Review of Ride the High Country (1962) by Steven B — 16 Jan 2008

Here is another case of a wonderful movie being completely misunderstood by studio execs and dumped into obscurity. Movies like this make me wonder how some people ever got jobs in the movie industry. This was one of Sam Peckinpahâ??s first feature film: Prior to this he had been a director for TV series including many westerns. Peckinpah had the brilliant idea of casting the aging western stars Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott as aging gunfighters and lawmen in the changing west.

The end of The Wild West was a theme Peckinpah approached again and again. He also was a director who recognized the importance of the relationship of the characters to each other and that good and evil were not absolute. The story here is simple; a couple of old gunslingers go on one last job. One of them wants to forsake the idea of honesty and go out rich. The other knows this is his last shot and wants to live up to his code of honor. Scott and McCrea decided, perhaps apocryphally, on who had which role by a flip of a coin. It doesnâ??t matter, what you will see here are two fine actors at the very top of their game. Although Peckinpah returned to the westerner many times this first film, but in the opinion of some, including me, this is his best. It seems that both McCrea and Scott knew how good it was as both of them retired after this film saying theyâ??d never be able to do work this good again.

For anyone familiar with Peckinpahâ??s better known films youâ??ll see the embryo of many of his ideas here. Youâ??ll also see actors like L. Q. Jones and Warren Oates who would return to work with Peckinpah again and again. A very young Mariette Hartley has her debut here. The action scenes are not as over the top as in later Peckinpah films, but they are riveting none the less.

If youâ??ve never seen this and if you like other Peckinpah films, get the DVD and youâ??ll enjoy it. Youâ??ll also wonder, as I do, how films this excellent go by the wayside for studio profits.