When you start a western, all envision it will be like the great epics epics of John Ford, Raoul Walsh or Howard Hawks, opening with a great view of Monument Valley or the American Desert Classic being crossed by a little diligence lost in the immensity of the monumental landscape before us. Probably, then sounds the theme of the film sung by country star of the moment and we will have to do to get such care to a small western town, with its bar, your living room (saloon for the purists) and brothel, also if a church is a people out of a Fordist ribbon. There may be variables, like, before reaching the village, the coach is attacked, either by Indians or outlaws the illegal. In the latter case, the paradigm would certainly The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , timeless classic and masterful Ford plea for freedom, or The 3:10 to Yuma , these so-called psychological western in which we witness a tense thriller movie disguised those of western lifetime, but in which the action takes place in a short period of time, that the director dilate at will, and which avoids the wide open spaces and vistas that leverage the full potential of cinemascope providing this genus usually shelter in small houses and rooms suffocating strangle the characters framed in frenzied close-ups, going into extreme situations usually end in a cathartic end in line with all the tension. What difference, therefore, to the bright tape Delmer Daves's classic Fordist, even with a start that could be categorized as prototypical, or Rio Bravo hawksiana , with similar ingredients? Perhaps this disillusionment and cynicism that transmits the script, these characters that move money and dignity rather than kindness, and empathy relationship established between the protagonist and the criminal, and the incredible staging of the director, who provided here an exercise in style close to German Expressionism, which had already implemented brilliant authors like William Wellman in Ox-Bow Incident , probably the first hint of western psychological or mediocre Zinnemann highly valued in their incomprehensibly Noon, perhaps the best known example of this subgenre, in a thus anticipated that western twilight cause such a furor in the 60's onwards, and how far would be in classic western ideals of Ford opened diligence.
Daves dared to go one step further and removed the rough texture of the classic westerns, those bright colors and vivid images such where showy landscapes prevailed to convert the movie into an intense and virulent elegiac drama background and so dry and sparsely poetic as the grim scene in a funeral procession is the driver killed in view of the two protagonists. And is that not talking about a history of winners, is an inner journey of a loser, a coward, searching for himself to prove his courage to his family after being humiliated in front of their children by the bully more pint of member cowboy mafia that so portentous played by Glenn Ford, and to compensate his wife for so many hardships and straits. And here, the character played by a magnificent Van Heflin does not seek glory if not money, what makes him placed in a position not too far from the criminal Ben Wade. The contrast with the classical hero is remarkable, and this figure of the knight errant who stopped only the evil is removed from a stroke in the stunning sequence of detention at the beginning of the dangerous thief. Heflin did not hesitate to distract him from a dishonorable way to the sheriff at gunpoint to the back, all while asking for money for having wasted your time. It is perhaps one of the clearest advances of Tom Doniphon to assassinate by Liberty Valance back years later and it would mean the true end of western ever, the papier-mâché. Given this, the film takes us to an interesting point where Ford's character will air, if not more romantic and honorable, if it embarrasses the viewer because of the strange duality between good and evil that takes him, being a character with a somewhat questionable morality, able to kill someone but ask for that body a proper burial in his hometown. Is someone with their own rules, their own code. The brilliant play of characters between hunter and prey, the feeling of dependence, almost friendship, empathy, which is created between the two, is the engine of the entire tape, the repeated offers of arrogant Wade and Dan Evans of honest doubt, tempted by the devil in the form of cynical and charismatic murderer. Because of this relationship, the film gives us the opportunity to see a magnificent duel interpretive somewhat minimized will end with a conclusion somewhat distant and inconsistent with the pattern shown so far, making the film has its unique failure this final bright cloud the work of the writer.
But coldly analyze the major project of the story that the writer makes, since it is most important. It is true that the film has an aesthetic without it is unimaginable that photography is simply impeccable, being a basic element to tell the story, which music intimate and almost experimental arguably the time like a glove fit on the images, and the assembly is one of the basic elements that help create that feeling of being overwhelmed and suspense throughout the film, but the script what stands out, as the tape is more than just an aesthetic revolution, is the position of speech over any narrative method here broke barriers, and final results in a symbiosis between rhetoric and simply wrap amazing. Mixture of western and a thriller that at times is pure black film, we find an intense study of character rarely seen in this genre. Within of this genre film shows, there are also a powerful drama in the apparent destruction of the family consumed by debt and hunger, and jealousy, seeing Dan's wife in the character of Wade a kind of escape from their routine and mediocre life, an escape and a return to youth in a city where she was daughter of a sea captain. Through this, Wade discovers the advantages of a sedentary lifestyle, the maturation of his character comes just when the young leave Emmy in the tavern in town and test some homemade stew in the company of the Evans family, which arouses curiosity of children as if it were a fictional character. It is, therefore, a shock habits, since, as someone said, the western is the genre where you shake hands myth and reality. From here, the brilliant director's handling of the story cloisters characters in a small hotel they come when final clash between the two, which will arise loyalty and Dan must fight against itself and against its prey showing the highlights of the tape that will surface fears and loyalty will be more necessary than ever. And loyalty is precisely what will change the character motivation, consumed by doubts and loneliness in search of that role. And this is where the film fails, a climax that, if it is correct and maintains the suspense, it is somewhat tricky, somewhat dissonant with the tone and ideas of the film, ending in the shooting of commercial rigor let alone make a movie just perfect, groundbreaking in terms of plot and stylistic and maturation was a huge step for a genre that would later break that vision is what has come to today.
