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Watched it, or most of it, with my husband the other day since he couldn't believe I never
saw it....Didn't care for it....The boy, (a young Brandon De Wilde who was good years later
in Hud) didn't show much emotion when his father was getting beat up, or his mother was
frantic, but at the end he was upset that Shane was leaving...JMHO
I think you kinda have to have grown up with it! It has to be in your blood!
But little Brandon gets on my nerves, too. Oh, those staring eyes! The book, narrated by the boy, is much more mature, while at the same time told very sensitively from a child's perspective.
(I'm with Banjo--The Searchers towers over them all! )
I like High Noon. My top six doesn't include it however. I could watch these six a billion times and enjoy each time as if I'm seeing it for the first time.
Red River (John Wayne, Montgomery Clift)
One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, Karl Malden)
Warlock (Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn)
Viva Zapata (Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn)
The Big Country (Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston)
One Upon A Time the West (The final showdown was unforgettable - Henry Fonda, Chuck Bronson)
That one had slipped my mind. Glenn Ford's deadpan humor made that a delight to watch. I loved the scene where he is identifying Edgar Buchanan as the "town character."
I think you kinda have to have grown up with it! It has to be in your blood!
But little Brandon gets on my nerves, too. Oh, those staring eyes! The book, narrated by the boy, is much more mature, while at the same time told very sensitively from a child's perspective.
(I'm with Banjo--The Searchers towers over them all! )
True little Brandon got on my nerves a little also but that added to the reality of the movie because kids sometimes get on peoples nerves.
The more I watch Cowboy with Glenn Ford and Jack Lemon, the more I like it. What a great, solid Western! All the cliches are there, but they ring true because they're taken right out of the cattle drive accounts written by actual ranch hands (such as Teddy Blue). The Sheepman is terrific, too. Thanks for the reminder.
I think I mentioned on the other Westerns thread that I also really enjoy the Randolph Scott-Bud Boetticher Westerns. I love the scene in Blazing Saddles where Bart says, "You'd do it for Randolph Scott!" And all the guys take their hats off in tribute to Randy! He was overshadowed by the Western movie superstars, but he was so good. What a screen presence. I don't think I ever noticed him as a "real" actor until Ride the High Country. I've been paying attention to him ever since.
Didn't we have a thread about favorite Westerns a while back? Anyway, it is always a good topic.
My Numero Uno: The Searchers, long before it was recognized as something special (recently it was hailed as the Best Western Ever). Everything is perfect...the character development, the locations, the dialogue, the music, and (for the 21st century) the hyper sensitive race issue which Ford handled amazingly well. Watch it with Ford's Two Rode Together; they're companion pieces. The captive girl returns home, but here she is shunned, and the small, friendly frontier society from The Searchers has become a stuffy, rigid image of prejudice. The Searchers is better, but Two Rode Together is worth watching as a continuation of Ford's internal dialogue about the facade and the "underbelly" of the West.
My other favorites? Next in line is High Noon, and yes, it was a political movie, which drove Howard Hawks crazy and inspired him to do Rio Bravo as an anti-High Noon film, but nevertheless it is a masterpiece.
Shane is way down on my list; I used to love it, but these days it seems a bit heavy-handed. Still, it's a classic.
You said everything I would have said.
High Noon over Shane, IMO.
As for the genre overall, The Searchers is one of the best films of all time, not just one of the best westerns.
Both movies are great. They do have different messages, though.
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The book, narrated by the boy, is much more mature, while at the same time told very sensitively from a child's perspective.
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High Noon
