Review of The Naked Spur (1953) by Robert W — 18 May 2010
The closest Anthony Mann and James Stewart ever got to the brutalizing psychological spareness of Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott, with Stewart as a spurned and haunted bounty hunter chasing down killer Robert Ryan for a hefty reward.
But it's not that easy when Stewart takes on two wandering partners, brash soldier Ralph Meeker, and grizzled prospector Millard Mitchell (in a classic Walter Brennan-esque performance), who demand a full split, and there's the matter of the feisty woman Ryan is running with, a young Janet Leigh.
Mann's use of landscape, in this case, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, comes to suggest the mounting anxiety and desperation in the Stewart character, as his greed and need for revenge begin to cloud his judgment (nothing a slowly budding romance with Leigh can't cure), and the western ethos of what exactly a life is worth, indeed, what a redeemed soul is worth, takes on a dark, urgent precedence.
This review of The Naked Spur (1953) was written by Robert W on 18 May 2010.
The Naked Spur has generally received positive reviews.
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