Ride the High Country is a gripping story about a trio of men who take a job transporting some gold for a bank through dangerous territory. Perhaps the most remarkable part about the movie is the fact that we have a ticking time bomb that is set up early and you never know when it?s going to go off. That promise of betrayal builds tension into each scene and colors every moment that we see the heroes bonding. I thought the structure of the film was surprisingly good. There were a few moments where I found myself wondering why the story had taken a detour, but then it would pay off later and you?d realize that those moments were crucial. I definitely applaud this movie for having a strong script, and not feeling like every other Western.The flaw in Ride the High Country was the acting (or at least the line delivery.) I don?t know what was happening but so much of the dialogue sounds wooden. Even Joel McCrea (who is an actor I have enjoyed in other things) has some lines that sound over-rehearsed and unnatural. There also seemed to be a fair amount of ADR in the movie which didn?t help at all. The looped dialogue didn?t sound right any time it happened and it was super obvious. Otherwise I thought there was a lot to like in Ride the High Country. It?s one of the more interesting films I?ve seen in the genre because it calls into question the morality of the heroes, and your opinion of them keeps going up and down. I?m anxious to watch it again sometime and see if I can get past my struggle with the acting to just enjoy the strong story.

Great early Peckinpah Film! It doesn't have his signature camera work, but still a nice story about an aging Lawman.

A blind man couldn't miss using buck shot.A small town during the gold rush is having issues getting gold from the town from the minds due to robbers and bandits stealing their transports. They hire an infamous man of the law and the war as a union soldier to help them with their problems. The law man arrives and is older than they anticipate. He hires two men to help him take out the bandits but the men have their own agendas, and it may not align with the law man's. The law man faces tough odds in his daunting task."I expected a younger man.""I used to be."Sam Peckinpah, director of Major Dundee, Straw Dogs, The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, The Killer Elite, Cross of Iron, Convoy, and The Osterman Weekend, delivers Ride the High Country. The storyline for this picture is actually fairly clever and intricate. There are several unique subplots that come together well. The acting is good and the cast includes Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Mariette Hartley, Edgar Buchanan, and Warren Oates. "I'm used to working with my brain not my backside."This was recommended to me by Fios so I instantly DVR'd it off cable. This was pretty good and had a lot going on worth following. This has enough unique elements to make it a nice addition to the genre and worth watching for western genre fans. I recommend watching this once."The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit."Grade: B-

Good and gritty western.

