THE BIG SKY
(directed by Howard Hawks, 1952)
****+ (out of 5)
.
> Howard Hawks hits pay-dirt with this near-classic western about keelboat traders, plying the waters of the Missouri in 1832. It’s a title I’ve been seeking a long time
. Kirk Douglas is Jim, a rugged Kentucky mountain man seeking life’s fortunes. He has a run-in with Boone (Dewy Martin, familiar from a Twilight Zone episode), who goes from adversary to friend awful fast. They head to St. Lewis to find Boone’s uncle Zeb, hoping he might have a handle on some work. Some rough and tumble horseplay lands them behind bars for a spell, where they meet fellow jailbird Zeb (played by Arthur Hunnicutt, a veteran character actor who specialized in grizzly old coots, in an Oscar-nominated role). Sure ‘nuff, ol’ Zeb does have an iron in the fire, with a gang of men who plan to take a keelboat up to the Yellowstone River, hoping to trade with the Blackfoot Indians there, in direct competition with the powerful Missouri Fur Company, which does not take kindly to these interlopers horning in on their market. The natives get plentiful whiskey, the traders get valuable beaver pelts. Their guide for the journey: a lovely Blackfoot maiden Zeb has rescued from an enemy tribe. He hopes returning this chieftain’s daughter to her family will convince them to trade with him, instead of butchering them all, outright- which is always an option. Naturally, her presence drives a wedge between the two friends.
. This was a good action flick, even when the characterizations were cardboard and hokey, the dialogue clichéd- which was often. The story keeps moving along as the adventures keep coming. As in most Hawks’ films, the scenery is gorgeous, and it too was nominated. It’s a macho film that celebrates rough, good ol’ boys, and it’s probably fair to say: patronizing to its native characters. (Why for instance, can the white men learn her language, yet the Indian seems incapable of learning theirs?) Yes, there are some very unfortunate stereotypes at play here, but a film has got to be accepted as a product of its time, no matter what era it’s set in.
– Despite these flaws, THE BIG SKY was, for me, Big Fun.
*
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