Ride the High Country

1962 "Showdown in the High Sierra!"
7.4| 1h34m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 20 June 1962 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

An ex-lawman is hired to transport gold from a mining community through dangerous territory. But what he doesn't realize is that his partner and old friend is plotting to double-cross him.

Genre

Western

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Director

Sam Peckinpah

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Ride the High Country Audience Reviews

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Grrr8 This is an important western because the subplot of a young woman's life in the remote west is addressed. At this time many women were looked upon as chattel. Here a young woman escapes farm life with an overbearing religious father who beats her, to flee into marriage with a redneck miner who beats her and plans to share her with his brothers and father. The lead character played by veteran Joel McCrea is trying to earn an honorable living because there is no pension or social security benefits for him to rely on. Randolph Scott is trying to score some easy dough to last during his retirement. A fine movie about morality, honor, and duty.
SnoopyStyle Old gunslinger Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) is hired to transport a gold shipment from the mines to the bank. There's only one trail and six miners have already been killed. Steve demands pay for two more men. He hires old friend Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) and his young partner Heck. However Gil and Heck want to steal the gold hoping to talk Steve into joining them. They stop at a farm and meet Elsa Knudsen (Mariette Hartley) who is itching to get away from her strict religious father. She runs away to join them to marry her fiancée Billy in the mining camp.This stars two western legends but it's the man behind the camera that is more interesting to me. It's a fairly traditional western with a few interesting touches from Sam Peckinpah. He shows that he has the skills to make a western. Hartley also puts in a solid performance although Ron Starr is not as good. There is some of the revisionist western but the more traditional stuff drags it down a bit. This is the start.
edwagreen Very disappointing film with Joel McRea and Randolph Scott showing that years had passed from their glory days.You would think from the premise that the film was about getting the shipment of gold safely to where it belonged. Instead, we get bogged down with a girl, Mariette Hartley, who flees from her overly zealous pious father and runs with the crew and a young man intended, to meet up with and marry the man of her dreams, James Drury. Instead, she weds a drunken Drury and the film is devoted to her getting away from Drury and his awful brothers.The gold shipment is almost a forgotten entity here if it weren't for the fact that one of our heroes is prepared to steal the gold for himself.
bigverybadtom The beginning is a bit odd; how did the camel get where it did? But no matter; an elderly former lawman is hired by a bank to retrieve some gold from a nearby mine through a dangerous mountain area. The lawman finds an old friend and Heck, his young protégé, to help him with his task. Trouble is, the friend and the protégé both plan to steal the gold for themselves.On the trip, they visit the home of a Bible-quoting man and his daughter and stay overnight, and Heck develops an interest in her. But the daughter is unhappy living with her overprotective and tyrannical father, and goes with the others to the mining town where a boy lives that she had previously met and liked. The men get the gold as planned, and the daughter marries the boy...only to discover that the boy, his family, and the mining town they live in are much less wonderful than she had anticipated, and she wants to leave. The ex-lawman and company take her back with them...and the trouble really begins.The movie succeeds because the characters are all credible; none are entirely heroes or villains. Even the psychotic Hammond family proves willing to fight with honor. Also the movie isn't overlong or rushed. and there's some humor without the movie becoming a comedy. Recommended.