sam pechinpah+ jeol mccrea+ randy scott (both last movie= solid western

Considered to be Sam Peckinpah's first great film, Ride the High Country sounded like a great western.Ride the High Country really has the feel of a classical western film, but at the same time it proves to be a progressive feature which takes steps forward for the genre. As westerns have a tendency to be slow, it is easy for the genre to be plagued by films with blank atmospheres during the more character oriented scenes. But Ride the High Country transcends this expectation by making use of a script which is rich with characters as well as an effective musical score. The conventional elements of the film such as its slow pace do tend to wear down the film at times, but there is enough originality in Ride the High Country to carry it along. The only times that I found the film got rather boring tended to be when the film lost sight of its western setting and got a little too focused on its characters as opposed to the scenes which moderated them a little more evenly. Sam Peckinpah films have a tendency to be a complicated examination of masculinity and the changing world, but Ride the High Country takes a different angle on that which is largely bereft of the intense violence that characterized a lot of his other works. Many of Sam Peckinpah's films tend to be hard hitting and gritty films, but Ride the High Country has a tendency to be more lighthearted in nature at times. While it is not without its gritty moments, there is generally a sense of energetic spirit which comes with the film that is not as grim and nihilistic as Sam Peckinpah films tend to be synonymous with. However, there are still many scenes in Ride the High Country whx`ere this proves absent. The main story arc in Ride the High Country where things become less than interesting is the way that it examines Billy Hammond's marriage because the focus pulls away from the main characters for a while as well as the western scenery, rather confining itself to a singular setting and slowing down the journey of the characters. The way that the film attempts to bring new issues to the western genre in this scene is certainly innovative, but it is not as entertaining as it desires to be. Frankly, the fact is that Ride the High Country is an example of a western which combines both conventional genre elements with revisionist aspects which is certainly admirable as well as effective most of the time. But there is no denying that the film goes through periods of being dull which feel all the more extensive by the naturally slow pace of the story.But that being said, Sam Peckinpah's ambitions are very admirable. They may not have the same effect today due to the western genre's transition and decline limiting its popularity, but viewers who can appreciate the nostalgic value of this classical western film and its ambition to be more than the films around it. It isn't perfect, but it surely works as a sign that Sam Peckinpah is a man who is willing to push the limits on filmmaking which he would later achieve many times. The film is a step in the right direction for him and a clear cut sign of his potential as a filmmaker, both in terms of narrative and visual style. Though Ride the High Country does not feature all that many of Sam Peckinpah's iconic visual techniques, the scenery, production design and costumes of the film all combine to ensure that the setting comes off as being believable as well as being a genuinely appealing treat on the eyes. The colour scheme and many wide angle shots all give a sense of life to the visual experience, and the aforementioned musical score does a beautiful job of adding a gentle atmospheric drama to the feature. All the technical aspects of Ride the High Country work to its appeal, and with the script being so original and character driven there is a lot of room for the actors to breathe.In his final cinematic appearance, Randolph Scott does a perfect job paying tribute to his legacy for playing the hero in western films. With many years of experience under his belt, Randolph Scott brings his western virtues along to Ride the High Country as a means of portraying a vulnerable but determined old gunslinger forced to confront the changing word. He does his part to hold the screen and interact with the universe around him so naturally that he really works to bring the material to life, delivering his lines with a strong dramatic edge but never going overboard about it. Randolph Scott leads the screen in Ride the High Country very nicely.But the screen is largely stolen by Joel McCrea. Making a powerful duo with Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea captures the equal strength of a cowboy hero but is able to do it with an edge of charm and wit which adds a touch of lighthearted nature to the feature and captures the interests of viewers. He really manages to grasp both his role and the appeal of viewers with a tenacious dedication to the part, engaged consistently in his role on both physical and emotional levels. Joel McCrea really brings a strong sense of both status and character to his role in Ride the High Country, leading the film to victory very nicely.Mariette Hartley also brings her own charms to the role, effectively transferring enough entertaining drama into her character to transcend the thin nature of her relevance to the story as a female character.So Ride the High Country is a rather slow film in parts due to its genre and its age, but with Sam Peckinpah helming it as director there is a distinctive balance between conventional western styles and revisionist concepts captured with a strong sense of visual gusto and skilful leading performances from Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea

Terrific Sam Peckinpah western stands as his most elegant westerns and one can certainly make the case that this may be his best, though I'm sticking with "The Wild Bunch" as his best among several brilliant films. The film tells the story of two old timers living in a world that's past them by and doesn't appreciate them (a reoccurring Peckinpah theme). Perfectly cast with western veteran actors Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, the two take on a beneath them job of guarding gold from a mining camp to the town bank. On the way to camp, they pick up Mariette Hartley, a young woman running away from her religious fanatic father (another familiar Peckinpah theme) played by Peckinpah stock company actor R.G. Armstrong. Hartley wants to hook up with a miner boyfriend up at the gold camp, so they agree to take her there. Future stock company actors L.Q. Jones and Warren Oates also appear as a couple of very uncouth gold miners. Things get complicated when Hartley is nearly raped on her wedding night and wants to leave with McCrea, Scott and their younger partner back down the mountain to town. Things are further complicated when Scott and his younger partner decide to double cross McCrea and plan to make off with the gold they are supposed to deliver, all with the Hartley's hillbilly family on their trail to get his bride back. Although this film doesn't break with western tradition as Peckilnpah's later revisionist westerns would, he does push the boundaries in terms of grit (the mining camp is disgusting) and some of the violence has a tougher edge (there's a chilling moment during a shootout where McCrea locks eyes with a man he's just fatally shot) that you really don't see in Hollywood films outside of a Samuel Fuller film. Peckinpah didn't receive a writing credit, but looking at screenwriter N.B. Stone Jr.'s other credits there isn't anything nearly as good as this film, with the only standouts in his filmography being the very average Disney "Zorro" and an average Robert Mitchum oater, "Man with the Gun." There's no way this mostly TV western writer came up with amazing scenes like the mining camp wedding that includes prostitutes for bridesmaids, a drunken judge officiant and a near rape of the bride by the passed out groom's brothers. That's not to mention the thematic elements that run through nearly all of Peckinpah's films. Peckinpah's frequent director of photography Lucien Ballard provides picturesque photography (even disguising the soap bubble doubling as snow in the mining came, which I never noticed until I read how pissed off Peckinpah was about that). If you had had to boil down this film to one over arching theme, one one that you could likely apply to nearly every film by Sam Peckinpah, it comes from the moment that McCreat utters the phrase, "All I want is to enter my house justified." That was true of Peckinpah in his own life and was the driving force behind and drama crux of a nearly all of his most significant films (i.e.. The Wild Bunch's suicide march to save Angel or Dustin Hoffman's pacifism driven out by the need to protect his home, etc.). But overall, this is among the finest westerns ever made and wa s fitting movie for McCrea and Scott retire on (though McCrea later decided to un-retire).

