Ride the High Country (1962)

"I hate to get married with one of my brothers smellin' bad enough to gag a dog off a Gut Wagon.", 21 March 2006

It's all but impossible to watch Ride the High Country and not be impressed with Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. Scott and McCrea are two aging "cowboy" types who have been asked to guard a shipment of gold from the mine into town. While McCrea sees this as just another paying job, Scott sees it as an opportunity for a big score and to get what he feels he deserves. Scott and McCrea make a great pair. They bring dignity, honor, and class to their characters and to the whole film. They are naturals and appear very much at ease. I've never been much for older Westerns, but after watching this pair of fine actors, I realize I need to visit some of their earlier films.

Compared with some of Peckinpah's other films, Ride the High Country is a simpler, more intimate work. Even though it's not as violent and sprawling as his better known The Wild Bunch, the two films share some common themes (themes explored in some of Peckinpah's other films as well). Both films deal with the end of the Old West and how this change affects those who have known nothing else. The outlaws in The Wild Bunch face it head on - walking into a barrage of bullets. The lawmen in Ride the High Country face their uncertain future in a similar manner - walking into a barrage of bullets (albeit, on a smaller scale). Be they outlaw or lawman, the end of the "cowboy" era represents such uncertainty that neither is quite prepared to face it. Where The Wild Bunch is wild, brash, and over-the-top, Ride the High Country is controlled and deliberate. In either case, the outcome is very nearly the same. It's a masterful job by Peckinpah of portraying the same notion in two completely different styles.

In the end, Ride the High Country may never make it to the top of the list of my favorite Sam Peckinpah films, but it's a solid effort that I'm glad to have "discovered".

8/10