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Simple, Complex, Perverse, Poignant, Unforgettable (SPOILERS)

posted 17 years ago by ecarle
12 replies | jump to latest

When Sam Peckinpah blew American Cinema apart with "The Wild Bunch" in 1969, a number of knowledgeable critics remarked: they knew Sam had it all along. They remembered "Ride the High Country."

"Ride the High Country," made in the late Hays Code era of 1962, lacked the bloody ultra-violence and nudity of "The Wild Bunch," but it shared something magnificent with that later film: a study of older men, anethema to the "youth audience" that the movies always craves. Older men have pasts, they have memories, they have regrets. "The Wild Bunch" took that up with a raw nastiness...and still left you a little sad at the end. "Ride The High Country" plays the same game, a bit more gently, but not much, really.

The casting was brilliant: Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott as old saddle buddies drawn together for one last adventure together. The roles are so perfectly crafted that you could "bigger" stars (say, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart) in the leads, but the producers opted to go with Scott (the stalwart star of some well-regarded A-minus 50's Westerns) and McCrea (the "second choice" star of such fine films as "Foreign Correspondent" and "Sullivan's Travels.")

McCrea and Scott were fine film actors who didn't necessarily get the proper respect in their time; it makes them poignant to watch as the two old buddies who join up to guard some gold down a mountain and end the movie standing up tall to face their enemies in a lop-sided gunbattle.

Funny thing: both men, in their old age, rather had the faces of dogs. Handsome dogs: a loyal German Shepard (McCrea), a steady bloodhound (Scott.)

As the plot unfolds, McCrea is the "good" partner (all moral principle and prepared to meet his meager contract to escort the gold down the hill) and Scott is the "bad" partner (ready to betray his friend and their past to steal that gold, hopefully by goading his friend into crime, but maybe by knocking him out and stealing it.) In between: a young hothead who starts on the "bad" side, but eventually grows up and goes good.

"Bring the gold back safely" seems to be the main storyline; but Peckinpah and his writer interject something more powerful: the two old dogs and their young yelp meet a frisky young farmer's daughter whose father is a religious fanatic. They help her reach the man she wants to marry -- and then find out that the man (James Drury) is part of a mean, murderous, inbred family of men who intend to "share the bride." The wedding takes place in a whorehouse, the virgin bride attended by ladies of the evening. Thus does "Ride the High Country" swerve into the stark perversity that would find full flower in the whores and whoring of "The Wild Bunch" 7 years later.

The twin quests -- to deliver the gold back down the mountain safely to bankers and to save the girl from her inbred groom and his killer all-male family (which includes Peckinpah regulars Warren Oates and L.Q. Jones, plus John Anderson-- "California Charlie" in "Psycho" -- as their perverse Pa)-- are worked relentlessly by Sam Peckinpah to incorporate a variety of themes: the role of religion in life; friendship and betrayal; young love versus animal lust; the changing times.

Eventually, the movie goes exactly where "The Wild Bunch" would go: old men with a talent for gunslinging decide to go into a near-suicidal battle against their foes. Here, the odds are more even than in "The Wild Bunch," (2 heroes to 3 bad guys), but one of our old heroes still gets mortally wounded. Its hard to hold back the tears given Peckinpah's decision: the good man (McCrea) dies. In all previous versions of the script, the "bad" man (Scott) died. In this one, the "bad" man promises the dying good one to go good.

Thus does good Joel McCrea get one of the finest and most moving last shots in Westerns: with sad and elegiac musing rising on the soundtrack, McCrea shoos away Scott and the young couple who have survived ("I don't want them to see this"), takes in the gorgeous Sierra Mountain view before him, and dies.

Bloody Sam Peckinpah also knew how to make you cry. If you wanted to.

A great film, and a great companion piece to "The Wild Bunch."

[–] Mr_McLaurel 17 years ago

I saw this as part of Warner's Peckinpah box set (anyone reading this should run out and get it as soon as possible). It was my least favorite of the set, which includes The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, and The Ballad of Cable Hogue. I think this is probably because I was looking at it the wrong way. My preconception was that Peckinpah "arrived" with The Wild Bunch, and everything before that was (pardon the pun) hired gun work, and thus less important. Now, having seen some stuff like Major Dundee, not to mention your review, I think I may give this one a second chance some time soon. Probably the next time I'm in the mood for a western.

What's the spanish for drunken bum?

