Ride the High Country

A notable piece of trivia is that the year Ride the High Country was released it beat out Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 at the Beglium Film Festival for first prize. The film doesn't deserve that high praise, but it's a good film. It was made during the transitional years when the Western was dying out as a popular genre and became the subject of more daring efforts. It's the first film by one of the better Western filmmakers, Sam Peckinpah. The regret is that Ride the High Country has the lushness of a Hollywood affair and a lot of the scenes are doctored on badly designed sets. The good is that Peckinpah already shows his talent for moralist drama. Two aging gunmen, old friends, go on a simple gold transport for a bank but greed challenges their friendship when one dishonors the deal and tries to take the gold for himself. The film includes a subplot that risks the gunmen left standing wth some local hillbillies. It's sets up a question of whether the disgraced gunmen will come back to help his old friend. Other westerns like 3:10 to Yuma tried to set up similar plots that were based on ideas of moral character, but had believabilty and logic that made little sense. Ride the High Country is very good because the premise is so simple and yet identifiable to everyone. The challenges of friendship in the old time West would be a running theme for Peckinpah. Ride the High Country also has the merit to be graced with excellent dialogue and scenes. Movies at this time had more compact scenes than ever which meant dialogue was quick and purposeful. Peckinpah allows the scenes to play out and the dialogue to be rich enough to capture everyday life. Ride the High Country has a lot about it that would foreshadow a gifted filmmaker to come, but it's still happy surprise for a film that on paper looked no better than a vehicle project.