Interesting Ford film in that it is interested more in the rhythms of these people's lives rather than advancing a well-defined plot. Ford fills the film with expressionist flourishes, includes one of the more disturbingly violent scenes in his oeuvre, and generally avoids the typical traps of a genre film like this. He creates a distinctive sense of place and of danger on several occasions. And the brief Christmas program scene is reminiscent of a similar Christmas scene in Donovan's Reef.