[–] ecarle 17 years ago

Yes, I recommend that you try it again.

I would note that while Peckinpah was given a top budget and all the time in the world to film the great "Wild Bunch" (the Warners president at the time loved the early rushes, and just kept approving time and money), Peckinpah had to film "Ride the High Country" in less than 30 days and on in the LA foothills for most of the time (the studio pulled Sam out of the sierras after four days of location work.)

One scene was flimed on a set leftover from "How the West Was Won."

Consequently, "Ride the High Country" is a small, simple film, with a story that unfolds quickly.

But Peckinpah (unbilled) re-wrote the script into something of great profundity and subtlety, and Scott and McCrea brought a poignance to their parts that was once-in-a-lifetime, as if somebody finally chose to cast THEM instead of Wayne, Stewart, Cooper, or Fonda in a great Western.

The heavy sexuality of the gold camp scenes and the perversity of the Hammond brothers (weird brother Warren Oates intends to rape handsome brother James Drury's virgin bride on her wedding night, "like I did with our cousin's wife") gives "Ride the High Country" a weird perversity in 1962 Hays Code cinema. And the Biblical dialogue was out of the ordinary for a Hollywood film.

"Internally," Peckinpah slipped a lot of his family history (he was born and raised near "the High Country") into this movie. His own father was reflected in the Joel McCrea character.

Great lines: "I just want to enter my house justified."

"We were expecting a much younger man" -- "Well, I used to be. We all used to be."

[–] corriganville 15 years ago

Which was the set left over from "how the west was won"? I recognized Bronson Canyon and the Mammoth Lakes area. Also, any idea where that last shot was located?

[–] swanstep (2750) 3 years ago

Great lines: "I just want to enter my house justified."

Which subtly rewrites a line from The Bible (Luke 18:14). I suspect that in 1962, Peckinpah could count on most US viewers of Westerns picking up the reference so that this line, as well as being great by itself, climaxes the religious strand in the film that starts with Judd trading Bible verses with Elsa's father and continues with Judd and Westrum bickering over principles. Note that almost immediately after this dialogue we learn that Elsa's father - who's like the righteous guy in the Biblical parable who exalts himself - is dead/has been murdered (although strangely his body is never referred to again). Judd will be dead shortly too, notwithstanding his humbler ethics of just-trying-to-do-the-right-thing. So (with a few provisos) it's a seriously downbeat ending.

I'm guessing that RTHC was a real water-cooler film at the time because I don't think the film really tells you either 'what happens next' [We figure Westrum is going to turn in the gold etc., but will he and Heck really turn themselves in for having tried to steal etc.? Presumably not. And, really, Elsa's thrown herself at two guys now, so she's not smart. And what are odds that things work out happily for her and Heck?] or settle how we should really think about Judd - did his unwillingness to forgive Westrum before the final shootout amount to a lack of humility, and end up costing him his life?

[–] swanstep (2750) 3 years ago

More Watercooler stuff: Elsa's father seems more than a little disturbed and may have self-righteously killed his wife (and Elsa's mom) for something like unfaithfulness judging by her tombstone's vengeful tone. Therefore Elsa obviously has ample reason to escape her father's governance without any further elaboration. But I'm guessing that Peckinpah did intend darker possibilities to at least occur to us, and so that too was left for watercooler and late-night diner discussion.

[–] jrogersdal 17 years ago

How I missed seeing this movie for so long is a mystery to me given what a fan I am of westerns. A great movie, and I certainly have to agree that McCrea's final scene is one of the finest death scenes in any movie I can remember. A lingering look at the Sierra's, then slowly turning and sinking down, like watching a sunset really. Very heart-rending.

[–] metcalf214 17 years ago

I loved the bit where McCrea tells Heck to pick up the paper bag that he threw down. Surely the only Western I've seen with a "Don't litter" message.

[–] madbandit20002000 17 years ago

Very pro-environmental, before it was cool.

[–] FZ-FX 17 years ago

One of the most under-appreciated films in American history as far as I'm concerned. The ending, taken as both a conclusion to the saga of the characters and the end of the Old West, is just sublime. Surprisingly enough it was really well received in Europe, even beating 8 1/2 at some festival for top honors, but its a shame that it isn't regarded as a classic by the public today.

[–] ecarle 15 years ago

Bump.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6460) 3 years ago

"yelp"?
Think it meant "whelp".