We're back to Burt Kennedy scripts for the last 2 Ranown pictures after a brief but interesting detour through Charles Lang territory, and the Berne Giler single "Westbound." This one starts out amidst the rocks of the Alabama hills, as we find the lone man, Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) riding towards the camera through a narrow defile. He dismounts and stealthily makes his way up the rocks towards another man, who calls out to him and ruins the surprise. Billy John (James Best, later known for his role as the sheriff on "The Dukes of Hazzard") is a grinning, joking, fast-talking young man who is wanted for murder, and Brigade is a bounty hunter hired to brink him in; but Billy John has a trick up his sleeve - he's surrounded by his men, invisible in the hills. If Brigade tries to take him, he'll surely be shot - and Brigade will have none of it, smoothly facing down Billy and assuring him that they'll both die. Billy calls the men off, and Brigade handcuffs him and rides off with him.
So begins the first of the series in cinemascope, and Boetticher uses the wide format as a master, with the entire film being set outdoors in the vast high desert/steppe territory, a great deal of it on horseback. The two men stop first at Shaw's Junction, one of the tiny little stations in the middle of nowhere that often represent the closest thing to civilization in these films, but instead of being met by the station master they're greeted by a couple of gunmen, Boone (Pernell Roberts) and Whit (James Coburn in his first film appearance). Boone knows Brigade and we soon learn that he and Whit are outlaws, though it's unclear that they are up to any illegal business at the moment. The station master, Lane, has left with some Indians - Mescaleros - leaving his wife (Karen Steele), and this becomes our group of five who must make their way to Santa Cruz, where Billy John is to be brought to justice.
Boone and Whit, it turns out, could win amnesty by bringing Billy John in; Mrs Lane rides along as, we found out rather quickly, her husband has been killed by the Mescaleros, who are hot on the trail of the party as they try to make it to another little outpost, a deserted station where they will make a stand against the Indians. Along the way there is plenty of trademark Kennedy-Boetticher sparse, snappy dialogue between Boone and Brigade, and between Brigade and Mrs Lane. It's clear that Brigade and Boone have a certain grudging respect for each other, and they know that they need all the guns they have to make it to Santa Cruz, so an uneasy alliance is formed. Mrs Lane at first dislikes Brigade for his seeming disinterest in Billy other than as a means to money, but slowly we get the impression that there's something else going one here - that it isn't the money, and it isn't even bringing Billy to justice that Brigade cares about.
For this is another haunted and ravaged Randolph Scott character, with a dark past, a wife who is lost, and the man who killed her is his real enemy and his real reason for finding Billy and taking him - slowly and carefully as it turns out - towards Santa Cruz: Billy's brother, Frank (Lee Van Cleef). That is the justice that Brigade is looking for, and nothing will stand in his way - nor, as it turns out, does he much care about anything beyond completing this mission, as he waits for Frank to come to him, in the symbolic place where their destinies met before in tragedy.
I'm not going to spoil the ending, which is iconic and beautiful in a way that is matched by very few other westerns; suffice it to say that this is probably my favorite so far in the series and it all comes together symbolically and poetically, and simply in a way that maybe only Boetticher could do it. The supporting cast as usual is excellent, with Roberts especially a standout, as lighthearted and talkative as Scott is dour. Coburn is fine in a role strikingly different from most of his later work, basically a fairly good-natured and stupid yokel along for the ride, but very loyal to his older and more experienced cohort; and Best gibbers away like a maniac, a believable young punk who would murder for no reason. Van Cleef and Steel are fine in slightly less interesting roles; and our hero Scott's stoicism and tightlipped seriousness is as appropriate here as it ever was. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
So begins the first of the series in cinemascope, and Boetticher uses the wide format as a master, with the entire film being set outdoors in the vast high desert/steppe territory, a great deal of it on horseback. The two men stop first at Shaw's Junction, one of the tiny little stations in the middle of nowhere that often represent the closest thing to civilization in these films, but instead of being met by the station master they're greeted by a couple of gunmen, Boone (Pernell Roberts) and Whit (James Coburn in his first film appearance). Boone knows Brigade and we soon learn that he and Whit are outlaws, though it's unclear that they are up to any illegal business at the moment. The station master, Lane, has left with some Indians - Mescaleros - leaving his wife (Karen Steele), and this becomes our group of five who must make their way to Santa Cruz, where Billy John is to be brought to justice.
Boone and Whit, it turns out, could win amnesty by bringing Billy John in; Mrs Lane rides along as, we found out rather quickly, her husband has been killed by the Mescaleros, who are hot on the trail of the party as they try to make it to another little outpost, a deserted station where they will make a stand against the Indians. Along the way there is plenty of trademark Kennedy-Boetticher sparse, snappy dialogue between Boone and Brigade, and between Brigade and Mrs Lane. It's clear that Brigade and Boone have a certain grudging respect for each other, and they know that they need all the guns they have to make it to Santa Cruz, so an uneasy alliance is formed. Mrs Lane at first dislikes Brigade for his seeming disinterest in Billy other than as a means to money, but slowly we get the impression that there's something else going one here - that it isn't the money, and it isn't even bringing Billy to justice that Brigade cares about.
For this is another haunted and ravaged Randolph Scott character, with a dark past, a wife who is lost, and the man who killed her is his real enemy and his real reason for finding Billy and taking him - slowly and carefully as it turns out - towards Santa Cruz: Billy's brother, Frank (Lee Van Cleef). That is the justice that Brigade is looking for, and nothing will stand in his way - nor, as it turns out, does he much care about anything beyond completing this mission, as he waits for Frank to come to him, in the symbolic place where their destinies met before in tragedy.
I'm not going to spoil the ending, which is iconic and beautiful in a way that is matched by very few other westerns; suffice it to say that this is probably my favorite so far in the series and it all comes together symbolically and poetically, and simply in a way that maybe only Boetticher could do it. The supporting cast as usual is excellent, with Roberts especially a standout, as lighthearted and talkative as Scott is dour. Coburn is fine in a role strikingly different from most of his later work, basically a fairly good-natured and stupid yokel along for the ride, but very loyal to his older and more experienced cohort; and Best gibbers away like a maniac, a believable young punk who would murder for no reason. Van Cleef and Steel are fine in slightly less interesting roles; and our hero Scott's stoicism and tightlipped seriousness is as appropriate here as it ever was. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.