The Big Trees
|
DVD Cover Information Actor: Edgar Buchanan, Eve Miller, John Archer, Kirk Douglas, Patrice Wymore Director: Felix E. Feist Cinematographer: Bert Glennon Editor: Clarence Kolster Producer: Louis F. Edelman Writer: James R. Webb Writer: John Twist Writer: Kenneth Earl DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language) Format: Color, DVD, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 89 minutes DVD Release Date: 2002-11-19 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Alpha Video |
| New | New Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $3.03 | ||
| Used | Used Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $2.28 |
Your purchase is protected by the A-to-z Safe Buying Guarantee. Amazon.com automatically transfers your payment to the merchant so you'll never need to pay a merchant directly. Amazon.com A-to-z Safe Buying Guarantee covers both the delivery of your item and its condition upon receipt.
Movie Reviews of The Big Trees
Movie Review: You like me, don't you?
Summary: 3 Stars
THE BIG TREES starts out with a great deal of promise - Kirk Douglas stars as Jim Fallon, a Wisconsin timber baron who plans to take advantage of a new law that will allow him to `harvest' California's giant sequoias and make a fortune in the process. The movie opens in Wisconsin where Fallon is facing down a growling work crew. The pay is late, again, and the men have just about had it. Drawing on his deep well of nerve and blarney and charm, as well as a well-timed gunshot from soon-to-be sidekick `Yukon' Burns (Edgar Buchanan), Fallon not only avoids a bloody mutiny but he even manages to talk the crew into migrating to California where, seemingly, money does indeed grow on trees.
So far so good. THE BIG TREES might be a cut above. The first scene in California (the movie was filmed in Orlick) has Fallon and Yukon measuring the diameter of a giant redwood. It measures out at twenty-eight feet, and the scene is only slightly jarred by the shadow of the camera and boom during this attractive tracking shot.
The hitch in Fallon's plans take the form of Friends, or Quakers, who regard the ancient redwoods as sacred objects. They hold their religious services outdoors, nestled in this majestic sequoia cathedral. Nestled in the bosom of the Quaker community is the beautiful Alicia Chadwick (Eve Miller) (the dvd biography on Miller tells us she was a Playmate of the Month a couple years after THE BIG TREES was released.)
Love trumps Greed and, the last time I looked, Beauty is batting 1.000 against the Beast. Fallon doesn't stand a chance, but before this movie loses all momentum and devolves into a group tree-hug a second group of lumber hungry sociopaths make their presence felt.
It's about then that THE BIG TREES took a big turn and morphed into a Starched Shirt western. Characters chop down trees and wrestle the bad guy on a shaky rope bridge spanning a deep gorge and then show up in the next scene in a spotlessly clean starched shirt. The last half of this movie is corny and formulaic, and betrays the promising start.
Still and all THE BIG TREES is entertaining, well-acted, and good looking.