Ride the High Country

Excellent pacing and just the right whiff of the early Peckinpah grit in a more traditional western package. I've never seen either McCrea or Scott turn in performances quite this strong.

Peckinpah movies are always a trip. This one really is a ride: starts about where you think, meanders into both dark and invigorating territory, and ends almost where you expect, but with eyes seasoned from the journey. You never know quite who to trust or where you are really going. (You know when you see a new movie and during the viewing you know this was just the thing you needed? That was this.)

Well, not bad for a Peckinpah. One of his earlier films, it's still drenched in that ugly nihilism that I find unappealing, but it's tempered with a note of optimism. Veterans Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea are excellent as two grizzled gunslingers on different paths to retirement. The film moves briskly and is mostly free of annoyances (a couple of obnoxious bits, but nothing nearly as awful as Cable Hogue). I still think Peckinpah is overrated, but this one was relatively enjoyable.

A well-regarded, but surprisingly uninteresting western that doesn't have much to offer contemporary audiences.

Superior Western, telling a simple story briskly and vividly. The themes of aging and displacement, later tackled by Peckinpah in THE WILD BUNCH, are used here simply and gracefully. Joel McCrea is strong, but Randolph Scott steals the show, embodying Westrum's contrasting natures with veteran skill. Mariette Hartley, if a bit too contemporary, is highly likable. The supporting cast superbly fill out their roles, however brief. Intelligent script; fine scoring and cinematography; superb finale.

Vastly overrated and dated

Fabulous ending, in more ways than one for Scott, what a way to leave the movies. And Warren Oates is as shady as ever. Only downside for me is the soundtrack...

Excellently bleak Peckinpah western. A few parts of the story could have used a tad more fleshing out, but the character arcs are complex and the ending is terrific.

# 561

An inappropriate obtrusive score is only part of the problem. The main problem is that it isn't terribly interesting and seems caught between two eras and modes. Scott was also better in Boeticcher's westerns.

A decent film with very few faults but I couldn't really engage with the story. I was pretty tired though so the problem may have nothing to do with the movie.

An early, traditional Western from Peckinpah, featuring major performances from two of the kings of the genre, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott. The last image of the film is incredibly moving.

571

Less colorful than we expect from Peckinpah but still good

Early as this movie comes in Peckinpah's filmography, one can see evidence of the themes he'll pursue more fully in movies like "The Wild Bunch". "Ride the High Country" is a solid little flick anchored by a good story and an excellent cast.

Starts off in the manner of the older classic, pre-revisionist westerns, to the point of hokeyness, but takes an abrupt turn from sentiment in Coarse Gold before circling back at the end. Good, but easily overshadowed by better examples, including Peckinpah's own Wild Bunch.

Cinematographer Lucien Ballard at the top of his game on the Eastern Sierra. Scott and McCrea a classic pair of Peckinpah buddies, Mariette Hartley's debut, and a gang of baddies including, of course, the great Warren Oates. Entertaining morality play about how a gunman should live and die, set in Peck's favorite era, after the West was won.

One of the earliest heralds of Hollywood's new age. The western mythos made dirty, where the separation between heroes and villains is muddled, the violence becomes harsher, and the performers engage a rugged terrain in a far less glamorous manner. The pacing is perfect. Its only sore spot is the score - a bouncy, kitschy type of remnant from a more old fashioned variety of western.

watched: 2015, 2018

Em honra de James Drury (1934 - 2020). Se Peckinpah mudou a história do western norte-americano com The Wild Bunch, ele também marcou na feitura de faroestes old school estilo Budd Boetticher, não por acaso usando dois dos maiores astros envelhecidos do gênero. A metáfora não é nada obscura, é mencionada tanto verbal quanto visualmente, os heróis impecáveis do faroestes estavam morrendo, quem sobrevive é o anti-herói dúbio, este seria o novo faroeste a partir de então. BDRip RARBG

Great ending! Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott own this movie.

"...it would have this delirious quality to it when it was done." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2014/09/episode-31-rise-fall-and-rise-of-sam.html

good movie

Sam Peckinpah's first really great western is a beautiful film featuring magnificent Cinemascope photography from Lucien Ballard. McCrea and Scott are fine leads, McCrea in particular doing a great job as a proud man facing the fact that his life has been somewhat less distinguished than he could have hoped. Hartley also stands out in her film debut.

A little bit reminiscent of The Searchers, but MUCH better. I wish someone would cut the god-awful soundtrack out of this. That sappy orchestral crap that tries to tell you how to feel at every given moment may work for old John Ford westerns, but this is Peckinpah. Early Peckinpah, but already harsh, complex and gritty, and the music hurts it severely.

Laying much of the groundwork for and bearing a bunch of the trademarks of Peckinpah's later work, among them the leering, lecherous villains and the abundance of machismo, this is a solid little western. The standoff scene towards the end is textbook cool.

549

Very good ending.

Decent but ultimately underwhelming western. Surprisingly straightforward and traditional from Peckinpah, though you can see the shades of gray starting to form. Cast is all good but no one really jumps out. Ending is good, but just didn't totally click for me--there's nothing really WRONG with it, per se, but other than expected pretty photography, not much to distinguish it either. I've yet to find a Peckinpah that really clicks for me. Enjoyable enough, though.

i like it!

Peckinpah mines themes here that crop up in the rest of his filmography, particularly the death of the west and of chivalry. However, while later films strike me as deeply nihilistic, this at least has a glimmer of hope that people can change. And, likely because of its year of release, Peckinpah's degradation of female characters is muted here, which is a great deal more effective, in my view.

Not a great western, the plot is a little too disjointed for that, but a fine movie indeed by young master Peckinpah.

#562

Ride the High Country is a vigorous, and at times extremely gripping early Peckinpah western with a story that exceeds the good vs. evil perspective as it grows into a story about temptation's effect on generally good people and involving one's already preoccupied self in another mess for the sake of disrupting serious wrongdoing.