Jugu Abraham
Clean all white western--no blacks, no native Americans! Even the characters admit that one's actions are never black or white, meaning there are a lot of grey actions in our lives. Joel McCrea's character wants to go to the House (read, heaven). Very religious script for a western. Now, did Altman take a leaf from this film's gold diggers' community sequence to make "McCabe and Mrs Miller"?
Grrr8
This is an important western because the subplot of a young woman's life in the remote west is addressed. At this time many women were looked upon as chattel. Here a young woman escapes farm life with an overbearing religious father who beats her, to flee into marriage with a redneck miner who beats her and plans to share her with his brothers and father. The lead character played by veteran Joel McCrea is trying to earn an honorable living because there is no pension or social security benefits for him to rely on. Randolph Scott is trying to score some easy dough to last during his retirement. A fine movie about morality, honor, and duty.
dworldeater
Ride The High Country is an early film by Sam Pechinpah. Starring two old school western stars from the 30's, 40's and 50's Randolf Scott and Joel Mc Rea, who have never worked together, but have excellent chemistry here. Even though Ride The High Country was made fairly cheap, the film looks awesome. Plus performances are solid and Sam's tight direction and attention to detail bring this production well above average. There is great dialogue, shootouts and fistfights to be had. Rounding out this production is a great support cast of Pechinpah regulars that would work with Sam in the future, that includes Warren Oates, RG Armstrong and LQ Jones. Much of Sam's personal philosophy and moral code is played out here in the great open American frontier. While The Wild Bunch is Sam's masterpiece, Ride The High Country shows his unique vision and talents early on, plus Ride The High Country is solid and a great and highly enjoyable western in its own right.
dougdoepke
Aging drifter Steve gets old friend Westrum and his young charge Heck to help him bring money back to the bank from an outlying gold camp. However complications soon arise.Exceptionally fine character study for a western, a genre that usually settles for much less. On one end of the character spectrum are the Hammond Brothers, especially Henry (Oates), who appear to have no values beyond having fun no matter at whose expense. On the other end is old Joshua (Armstrong) who's unbending in his righteous biblical values, such that he's turned poor daughter Elsa (Hartley) into little more than a sad household drudge. The rest of the cast are somewhere between these poles.Of course, the plot's central core is the wavering relationship between Steve (McCrea) and Westrum (Scott). Steve's unbending in his determination to stay true to his word and bring the $20,000 to the bank. It's not the money that tempts him, as it does Westrum, rather Steve's got to get back his self-respect after a wayward life. Or, as Peckinpah colorfully puts it "Enter my house justified". At this point, that's his core value, and he doesn't want to get diverted by Elsa's problem with fiancée Billy Hammond (Drury). Westrum, on the other hand, is ready to double-cross his old friend and take the money for himself. His values, at this early stage, are purely mercenary.Now these character elements set up a particularly interesting dynamic as they play out. What that dynamic shows is that neither Westrum nor Steve are as oblivious to changing circumstances as old man Joshua, for example, is. When Elsa gets mauled on her wedding night by the Hammond clan, Steve allows himself to get diverted. He's not going to let her get mauled by these oafs, and thus consents to let her ride back to town with them, even if it means a shootout with the vengeful Hammonds. In that sense, Steve shows a humane side that proves more compelling than his self-centered mission to get the gold to the bank.Now Wes goes along with the hijinks in the gold camp involving Elsa, because he cares only about stealing the gold away from Steve, despite their earlier friendship. His main value all along has been both selfish and mercenary. But when Steve, the kid Heck (Starr), and Elsa are waylaid at her father's house by the vengeful Hammond's, Westrum has to make a decision. He can ride off with the gold he's successfully stolen or ride in to help his old friend. In a defining moment, he rides in, showing that like Steve, humane values are more compelling than self-centered ones. Thus the central core of the story emerges, the bond between two essentially good men who ultimately bend in the right direction.None of this would work so well without the casting of the two old pro's, McCrea and Scott, in the central roles. Each brings a big screen history of sagebrush heroics to their respective characters. Seeing them rise to the challenges despite their ages, Scott (64), McCrea (59), lends the whole movie a dignified, elegiac air. In fact, that last scene stands as one of the great ones among the western tradition.In fact, the supporting cast is also excellent, even the rather unnoticeable Ron Starr who I assume was intended to be recessive among the many more forceful types. Mariette Hartley looks perfect as the rather ungainly farm girl trapped by an unfeeling father and the barbarous Hammonds. (And, a long way from her amusing Polaroid commercials with James Garner.) Then too, Peckinpah has a terrific eye for the unwashed. The Hammonds are a great collection of familiar baddies, except for Drury. And I particularly like the easily overlooked Elder's (Anderson) insistence that, despite appearances, their clan too has honor and will meet Westrum and Steve face-to-face in the shoot-out.Anyway, the movie's a western of real substance and subtle emotion, in my view, ranking with the very best, and a fitting farewell to two of our best western heroes.