Na definição do que haveria de ser o cinema de Sam Peckinpah, se calhar não existe um filme tão decisivo como "Ride the High Country". Quase todas as marcas que distinguem Peckinpah estão bem à vista: a acumulação de tensão interrompida com timings precisos, a importância das cenas cerimoniosas, a ideia de que o homem idiota e mal-formado é também o mais assustador. Além disso, Peckinpah tem em "Ride the High Country" uma conjunto de personagens que lhe serve perfeitamente à exploração de um dos seus temas mais transversais: a ética e os princípios do homem adaptam-se às circunstâncias e o melhor ou o pior de cada um por vezes só aparece em situações-limite. Reparar que todas essas características surgem perfeitamente amadurecidas, naquele que é apenas o segundo filme de Peckinpah, é o que basta para respeitarmos ainda mais o homem. O tempo que tudo destrói vai ter sérias dificuldades em fazer desaparecer a excelência Metrocolor de "Ride the High Country".

A great western starring Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, who are two older lawmen transporting gold from the mine to the bank. With James Drury, Warren Oates, John Anderson, and the first movie for Mariette Hartley. A truly great musical score composed by George Bassman. Memorable and inspiring. One of the best showdowns, with classic dialogue, at the end. This is regarded as the first great film of director Sam Peckinpaugh. This is the last screen appearance of Randolph Scott, and he surely went out as a champion.

Good Sam Peckinpah western. Interesting plot, telling the story of honour, the benefits of age and experience and the dying of the old western ways.Builds well. Not much action to start off with, but you can always sense a shoot-out is around the corner, and, eventually, it is.Not perfect though. The morality tale of the benefits of age/experience is often laid on too thick, and the plot contrived to accommodate it. Then, at the end, when it matters most, it seems watered-down and open-ended.It being Peckinpah's second movie as director, he could be forgiven for not being more subtle when it mattered and not being more forceful at other times. He would get more subtle, and much grittier...Solid performances by Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea in the lead roles. Good support from Mariette Hartley and Ron Starr.

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.

An early feature from Sam Peckinpah and also the valedictory film for Randolph Scott and presumably Joel McRae (who went on to make a few more). Randy plays the bad guy (more or less) which is a bit of a shock after his series of tough morally-upright loners in the Budd Boetticher (Ranown) films -- but supposedly he was originally to play McRae's on-the-skids former Federal Marshall and they switched roles. It is somewhat odd to see an older McRae as well, since he is so well known from his younger days (working for Preston Sturges or Hitchcock) -- but it's still him. At any rate, in keeping with this phase of the Western, the two old-timers struggle to retain their code of honor as the West changes, rescuing Mariette Hartley from some scurrilous gold miners in the process. More of a trad Western than we would soon see from Peckinpah (even if the finale is a bit more bloody than typical).

All enjoyably characters, and it's definitely got a comedic edge, so the cheesiness isn't really uncalled for. The ending is somewhat sad, but abrupt enough to not really be that heartbreaking.

Beautifully shot western with performances by Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott that distill their personas perfectly.

Two stars from 40's and 50's have one last hurrah in this 1962 western. A decent movie.