Ride the High Country (1962)
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93% of critics liked it
(14 reviews) -
33% want to see it
(2,998 ratings)
This Sam Peckinpah-directed feature outing was intended as the cinematic swan song for both Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea; while McCrea would unexpectedly emerge from retirement, this 1961 western serves as an excellent valedictory for both men. The time is the early 1900s, when the Old West was… More This Sam Peckinpah-directed feature outing was intended as the cinematic swan song for both Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea; while McCrea would unexpectedly emerge from retirement, this 1961 western serves as an excellent valedictory for both men. The time is the early 1900s, when the Old West was slowly and stubbornly giving way to the new. McCrea plays Steve Judd, an ex-lawman living on the fringes of poverty but maintaining his dignity and honesty. Hired to escort a gold shipment from the wide-open mining town of Coarse Gold, he engages his old pal Gil Westrum (Scott) to help him. But Gil hasn't Steve's integrity, and he and his young saddle pal Heck Longtree (Ronald Starr) hope to talk Steve into helping them steal the gold. En route to Coarse Gold, the three riders spend the night at the farm of a religious fanatic (R.G. Armstrong), whose daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley in her film debut), chafing at her father's loud piety, is planning to elope with her boyfriend Billy (James Drury). The next day, Elsa insists on joining up with the group so she can marry Billy at Coarse Gold, leading to numerous complications and, of course, a final shoot-out that allows Steve and Gil to reconcile their differences and pave the way for the film's elegiac finale. Released at the tail end of the western genre, and virtually thrown away by MGM, Ride the High Country feels like an elegy for the western itself -- and Peckinpah himself would go on to revise western conventions with such later efforts as The Wild Bunch (1969) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Sam Peckinpah
- Genres
- Western, Classics
- Studio
- MGM Home Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Symbols of a waning era who eventually clash over right and wrong, Messrs. McCrea and Scott mesh perfectly, with the latter getting the drollest lines -- and there are plenty.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Using everything that came before and predicting everything that came after, Ride the High Country can now be seen as the lynchpin in the history of the entire Western genre.
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John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
Peckinpah gets to play around with the ideas of loyalty, respect, codes of honor, and shades of gray between good and evil.
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John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
...great entertainment: humorous, adventurous, inventive, and enthralling.
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James Plath, Reel.com
There are plenty of small details that evoke the real West rather than an imagined one, as well as subplots that recognize a shrinking frontier and a near absence of stereotypes and stock dialogue.
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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Joel McCrea
as Steve Judd
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Randolph Scott
as Gil Westrum
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Mariette Hartley
as Elsa Knudsen
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Ron Starr
as Heck Longtree
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James Drury
as Billy Hammond
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Edgar Buchanan
as Judge Tolliver
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Jenie Jackson
as Kate
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R.G. Armstrong
as Joshua Knudsen
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L.Q. Jones
as Sylvus Hammond
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John Anderson
as Elder Hammond
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Warren Oates
as Henry Hammond
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John Davis Chandler
as Jimmy Hammond
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Byron Foulger
as Abner Sampson
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Percy Helton
as Luther Sampson
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Carmen Phillips
as Saloon Girl
- Joel Mc Crea
