The Kentuckian
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Clem Bevans, Dianne Foster, James Griffith, John Carradine, Lee EriksonPrimary Contributor: Diana Lynn
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-05-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Kentuckian
Movie Review: A Western that takes place in Kentucky
Summary: 4 Stars
Released in 1955, "The Kentuckian" is one of only a couple films directed by Burt Lancaster.
THE STORY takes place during the presidency of James Madison circa 1815. Lancaster plays Eli Wakefield, a Kentuckian who desires more room to breath in Texas. Still in Kentucky, they blow their "Texas money" on freeing a beautiful indentured servant, Hannah (Dianne Foster). They don't get past the next frontier town where Eli takes up with his brother in the tabacco business and Hannah gets a job as a bar matron. Eli's dreams of Texas are sidetracked when he meets up with a school marm (Diana Lynn) who encourages him to settle down and make a family with her. The problem is that Eli's son prefers Hannah and doesn't want to give up their Texas dream. Meanwhile feuders are hot on Eli's trail, not to mention malevolent local businessman Walter Matthau with a whip.
Some of the highlights include:
-- Lush Eastern locations. The film was shot in Levi Jackson State Park, Kentucky (near London), as well as Owensboro, Kentucky, which is on the Ohio River, and Rockport, which is just across the river in Indiana. The river depicted in the film is supposed to be the Tennessee River (I think), but it was shot on the Ohio. In any event, although "The Kentuckian" is classified as a Western, it's actually an Eastern.
-- The film offers a good glimpse of what the Eastern USA was like back when it was still a frontier -- the cabin-style houses, sleeping in the woods, etc. No internet, cable, video games, dvds or microwaves. People actually sat down with other people and communed.
-- The story is realistic. You don't have to worry about any goofiness or unbelievable bits that plague some 50's Westerns.
-- Back then a huge riverboat coming to town was an exciting attraction. Americans today, by contrast, get all excited over the shenanegans of Britney Spears and whether or not her sister is having another baby.
-- Dianne Foster (Hannah) is a beautiful redhead. One wonders how a woman like this would stay single very long on the frontier.
-- The whip fight with Matthau is great. Lancaster is almost whipped to shreds (!).
-- Loyalty is a sub-theme here. Eli's son is loyal to Hannah and never warms up to the school marm. Hannah is loyal to the man who delivered her from bondage (Eli), despite his infatuation with the marm.
-- I liked the bit on Eli being a laughing stock because of a worthless freshwater pearl, but he gets the last laugh with a letter from the President (or is it?) and additional help.
-- Lastly, Lancaster is a likable protagonist with his charismatic joy-of-living persona, the antithesis of Eastwood's amoral and lifeless 'man with no name.'
The film runs an hour and 44 minutes.
BOTTOM LINE: "The Kentuckian" is breath of fresh air which I enjoyed from beginning to end for all the above reasons; it's sort of like "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992) of its era, albeit not as good. It's innocuous and easy-going, but it's as good as practically any 50's Western out there.
PERSONAL GRADE: B+ or A-
Summary of The Kentuckian
Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/13/2008 Starring: Burt Lancaster Dianne Foster Run time: 104 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Burt LancasterAs an independent producer-star, circus-tough with charisma to burn, Burt Lancaster could be hard on directors. So it wasn't surprising when he decided he could do the job himself. It was a mistake he made only once (apart from cohelming 1974's The Midnight Man). For all his balletic control as an actor-athlete, Lancaster showed no sense of how a film should move and breathe over an hour and a half, or how to make the characters' growth or changes of mind credible. The Kentuckian has a bedrock American folk tale at its core, but scarcely a clue how to tell it.
It's the early 18th century--Monroe is president--and buckskin-clad Lancaster and his son (Donald MacDonald) are lighting out for Texas: "It ain't we don't like people--we like room more." They plan to briefly visit Lancaster's tobacco-dealer brother (John McIntire) in the river town of Humility, then move on. But there are complications from a long-running feud, and some nasty baiting from a whip-cracking storekeeper (Walter Matthau in his film debut); the need to replace their "Texas money" after buying freedom for a bondservant (Dianne Foster); also the matter of deciding who's prettier, her or the local schoolmarm (Diana Lynn). Lancaster aims for some quaint Americana--a sing-along to the tinkling of a pianoforte, a jaw-dropping riverside production number--and there's one nifty bit of action based on how long it took to reload a flintlock rifle. But mostly this film just lies there in overlit CinemaScope. --Richard T. Jameson
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