The first thing you notice is the stunning photography and use of the location. Does anyone do the wide screen better Raoul Walsh? I mean he practically invented it with "The Big Trail" back in 1930 with the 70mm Grandeur process. You feel like you're in for a real big screen treat, but then the story moves inside and the story get pretty pedestrian pretty quick. There is an interesting twist I won't spoil that leads to a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. I'm a sucker for a cattle drive and this one delivers big time.
Just before the drive starts, as I watched the foreground action, I was thinking it didn't look like 5,000 cattle in the background. The foreground action was a little silly but it's Clark Gable and Robert Ryan so who can complain? Then Raoul Walsh starts putting it together close shot, long shot, cattle coming at you, cattle lumbering away from you, track shots, panning shots. These are not quick cuts trying to trick you into thinking you're seeing something you're not; these are slow cuts beautifully and artistically assembled to give you the breadth and scope required to understand what an undertaking this is going to be. Dozens of vaqueros, several supply wagons, a herd of extra horses, and all those long horn cattle! Really breath taking stuff. At several times I paused the film and every time it looks like a perfectly balanced painting of the old west was on screen.
There's a silly romance and trumped up rivalry that doesn't interfere with the real story too much -- and after all, it's Gable and Ryan so it's not painful or embarrassing at all. There's a wonderful line by the Ryan character about the Gable character that goes, "He's what every boy thinks he's going to be when he grows up and wishes he had been when he's an old man." Ryan delivers with such an understated honesty that you truly believe his character would say it and about Gable it would be true.
I highly recommend this movie and strongly urge you try to see the wide screen version. While you're being swept along by the story elements, give a thought to the master artist, Raoul Walsh. While singing the praises of John Ford, I always save a chorus for Walsh.
Just before the drive starts, as I watched the foreground action, I was thinking it didn't look like 5,000 cattle in the background. The foreground action was a little silly but it's Clark Gable and Robert Ryan so who can complain? Then Raoul Walsh starts putting it together close shot, long shot, cattle coming at you, cattle lumbering away from you, track shots, panning shots. These are not quick cuts trying to trick you into thinking you're seeing something you're not; these are slow cuts beautifully and artistically assembled to give you the breadth and scope required to understand what an undertaking this is going to be. Dozens of vaqueros, several supply wagons, a herd of extra horses, and all those long horn cattle! Really breath taking stuff. At several times I paused the film and every time it looks like a perfectly balanced painting of the old west was on screen.
There's a silly romance and trumped up rivalry that doesn't interfere with the real story too much -- and after all, it's Gable and Ryan so it's not painful or embarrassing at all. There's a wonderful line by the Ryan character about the Gable character that goes, "He's what every boy thinks he's going to be when he grows up and wishes he had been when he's an old man." Ryan delivers with such an understated honesty that you truly believe his character would say it and about Gable it would be true.
I highly recommend this movie and strongly urge you try to see the wide screen version. While you're being swept along by the story elements, give a thought to the master artist, Raoul Walsh. While singing the praises of John Ford, I always save a chorus for Walsh.