerns. He met Peckinpah on the set of "The Westerner" and he would appear in "Major Dundee" (1965), "Cable Hogue" (1970) and is best remembered as Bob Ollinger, the religious deputy who is killed by a shotgun blast filled with dimes, in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973). In real life Armstrong had strong conflicts about his religious beliefs, and Peckinpah purposefully used this to cinematic advantage in casting him.
Lucien Ballard shoots the film as if it were a lullaby. The location is beautiful and Ballard captures it to full advantage. The New York Times said: "excellently photographed in color against some lovely vistas". Over his 50 year career Ballard was voted Best Cinematographer at the Venice Film festival ("The Devil is a Woman") in 1935, was Oscar nominated ("The Caretakers" )in 1963 and won an NSFC award for his work on "The Wild Bunch" (1969). He worked with Peckinpah on the TV series "The Westerner" and then on many other films, including "Cable Hogue" (1970), "Junior Bonner" (1972), and "The Getaway" (1972). He was a favorite cinematographer of director Budd Boetticher who worked on 7 Randolph Scott films.
The beautiful musical score is by George Bassman, known for his work with the Marx Brothers ("Day at the Races", "Go West") and "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). While his work on "High Country" is excellent, he clashed several times with Peckinpah, and this was one of his last films.
The film was released by MGM as part of a 2 film double feature(along with "The Tartars"), but critics found it nonetheless and were impressed. Newsweek called is the "best film of the year" and "pure gold" and Time put it on its list of top 10 films. While it was a box office bomb in the US, it was a smash in Europe (where it was called "Guns in the Afternoon") and became one of MGM's highest grossing European releases ever. It won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Grand Prize in Brussels, and Best Foreign Film in Mexico.
Much of what you see in "High Country" you'll see in later Peckinpah films. Interplay between Scott and McCrea will be recast in the interplay between Robert Ryan and William Holden in "The Wild Bunch" and the final scene in "High Country" with one of the fallen men looking out into the mountains will be recast as the dying scene of Slim Pickins, looking out alone over the river, in "Pat Garrett".
Movie Review: "All I want is to enter my house justified"...and with that Sam Peckinpah (plus McCrea and Scott) gives us a great Western
Summary: 5 Stars
"Partner," says Gil Westrum to Steve Judd, two aging ex-lawmen whose time has past them by, "do you know what's on the back of a poor man when he dies? The clothes of pride...and they're not a bit warmer to him dead than they were when he was alive. Is that all you want, Steve?" "All I want is to enter my house justified," says Judd.
"Partner," says Gil Westrum to Steve Judd, two aging ex-lawmen whose time has past them by, "do you know what's on the back of a poor man when he dies? The clothes of pride...and they're not a bit warmer to him dead than they were when he was alive. Is that all you want, Steve?" "All I want is to enter my house justified," says Judd.
That exchange sums up as well as anything what the heart of Ride the High Country is all about. The time is somewhere past the turn of the century, when gold is still being mined in the High Sierras and motorcars are starting to make their appearance. Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) was a lawman with a code of honor who now needs eyeglasses. His town-taming days are long past. What he's got to show for bringing law to people are a horse, a silver saddle, a $2 watch...and holes in his boots. In the town of Hornitos he takes on a job of traveling up to the mining camp of Coarse Gold to bring the gold back down to the local bank. He meets an old friend and former lawman, his long-time partner, Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott), now reduced to suckering the rubes in fixed carnival shows. Westrum long ago figured out that honor and respect don't go far for an aging lawman when it comes to paying for his dinner. Judd takes Westrum on as help to bring the gold back, and he also accepts Westrum's young partner, Heck Longtree. Judd plans to deliver the gold and earn his money, a last chance to confirm his code of honor. Westrum plans to take the gold. Along the way they encounter a farmer who is a religious zealot and the man's daughter, Elsa Knudsen (Marietta Hartley), who longs for her own life and thinks she has met the man she wants to marry. Billy Hammond and his four brothers work a claim in Coarse Gold. She leaves her father and, reluctantly, Judd and Westrum let her accompany them to Coarse Gold. Ride the High Country is an economical hour and thirty-four minutes long. Peckinpah spends the first half of the movie letting us get to know Judd and Westrum on the ride to the camp, their age, their disappointments, their different ways of looking at self-respect and personal honor. He lets us see how the two respect and like each other, and how Westrum tries to get Judd to think about that gold...and how Judd seems not to understand. It's a long look at the sadness of age. Scott, at 64 and in his last movie, and McCrea at 59 and in his last major movie (he made four more quickie westerns) bring major elements of nostalgia, regret, sand and honor to the movie.
Once we get to the mining camp and from there to the conclusion, nostalgia, regret, sand and honor take over with a steady increase in the action. Billy Hammond and his brothers, ranging from slick and ruthless to just plain dumb, make a case for the dominance of recessive genes. Coarse Gold turns out to be a muddy, cold free-for-all of grubby tents, grubby miners and grubby women. The only wooden building in Coarse Gold is Kate's place, the saloon-brothel with a fat madame and a drunk of a judge. When Elsa is nearly raped on her wedding night by a drunken Billy in the brothel that served as the place for the marriage ceremony, with his brothers leeringly awaiting their turns, Steve's honor requires she be returned to her father. And then we're heading back to Hornitos with the Hammond brothers in pursuit and Westrum more determined than ever to get his hands on the gold. The final shoot-out at the Knudsen farm is a gripping, immensely satisfying confrontation; it also has an overlay of pride and humor when Judd challenges the remaining Hammond brothers with "I want to know if you red-necked peckerwoods are too chicken-gutted to finish this thing in the open!" Ride the High Country reaches a genuine, dramatic emotional peak where honor and self-respect are redeemed and friendship is reaffirmed. "Don't worry about about anything. I'll take care of it, just like you would have," Gill says to Steve. "Hell, I know that. I always did... you just forgot it for a while, that's all." Still, it's clear that for men like Judd and Westrum, their time has passed.
