The Naked Spur
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Movie Reviews of The Naked Spur
Movie Review: important movie for its time
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are an afficianado of westerns then clearly you should see this classic story of greed and remorse with two important actors - James Stewart and Robert Ryan who both play their parts to perfection. Shot in an excellent setting , this film should not be missed.Movie Review: "Choosing a way to die? What's the difference? Choosing a way to live? That's the hard part."
Summary: 5 Stars
The Naked Spur was one of the very first spec scripts to get picked up by a major studio, and it's easy to see why. With a strong story, a small but vividly drawn cast and a lot of post-war cynicism, Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom's Oscar-nominated screenplay has the feel of one of the film noirs MGM chief Dore Schary was so fond of to it, albeit set in Anthony Mann's beloved high country. James Stewart's the rancher turned ruthless bounty hunter haunted by his Civil War experiences who finds himself saddled with two unwanted partners in the form of Millard Mitchell's '49er prospector and Ralph Meeker's disgraced cavalryman, the kind of man who'll ask you to trust him while drawing a map on the back of his dishonourable discharge. The reward's not big enough to be split three ways, and their wily captive makes sure they know it, sowing the seeds of doubt and betrayal at every opportunity in the hope that they'll be too busy trying to kill each other to stop him escaping. Rounding out the ensemble is Janet Leigh as his travelling companion who finds herself increasingly caught in the middle and, like Stewart, has to make a choice between salvation and damnation before the journey to the gallows is done.
They're all deeply flawed characters, every one of them lying as much to themselves as to each other, and even the hero looks more likely to take the road to Hell than the one to redemption: their captive may or may not once have been a friend, but now he's just a sack of money that's worth just as much dead as alive. As with many of their Westerns, Stewart carries his own physical stigmata with him - in The Man From Laramie a shot through the hand, in Bend of the River the scar of a hangman's noose and in this a bullet in the leg - as he travels his own mental Calvary, kicking and screaming against his own redemption every tormented step of the way as only an Anthony Mann Western hero can. He's more than a match for the elements as the weather and landscape reflects the growing intensity of the drama, until he takes on a raging torrent and wrestles a river for a corpse with more pure hatred and desperation in his eyes than any sane man should ever have. And when redemption comes, it's quiet, almost begrudging and unsensationalized, and all the more effective for that.
If that sounds too perfect, there's a catch, and in this case, unexpectedly it's Robert Ryan, whose performance as the jovial puppeteering wanted man just doesn't work. For once he lacks real menace and it's hard to see anyone being taken in by him he's so laughably insincere. Along with the hokey use of Beautiful Dreamer on the soundtrack it's the film's only misjudgement. More than half a century on, this is still gripping and intense stuff.
Sadly, Warners' DVD is problematic. The color may be better than the TV prints, but the definition is often variable, with pin-sharp shots sometimes alternating with ones that are far softer now than they were in 1953. Extras are the original theatrical trailer, Tex Avery cartoon Little Johnny Jet and Pete Smith Speciality short Things We Can Do Without.
Movie Review: A must-see for the fans of Westerns movies...
Summary: 5 Stars
While "Bend of the River" rhymes the tale of pioneers seeking home in a mountain wilderness with ex-outlaw Stewart's desperate efforts to escape his past, "The Naked Spur" (with two Academy Award Nominations for Best Story and Screenplay) deals with all characters motivated by greed with Stewart's bounty hunter portrayed as no less violent and neurotic than his murderous victim... Stewart gives a performance so intense and taut as to border, in the words of one critic, on the hysterical...
Geographical odyssey reflects the hero's spiritual struggles with panoramic and outstanding views of the Rockies at their best... Beautifully photographed in Technicolor, the film tells the story of a forceful and aggressive Stewart, once a landowner cheated out of his property, who has taken the bounty hunting as the quickest way to regain a measure of respectability...
Stewart is hot on the trail of a wild killer (Robert Ryan) who has a $5000 reward on his head, dead or alive... Once captured, the obscure wily outlaw turns the bounty hunters against each other, and almost escapes...
Janet Leigh is cast as "a fancy-talking" jealous type, and apparently, Stewart finds his renewed decency thanks to our heroine... In a widely admired scene, Stewart breaks down and weeps, finally understanding the inhumanity of his bounty-hunting obsession, and is set free for his preoccupation with the fastened body as a merely rewarded property...
Meeker challenges Stewart in his tense, hostile projections, and Ryan is in his element as the crooked hunted killer...
With a short hair and hardly a make-up, Janet Leigh plays the tough, spirited, uneducated pretty companion of a murderer... She does her best to control the energies of four men, who include a discharged cavalryman with dishonor and a selfishly greedy guide (Millard Mitchell).
Mann-Stewart third movie is a visually an absorbing celebration of violent deeds, a big Western regarded as one of the best ever made, a must-see for the fans of Westerns movies...
Movie Review: Oscar nominated screen play, should have won.
Summary: 4 Stars
I give the film four stars only because of the very soft picture. Otherwise, it would earn a resounding five stars. I have been waiting a long time for this film to be on DVD, but to find that they are insulting Robert Ryan again by providing poor quality DVDs of many of his films now on DVD. Most recent example in Billy Budd, which I also have been waiting to be on DVD for eons. Both The Naked Spur and Billy Budd should have been given first class treatment. Naked is only marginally superious to the VHS due to the soft picture (Mann's other Westerns have been transferred better). MY VHS copy of Billy Budd is superior to the DVD. I definitely won't buy the DVD. Another reviewer mentioned that a few minutes of Billy Budd were deleted in order to fit it on the DVD. I wonder which scenes they were.
As for The Naked Spur, it is another Ryan masterpiece in engendering some degree of audience sympathy for an essentially psychopathic personality. It is amazing how an actor such as Ryan can interpret malevolence so well, yet be a peace activist in real life. When Ryan's Ben Vandergroat cooly murders Jesse Tate, his deep seated cold bloodedness, which has only been talked about up to that point in the film, occurs at the moment when Ben kills Jesse. Ryan's final line to Janet Leigh as he lays in ambush for James Stewart and Ralph Meeker encapsulates his situation:
"Pretty soon Roy and your friend Howie are gonna show up. Then I'll get me some more insurance against dying young."
Movie Review: You don't need a cast of thousands or a wagon train to make a great Western, as director Anthony Mann & his cast of 5 prove!
Summary: 4 Stars
FIVE, yes count 'em, five characters carry this blistering tale of a bountyhunter (Stewart) who's come to collect the $5000 reward for the capture of a fugitive (Ryan) - dead or alive.
As you would expect, it's not a simple case of picking someone up and bringing them to justice cross-country (on horseback). As luck would have it, bountyhunter 'Howard Kemp' makes crosses paths and makes use of an AWOL cavalry soldier (the always grinning Ralph Meeker) and an old prospector (Millard Mitchell) to capture the wily outlaw 'Ben Vandergroat' (Robert Ryan).
Now Howard (James Stewart) is forced to split the reward three ways, but of course a lot can happen on the journey home. To make matters worse, the captured outlaw goads the others into killing the other two and bringing him in alone. He also sets his young female ward (Janet Leigh) on Howard to steal his heart (and his attention).
If you can only see one Anthony Mann western this one should be high on your list (IMDB rating: 7.4), but if I were you I'd go for more, a lot more! Westerns were Mann's specialty as the ratings seem to attest.
1953: 1 Oscar Nomination: Best Story & Screenplay