Ride the High Country
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Movie Reviews of Ride the High Country
Movie Review: Ride the High Country
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great Western and one that I did not fully appreciate when I was a lot younger.Movie Review: A nostalgic reminder of the simple virtues and values of the more traditional Western heroes...
Summary: 4 Stars
Even for those who generally do not appreciate Westerns, 'Ride the High Country' is an absorbing and moving piece of entertainment... For Western buffs it is an item of study, with its accurate period detail and the vistas of the California Sierras, near Mammoth Lakes... The film firmly established Peckinpah as a director of unusual style, a man with the ability to create strange images, often ugly ones in beautiful settings, although his talent in staging scenes of violence is shockingly impressive...
Peckinpah's mining community in this film is memorable for its spirited and dangerous atmosphere, with its one true gold mine being the whorehouse... The madam is a cheerful nightmare, and hidden in a corner is a drunken judge (Edgar Buchanan), with a bottle of whiskey, who comes alive only to remind us that people change...
'Ride the High Country' gets additional poignancy from its choice of stars... They made so many Westerns over the years, and they had long been personal friends... It was the happiest inspiration that got them together for this afterglow ride that resulted in two unforgettable performances... But one wonders exact1y how they savor the situation--that after so much riding, over so many years, it has taken a late, almost afterthought ride, to place them securely among Western immortals... It is, indeed, a happy finale to a pleasing career and a nostalgic reminder of the simple virtues and values of the more traditional Western heroes...
Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott had come to specialize in many fine westerns, set an admirable style in quiet heroism, always courageous, ever dignified, never vulgar... They ride this time together, ruminating over times that used to be... Both are heroic figures, having been noted lawmen, and yet they are now reduced to taking whatever comes their way in order to live...
One is a man of moral rectitude who believes in fulfilling his obligations, 'doing the job' just like in his old days as lawman... The other out to make one last haul in order to retire with a measure of comfort... But both are old-timers striving to make ends meet in a changing West where they no longer belong...
They are clearly past it--McCrea goes into a washroom so that he will not be seen putting on spectacles in order to read a contract; Scott asks his captor to cut him loose for the night, offering only one reason: 'I don't sleep so good anymore.' Both sleep in long combs and pause on a tiring journey to bathe their aching feet in a cold stream... And in the end they defend the old values against the new with pride, dignity, never forgotten their skill with six-guns...
'Ride the High Country' had a number of interesting sub-plots and characters and an earthy but tasteful approach to sex... Its strength, however, lay in the sincere and moving portrayals of its two major stars, and in the beauty and poignancy of its final scene...
The basic theme of the movie is strong, moving and valid, but, above all, it is the elegiac feel that makes it such a memorable motion picture--the serious thoughts of two veterans about 'how it was.'
These are men with tired feet, caught up in the turn of the times... They are still there in the afterglow period of Western history... It's a long way back now to 'High Noon,' and the sun of 'Red River,' 'Shane,' 'Johnny Guitar,' and 'The Searchers' has left the sky forever...
Movie Review: A first-rate western with magnificent scenery
Summary: 4 Stars
RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962, MGM) is one of four titles in SAM PECKINPAH'S THE LEGENDARY WESTERNS COLLECTION. All four titles go a long way toward placing Peckinpah in the pantheon of western filmmakers. HIGH COUNTRY rates **** (out of ****) from stingy Leonard Maltin, so it is hard to call it a "guilty pleasure." But maybe it should be since it was shut out of the 1962 Oscars. It has a script by N. B. Stone, Jr. and has been magnificently photographed in CinemaScope and Metrocolor by Lucien Ballard on high Sierra and Inyo Forest locations. At their very best, at the end of illustrious film careers, Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea play aging gunfighters lost in time around the 1880's. The Gold Rush era is over, but there is still good money to be made in escorting gold bullion from the top of the California Sierra forests to a frontier town in the valley below. Scott and McCrea are up to the challenge, but hesitate when a preacher's daughter (Mariette Hartley in her film debut) and a tenderfoot come with the deal. "This is a mission for gold, not romance," proclaims one of the two aging men. This superb and intelligent western will come as a revelation to movie lovers who only can think of Sam Peckinpah in terms of poetic bloodbath westerns. It balances lyrical romance with the old mens' code of ethics expertly, and it has been filmed on gorgeous California Gold Rush country locations with glorious performances by everyone. RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is a winner for western film devotees.
Movie Review: Wonderful, thoroughly entertaining yet mature Western
Summary: 4 Stars
After getting pretty tired of the usual crap coming out of Hollywood recently, you know, comic book heros and adult cartoons, I decided to revisit Westerns. It's been a hit and miss process, a mix of juvenile stuff with some good ones like this one. Would appreciate some help from people who share my taste.Movie Review: Not As Good as Remembered
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a great movie whenever Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott are alone on the screen. The rest of the cast is very weak. The decors smack of the 60's as do the costumes and make-up. The dance hall girls do not look turn of the century and the Chinese restaurant is made of materials that did not exist in 1900. So I enjoyed seeing two great stars act together but was disappointed bt the rest.