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Ride the High Country (1962)

Western | 94 minutes
3,39 183 votes

Genre: Western

Duration: 94 minuten

Alternative title: Guns in the Afternoon

Country: United States

Directed by: Sam Peckinpah

Stars: Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott and Mariette Hartley

IMDb score: 7,4 (15.968)

Releasedate: 20 June 1962

Ride the High Country plot

"Showdown in the High Sierra!"

America, early 1900s. Former marshal and aging Steve Judd is asked to escort a gold transport to Coarse Gold. Steve asks his old friend Gil Westrum to assist him. Gil's ward Heck Longtree is also coming along. Along the way, during an overnight stay at the ranch of religious fanatic Joshua Knudsen, they meet Joshua's young daughter Elsa. Elsa wants to flee her father and she wants to travel to Coarse Gold to marry Billy Hammond. This leads to conflict within the trio. Steve doesn't know that Gil and Heck are planning to steal the gold.

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Full Cast & Crew

Actors and actresses

Steve Judd

Heck Longtree

Judge Tolliver

Joshua Knudsen

Billy Hammond

Sylvus Hammond

Elder Hammond

Reviews & comments


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avatar van Roger Thornhill

Roger Thornhill

  • 6011 messages
  • 2445 votes

I was a little hesitant to revisit this film after all these years, because I've read so much about it in the meantime and its reputation is so great (Michael Parkinson and Clyde Jeavons even call it "The best western to come out of the sixties, and arguably the best of all time") that I was afraid it would be a big disappointment. But my hesitation soon melted away like snow in the sun: a well-constructed story, directed with sovereignty and complete control, dialogues that are almost literary but never seem artificial, and at the center the perfect performances of two great former western stars who seem to reminisce not only about the good old days but also about the heyday of the western - and about their own glory days. Ironically, this film from the autumn of their career (Scott didn't make any films after this) immediately ranks among the absolute highlights of their work, while for Peckinpah his second cinema film would be the prelude to one of the most important (and most problematic) oeuvres of the western genre. "A nice little conventional unconventional western" according to Stanley Kauffmann, an apt description at the time but in retrospect a little more than that.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Filmkriebel

Filmkriebel

  • 9949 messages
  • 4645 votes

Hell yeah that this is not an average western. Peckinpah plays more with conscience and morality than with revolvers, but he finishes it off beautifully towards the end, which makes the whole setup work fine. As is often the case in his films, it is more about the relationships between the characters than about the action itself, something for which the director is sometimes held accountable (think of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid). By putting two old "fin de loopbaan" cowboys centrally, you see men who have made mistakes in their lives and have learned from them; they are also quite mild and understanding when Heck Longtree is about to cross the line (for example the near-rape of the girl) because they also see a young version of themselves in him. Nice such nuanced characters and actually I found this an entertaining western without a doubt because of the unpredictable course. I have made good western choices lately, and this can certainly be counted among them.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Bobbejaantje

Bobbejaantje

  • 2260 messages
  • 2062 votes

The film opens brilliantly, almost in a Breughelian way, with a zoom in on all sorts of miniature scenes during the festivities in the city. After the introduction to the characters, quite a few scenes follow with chatter between Scott and McCrea, which made me wonder where it would lead. With the entry of Mariette Hartley into the story, things really get going. That happens more often in such films: add a woman to a male group and the game is on the wagon . The characters are forced to relate to Mariette and the problems she brings with her, and have to show their colours in the moral spectrum. Which also determines their mutual relationships. And then of course there is the gold question, which is ultimately the focus, which again interferes with the relationships towards the end. And so we get interesting characterizations until the end.

Apparently Sam Peckinpah also co-wrote the script. They did a great job. The psychology culminates in the finale with a shoot-out that dots the i's.

And honestly, for me this is the best and certainly the most balanced western Peckinpah has ever delivered.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original