I don't know why it took me half a century to see this flick, but I am glad I finally decided to watch it when it popped up on one of the Encore TV channels recently during one of my sleepless periods. Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea are two of the iconic western actors, and this was the last western for each of them -- and for Scott the last film, period. It is a complete pleasure to watch these two professionals do their thing in a picture directed by Sam Peckinpah.
It deserves to be grouped with The Shootist (and Peckinpah's later film The Wild Bunch) as a tale of old gunfighters who have outlived their era. A couple of scenes with early automobiles in the streets of a western town establish the time frame for us, and later on when a bad guy (Warren Oates!) starts shooting at the few good guys with a semi-auto Remington Model 8, it is jarring but completely consistent with the suggested chronology. (The Model 8 looks like it has a fairly small bore, so maybe it's a .25; but I'm not sure. It isn't a .35.) There is also a Winchester 95 carbine and a short-barreled SAA without an ejector rod. Is that the Sheriff's Model? I am not a student of SAAs. Peckinpah knew his guns, and I am sure he had a hand in arming his characters and probably revealing character through the weapons they used. Joel McCrea has a 7.5" SAA, making him the most obvious big-gun guy in the movie. He could be Harry Callahan's grandfather.
Any western with a camel race, a semiauto rifle, and a long set piece in a canvas-built miners' town up in the mountains automatically has something going for it. Throw in the great outdoors scenery and Mariette Hartley's first screen appearance, and this is one to watch. There are also a couple of actors you never saw again, or won't remember if you did, but the whole thing is engaging in a 1960s western kind of way.
Seriously, what more can you ask for? If you haven't yet seen this movie, hunt it up. If you haven't seen it in a long time, find it and watch it again.
I'm not going to pretend it is a perfect film. There is some silly low-budget stuff in it here and there, just as there is in some of John Wayne's 1960s westerns. If you are willing to give those Wayne films a break, you should also give this one a pass on the shallow formula moments.
It deserves to be grouped with The Shootist (and Peckinpah's later film The Wild Bunch) as a tale of old gunfighters who have outlived their era. A couple of scenes with early automobiles in the streets of a western town establish the time frame for us, and later on when a bad guy (Warren Oates!) starts shooting at the few good guys with a semi-auto Remington Model 8, it is jarring but completely consistent with the suggested chronology. (The Model 8 looks like it has a fairly small bore, so maybe it's a .25; but I'm not sure. It isn't a .35.) There is also a Winchester 95 carbine and a short-barreled SAA without an ejector rod. Is that the Sheriff's Model? I am not a student of SAAs. Peckinpah knew his guns, and I am sure he had a hand in arming his characters and probably revealing character through the weapons they used. Joel McCrea has a 7.5" SAA, making him the most obvious big-gun guy in the movie. He could be Harry Callahan's grandfather.
Any western with a camel race, a semiauto rifle, and a long set piece in a canvas-built miners' town up in the mountains automatically has something going for it. Throw in the great outdoors scenery and Mariette Hartley's first screen appearance, and this is one to watch. There are also a couple of actors you never saw again, or won't remember if you did, but the whole thing is engaging in a 1960s western kind of way.
Seriously, what more can you ask for? If you haven't yet seen this movie, hunt it up. If you haven't seen it in a long time, find it and watch it again.
I'm not going to pretend it is a perfect film. There is some silly low-budget stuff in it here and there, just as there is in some of John Wayne's 1960s westerns. If you are willing to give those Wayne films a break, you should also give this one a pass on the shallow formula moments.
