Ride the High Country
| Ride the High Country | |
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| Directed by | Sam Peckinpah |
| Produced by | Richard E. Lyons |
| Written by | N.B. Stone Jr. |
| Starring | Joel McCrea Randolph Scott Mariette Hartley Ron Starr Edgar Buchanan |
| Music by | George Bassman |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
| Editing by | Frank Santillo |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | June 20, 1962 |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | USD$813,000[1] |
Ride the High Country is a noted 1962 American Western film. It stars Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Ron Starr, Edgar Buchanan and Mariette Hartley. It was written by N.B. Stone Jr., Robert Creighton Williams (uncredited) and Sam Peckinpah (uncredited) and directed by Peckinpah, with a score written by George Bassman and filmed in the Inyo National Forest, CA.[2]
In 1992, this film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A Region 1 DVD edition was released on January 10, 2006.
The film features Scott in his final role as he had decided to retire. Initially, McCrea also had announced his intentions to retire, but he later changed his mind.
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[edit] Production
Peckinpah flipped a coin to decide whether Randolph Scott or Joel McCrea would receive top billing while the three of them and producer Richard Lyons where having lunch at the Brown Derby.[3] McCrea's role is actually slightly larger than Scott's, but Scott was billed over McCrea.
Much of the filming took place at Mammoth Lakes, California, with some studio and lot work,[3] and shooting at Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park and at the 20th Century-Fox Ranch.[4]
[edit] Plot
The film reunites old friends and aging ex-lawmen Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) and Steve Judd (Joel McCrea). The two men, mainly because of their age, have been reduced by circumstance to guarding a shipment of gold from a high country mining camp. However, Westrum and his young sidekick Heck Longtree (Ron Starr) are, in fact, planning to steal the gold for themselves. Westrum attempts to subtly recruit Judd to their plan over the course of the ride.
Acquiring a young girl named Elsa Knudsen (Mariette Hartley) escaping from her domineering father as a traveling companion, the three men reach the mining camp only to discover that the girl's fiancé (James Drury) is a drunken lout who intends to prostitute her to his brothers (played by, among others, Peckinpah regulars Warren Oates and L.Q. Jones). They rescue the girl from the marriage and start off towards town with the girl and the gold. At this point, Judd realizes Westrum's plan and confronts him. Planning to put him on trial when he returns to town, Judd is forced to relent when the jilted groom and his brothers appear in hot pursuit.
The aging men shoot it out with the brothers, killing them all in a heroic, face-to-face confrontation. Judd, mortally wounded, asks to die alone. Westrum promises him that he will get the gold back to town as Judd would have wanted. Westrum also promises to do what he can for Heck and Elsa, who during the course of the film become attracted to one other. The celebrated final image is of a dying Judd looking toward the high country as he falls slowly out of frame.
[edit] Cast
- Randolph Scott as Gil Westrum
- Joel McCrea as Steve Judd
- Mariette Hartley as Elsa Knudsen
- Ron Starr as Heck Longtree
- Edgar Buchanan as Judge Tolliver
- R.G. Armstrong as Joshua Knudsen
- Jenie Jackson as Kate
- James Drury as Billy Hammond
- L.Q. Jones as Sylvus Hammond
- John Anderson as Elder Hammond
- John Davis Chandler as Jimmy Hammond
- Warren Oates as Henry Hammond
[edit] Reception
Ride the High Country was not an immediate success in the United States, but it was hailed as a success upon its release in Europe, beating Fellini's classic 8½ for first prize at the Belgium Film Festival and winning the Paris film critics award for best film. Critics were particularly enthusiastic about the film's mix of the conventional and the revisionist in its treatment of the Western. They hailed Peckinpah as a worthy successor to classic Western directors such as John Ford.
The film's reputation has only grown in following years, with Peckinpah's admirers citing it as his first great film. They also note that all of the themes of Peckinpah's later films, such as honor and ideals compromised by circumstance, the difficulty of doing right in an unjust world, the destruction of the West and its heroes by industrial modernity, and the importance of loyalty between men are all present in Ride the High Country for the first time.
Critics occasionally point out that McCrea's role seems to have been written for Gary Cooper and that John Wayne would have been perfect for Scott's part, but Cooper and Wayne never worked together.[who?]
In his autobiography In the Arena (1995), Charlton Heston wrote that he was considering remaking the film in the late 1980s, presumably with Clint Eastwood as a co-star.[citation needed] After viewing Ride the High Country Heston proposed Harry Julian Fink's script of Major Dundee (1965) to Peckinpah.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Bliss, Michael (1994), Doing it Right: The Best Criticism on Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, SIU Press, p. 20, ISBN 978-0809318636
- ^ Notes: Ride the High Country. - Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ a b Meyer, William R. (1979), The Making of the Great Westerns, Arlington House, p. 321, ISBN 978-0870004315
- ^ Andreychuk, Ed (1997), The Golden Corral: A Roundup of Magnificent Western Films, McFarland, p. 107, ISBN 978-0786403936
[edit] External links
- Ride the High Country at the Internet Movie Database
- Ride the High Country at AllRovi
- Ride the High Country at the TCM Movie Database
- Article at Turner Classic Movies website
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