Review of Ride the High Country (1962) by R.c. K — 06 Sep 2007

Well, I've already discussed my general lack of exposure to westerns (outside of my youth where I thought they were all boring and too brown and tan in colour palette for someone like me who likes colour.).

So, here we are. The first and earliest of the Peckinpah films in the box set. As I had read and thus rather expected, it was a fairly "normal" western (the "AMERICAN" style I previously referred to) but quite the good one. Morality was very, very grey, and there were some truly nasty people running about.

Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott are two aged gunmen who are hired to transport gold down from the mine it is coming out of to a bank in town. They bring along a more youthful and energetic gunman (played by Ron Starr) and run across a young woman along the way who wishes to escape her overprotective father.

On the whole it was very interesting as a film, with some pretty great lines and well acted and written characters. The main titles of the film were beautiful, but the score often did what I hate American western scores for doing--overly intrusive and loud and inappropriate at a few times (at one point it very suddenly cuts off as well, which felt very awkward). But, still, the filming in terms of colours and locations and framing was absolutely beautiful; McCrea and Scott--especially Scott--managed to come off as some seriously tough hombres (née badasses) during the film, despite their age and the fact that their age was playing into the characters. The final gunfight, truly was amazing.

A strange thread of sexism and near-misogyny on the part of many characters though...I imagine, as a result, that Sam has a reputation as a misogynist as well, between this and Straw Dogs...(3/6/06).