|
Post by Aj_June on Mar 17, 2019 16:27:04 GMT
Director: William A. Wellman Cast: Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark
IMDB Rating:7.5 My rating: 6 ** May have some general spoilers**
Just finished watching Yellow Sky (1948). I will get straight to the ending. The ending of this movie is very optimistic and to some degree unrealistic. And I usually hate unrealistic endings. But the case was different with this movie. I liked its beginning and I liked its unrealistic ending. The only problem is that I didn't like the middle parts. There was something that got me annoyed. I believe it is the romantic element that they put in this movie and which I had not anticipated at the start and which was something that I didn't enjoy. For whatever reason that I don't know, I disliked the female lead Anne Baxter. They made her dress like a man and put a gun/rifle in her hands and all the while tried to show her smart but would make her do stupid things occasionally. I got a bit irritated. But there's a saying that all's well that end's well. So the ending did the job for me and I am no longer feeling irritated. Although I should mention that it is quite a respected western and many people might not agree with my rating (6/10) and I am perfectly fine with that. I normally enjoy westerns and rate them on par or higher than par but there was something that put me off in the middle part of the story. I can understand if others rate it higher and it probably deserves a higher rating.
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Mar 17, 2019 16:50:24 GMT
I like this movie.
|
|
|
Post by wmcclain on Mar 17, 2019 18:38:45 GMT
|
|
|
Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 17, 2019 21:30:38 GMT
Big fan I am!
Stay away from my men, and stop swinging those damn hips all over the place.
Stretch is the leader of bank robbing desperadoes, after their latest job they find the US Cavalry hot on their tail. Their only conceivable route of escape is to traipse over an enormous salt flat, low on water and bitten by the scorching sun, they happen to come across a ghost town named Yellow Sky. Here was once a prosperous town, now the only inhabitants are a crusty old prospector and his tomboy granddaughter. Soon the talk turns to hidden gold and it's not long before these desperate men will become conflicted in more ways than one. Be it greed, lust or the Apache, the day of reckoning is coming to Yellow Sky.
Yellow Sky is a technically stunning picture, directed with panache by William A. Welman, boasting starkly affecting black and white photography from Joseph MacDonald, and utilising the wonderful use of natural sounds. This picture is to me one of the shining lights of 1940s Westerns. Once the pulse racing pursuit of the robbers by the US Cavalry has finished, the film shifts into a master class of visual and dialogue driven delights. As the gang trundle across the desolate salt flat, the need for quenching the thirst hits the audience as much as it does the gang; I myself found that I was swigging rapidly from my cold can of beer! The Alabama Hills location is a sprawling, beautiful, never ending ode to the West, and then the actors kick in and do their stuff, and then some.
Gregory Peck plays the leader Stretch, an actor normally associated with a straight laced gait, here he is is weather worn and tired, his portrayal of Stretch as convincing as a role I have seen him tackle. Richard Widmark, in what I believe to be his first Western entry, is truly magnetic, a smirking, snarling Dude that you just know you couldn't trust if your life depended on it. Anne Baxter plays the sole female character of the piece (Mike), and she is pivotal to the whole film's strength, tough and full of spunk, her grasping of the situation in amongst these ragged men gives the piece it's time bomb ethic, and boy does Baxter do well with it.
All told there's no weakness' in the casting, they all do good work, and although the plot structure of the film is nothing out of the ordinary, the technical aspects coupled with the excellent writing on the page (W.R. Burnett story, Lamar Trotti screenplay) lift it way above many of its contemporaries. The ending has caused some consternation amongst Western critics over the years, and if I'm honest then it's not totally satisfactory to me personally, but it is in no way what so ever a bad ending, you just feel that the mood that had preceded it deserved something better. But as ever, it's up to the individual viewer to decide for themselves. 9/10
|
|
|
Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 17, 2019 21:37:58 GMT
Brilliant image montage chap
|
|
|
Post by Aj_June on Mar 24, 2019 18:35:57 GMT
This picture is available on Youtube. In case any one wants to see while travelling or when out of station. The print is decent. @ hitchcockthelegendThanks for your review. I guess you are the one with the final say on the westerns so it must a great movie that I failed to get the best of. Mind you I still liked it.
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 24, 2019 18:41:45 GMT
With Peck and Widmark what could possibly be wrong ?
|
|
|
Post by Aj_June on Mar 24, 2019 18:48:41 GMT
With Peck and Widmark what could possibly be wrong ? Nothing. Just me sulking that one particular part of the movie (middle part) was not so good. Although I finally let Spike the legend of the westerns have the last say. So the last word is that the movie is Top Class I think I have watched a tad too many westerns in the last few weeks. My mind is full of people chasing others on horses and firing bullets. I need to change to horror or thrillers of 70s. Or maybe see a few silent comedies by Keaton.
|
|
|
Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 24, 2019 19:29:21 GMT
With Peck and Widmark what could possibly be wrong ? Nothing. Just me sulking that one particular part of the movie (middle part) was not so good. Although I finally let Spike the legend of the westerns have the last say. So the last word is that the movie is Top Class I think I have watched a tad too many westerns in the last few weeks. My mind is full of people chasing others on horses and firing bullets. I need to change to horror or thrillers of 70s. Or maybe see a few silent comedies by Keaton. Good god man no! You stand by your guns my good man, there is no person right or wrong in appreciation of a film. You should have seen some of the abuse I got by haters of The Searchers because I deem it a classic of genre classics, or that my positive review of Soldier Blue was hit with 20 negative votes in the space of 3 hours! I stand by them, sometimes a film is obviously great to some folk, but not to others. As I often say when I come across a well liked film I don't buy in to myself, just because I don't like it doesn't make it a bad film.
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 24, 2019 19:36:45 GMT
Big fan I am!
Yellow Sky is a technically stunning picture, directed with panache by William A. Welman, boasting starkly affecting black and white photography from Joseph MacDonald, and utilising the wonderful use of natural sounds. This picture is to me one of the shining lights of 1940s Westerns. Hi there HL The gun barrel shot famed from Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns (1957) from cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc was obviously inspired by Joseph MacDonald's shot in Yellow Sky (pic below) do you know of an earlier similar shot ?
|
|
|
Post by london777 on Mar 25, 2019 18:03:50 GMT
Hi there HL The gun barrel shot famed from Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns (1957) from cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc was obviously inspired by Joseph MacDonald's shot in Yellow Sky (pic below) do you know of an earlier similar shot ? Copied for james Bond titles?
|
|
|
Post by taylorfirst1 on Mar 25, 2019 20:17:21 GMT
I'm a big fan of this movie. I've only seen it in it's entirety once but it left a good impression.
|
|
|
Post by nutsberryfarm 🏜 on Apr 26, 2019 6:10:32 GMT
Like where it starts. Solid.
|
|
|
Post by koskiewicz on Apr 26, 2019 19:22:42 GMT
It is a classic western regardless of personal opinions...
|
|