Very few things in film are as American as the western film is. It is one of America’s major contribution and invention in film, along with the musical and the gangster film. The western was the biggest kind of film in the golden age of Hollywood as countless westerns were churned out year after year. After awhile the western became more or less its own genre and became but of the American experience. Among this large out put of western some of the best films ever made were released, classics like The Searcher, Red River, My Darling Clementine and High Noon. Films like these are some of the most prestige American films ever made. Yet among all these well known classics lurks a gem of a film that is equal to or better than any western out I have seen. This film I speak of is the rarely seen and criminally underrated Budd Beotticher film The Tall T.
The story of The Tall T is one that settles around a small rancher named Pat Brennan who on his way back to his ranch looses his horse in a bet. While walking home he hitches a ride on a stagecoach whose passengers are a newly wed couple, Doretta and William Mims. Soon into there travel they fall into the path of a trio of outlaws lead by a man named Frank Usher. The outlaws soon find out that the newly married bride’s father is the richest silver miner in the territory. Quickly the outlaws change their plan as they now decide to kidnap the Doretta and hold her for ransom. They send the Williams into town to deliver the ransom note and take Brennan and Doretta into a mountain hideout to await the ransoms delivery. Now Brennan must try to escape the outlaws because he knows when the ransom comes he is as good as dead. From their on it is a battle of wits as Brennan tries to stop Usher and escape with Doretta and his lives.
The key to the film is that on the surface the film appears to be almost simplistic or straight forward. This appearance is a deceitful one because below the seemingly simple exterior lays a tense and complex tail. That is one of the most beautiful part about this film is how surprisingly deep and intelligent it is. It is a western that opens and builds slowly. It is not a western that opens with wall to action or treat violence casually. Essentially the film replaces the shoot out with a more intelligent and intensely tension filled approach. Perhaps the best word to describe this film is tension. Tension certainly is at the center of this film and is what gives it its power. From the moment Usher kidnaps Brennan and Doretta the film becomes an elaborate game of chess. Each passing moment blisters with the possibility of what could happen next.
The relationship between the hero Brennan and the villain Usher is a very interesting one in this film. This is a film where the good guy and bad guy are not as simple as black and white. The characters in this film are more like gray than anything. Both Brennan and Usher have extended scenes of dialogue in this film and appear to have a lot in common. The only thing that really divides them is Brennan is an honest worker and Usher is a man who took a life of crime. Usher looks at Brennan with hope, he sees much of himself in Brennan and wishes that one day he could leave a life of crime and become a rancher too. On the other hand Brennan looks at Usher with disgust as he soon sees himself in Usher and can see himself in his shoes. They are really duel characters and have a kind of a Ying Yang relationship. In another life and another time they could have been friends but they are now doomed by fate to be one another’s enemy.
The script is a rather sharp one adapted by Burt Kennedy a short story written by the great Elmore Leonard. For a western script it is strange in the sense that it is one with little action but lots of dialogue. The dialogue though does more than a gunfight ever could. The conversations in the film are intelligent and hard boiled. The dialogue builds tension more and more as Brennan and Usher engage in their battle of the wits and survival. Each sentence the men speak to one another is like a landmine that explodes on its verbal delivery. With this more character driven and intelligent approach the viewer cares more for the characters and when someone does die the event means something more.
As far as acting goes the film has a tight little ensemble that all do pretty good work. In the film Randolph Scott plays the hero nearly perfectly. I could not act for an actor to play a western hero any better. Scott seems like an actor who just naturally seems right to play a western hero. He is a tall and sturdy actor with steely eyes and a rough leathery face. He actually looks like the rugged and experienced character he is playing. Along with that Scott portrays Brennan as a defiant and strong character that can stand his ground. In the films I have seen of Scott’s he always seems so good in them. As an actor he was more or less just out side of being a big star like John Wayne. Now he seems to be rarely talked about but he is a very talented actor. Richard Boone is also quit exceptional in the film as the multi layered villain of the film. Boone brings kind of a reality to his role of villain that not many other western villains had. He is the films villains but he is really not that bad of a man, just one caught up in a life of crime.
Budd Boetticher as a director would get my vote as easily one of the most underrated directors in film history. Boetticher is a director that knows how to make a western the right way. He makes them in a style that is also original and uniquely his own. His films are all hard edged and tough western that focus more on tension and suspense than shoot out. He was a director that had made a string of westerns in the mid to late 1950’s that all seemed so different and smart. They were all standout films in their own way for the most part. His career sadly fell apart as in the 1960’s as he made an expensive and ill fated documentary about the famous bull Carlos Arruza called Arruza. This film extremely hurt his career and he soon had a near impossible time making another film. From the 1960’s on he only had a handful of film credits and essentially retired peacefully. Though his out put of films was small they are films that influenced and impressed directors as wide as Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
Now of days The Tall T is a film that is largely forgotten or overlooked. Most of the films made by Boetticher have been forgotten and that is very sad to me. They are just too good to be ignored. Scott and Boetticher made many films together and I can say out of the five I have seen not one has disappointed me. All have the same tough spirit, intelligence and tension that set them apart from other westerns. These films are largely forgotten because their availability on video has been very limited. Only one film they made together, Seven Men from Now, is on DVD as of today The Tall T certainly deserves a DVD release. All the films of theirs I have viewed were either old VHS tapes I had to dig around to find or I had to stay up late to watch them on cable. If you are ever lucky enough to view a Boetticher film savior it because it’s a cinematic experience to enjoy. I can honestly say that this film and another Boetticher film, Seven Men from Now, were the best films that I saw last year in 2006. Few films have captivated me as much as this one has.
4/4 Stars
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