Peckinpah's Wild Bunch and Ride the High Country, in my view, are among the best Westerns made. What I like so much about Ride the High Country is it's restraint, it's bitter-sweet sadness and the history and memories that Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott bring to their roles. They give the movie it's mood and character. It's fascinating to think that they were originally cast to play the other's role. They both felt so uncomfortable they separately went to Peckinpah and asked if they could switch. The three instantly agreed. And why did Scott get first billing? The two old stars just got together privately and flipped a coin.
The DVD transfer looks fine. There are two or three extras, including a commentary, which I didn't sample.
Movie Review: One of The Last Classic Traditional Westerns and One of The First Modern Westerns
Summary: 5 Stars
Ride The High Country is one of those curious works of art that bridges the past and the present, combining the best of both worlds while being extremely enriching and satisfying on its own merits. The first major film of legendary film director Sam Peckinpah, it stands with his other Western film The Wild Bunch as two of the greatest film of its, or any other genre.
Featuring two actors who were indivisibly synomous with Western films, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, and featuring supporting performances by Ron Starr, Mariette Hartley, RG Armstrong, Warren Oates, LQ Jones, James Drury and Edgar Buchanan, the film tells what seems like a fairly simple story, and makes it violently poetic and elegiac all at once.
McCrea and Scott play two aging ex-lawmen who are living out their remaining years in vastly different ways. McCrea picks up odd transport and security jobs because he's now too old to be a lawman. Scott performs in a Wild West show because he'd rather act that cling to a life of serving the law. When McCrea asks Scott's help in transporting miners' gold, Scott sees an opportunity to get rich quick, and along with his young sidekick, join McCrea in the hopes of convincing McCrea of running off with the gold. Along the way, they run into a sheltered farm girl who runs off and marries Drury, who comes from a family of backwoods maniacs. And so the story goes...
Ride The High Country is traditional in its casting of solid, if older Western stars like McCrea and Scott, traditional in the values espoused by McCrea, those of loyalty, honor, and sacrifice. The film is modern in how it depicts the two older men as products of a rapidly bygone era that is not loyal, does not honor, and in fact sacrifices them at the expense of modern life. The film has its cake and eats it too because it is wonderfully made, wonderful written, and wonderfully acted.
Randolph Scott, who had become a very wealthy man and made movies for the enjoyment and not out of necessity, left acting forever after appearing in Ride The High Country. He knew he would never make a greater film, and in fact, this was the best Western he ever made, even surpassing the great Westerns he made with Budd Boetticher.
Ride The High Country will always be mentioned when great Westerns and great films of all kinds are discussed.
Movie Review: One of the Finest Westerns Ever Made
Summary: 5 Stars
This is what they mean when they say, "they don't make them like that anymore." With all the praise inexplicably heaped on a piece of crap called "A History of Violence", a ridiculous, mindless film, based on a barely literate cartoon strip, you often wonder exactly what has happened to American films - which used to be the envy of the world for their craftsmanship and acting. "Ride the High Country" was apparently considered a very good little "B" movie in its first release - but time and care now reveals it to be an American classic. Two terrific actors, in their glorious twilight, working with an upcoming director, team up for a beautifully crafted, gorgeously filmed and scored, Western about character and justice. TCM has been showing the widescreen version of this gem for a couple of years - and now here it is where it belongs - on DVD for every true film fan to see. Forget Tarantino's mindless violence. Forget the quick cuts and lack of storytelling talent of practically every film director in the business right now: this is how it is done, and the director of this film never did as well (he too lapsed into cheap "slow motion" violence and other inhuman traits as his own film career lurched on). Here we have a story told with depth and clarity - and HUMANITY. Scott and McCrea are two great stars who know something about manhood, decency, wit, grace, and strength. Where are these kinds of films now? Where are the male actors who can inhabit these roles with some degree of class, grace, and strength? Why can't ANYONE do a simple, clear, human Western, as it was once done, which often had so much to say about contemporary times ("High Noon," as one example)? At least we have this and you can't argue with it: a spare, stunning Western, with one of the great climaxes in film history. A MUST!Movie Review: Ride The High Country
Summary: 5 Stars
In many ways RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is a tribute to two great western stars-McCrea and Scott. It is a story of two aging, former lawmen who are good friends.
Both of them are just doing what they can to get by day by day, to survive a changing world. What they have left is their memories, their sense of pride, and their integrity.
Their integrity is tested throughout the film. Sometimes, integrity is tested when the temptation of gold is tossed into the stew pot of life. Lying under the stars on an old saddle, covered by a worn blanket and suffering aching joints, the memory of a righteous life tends to fade. The lure of quick riches, a hot bath in a royal hotel, a set of new clothes and a descent meal intrude into the dreams. Dreams are often an echo of hidden desires and unrequited realities.
George Bassman's overture is a haunting mix of inspirational western music and subtle hints of a requiem. The music reaches its climax in the last scenes.
Sam Peckinpah's direction took the western genre into a new direction. It presented a morality tale with flawed human beings who struggled with their demons and the desire to do what is right. This western world is a harsh, brutal, cold and violent place where religion and sinful human nature play off each other. The good guys and the bad guys are not so clear-cut. There are no white and black hats.
In summary: the film is a soliloquy to the western.