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"El Gavilán," as the protagonist is known, "some foolish name" for a weathered desperado on borrowed time. "A man like me expects death every day," the wandering gunslinger (Rory Calhoun) who turned down the tin star from the paternal lawman (Rod Cameron). His own father (John Litel) is an old soak shot down outside the saloon, the callow cardsharp (Rod Lauren) might be himself ten years ago, revenge costs him his shooting arm. "Start the day with a good fight, end with a bad one." Off to Sanctuary he rides, a miniature haven with an anti-gunplay rule. ("Man could spit from here and drown the whole city," quips the partner contemplating the tiny patch of green amid rocky mountains.) A settling of scores, a certain sense of waste acknowledged, end of the line for the Western hero with "a slump on his shoulders" and a festering wound. What Peckinpah strove for in Ride the High Country comes naturally to the Ukrainian artisan born along with cinema itself, thus Edward Ludwig's last film as a requiem for a genre as well as for classical filmmaking. (The crooner in the opening credits announces "a searcher for love" but the true soundtrack belongs to an insistent Spanish guitar like a fading heartbeat.) The spare expressiveness is inextricably bound to a dolorous awareness of time running out, the local belle (Ruta Lee) is plaintive enough to hope for "tomorrow" but realistic enough to settle for "today" with the fugitive. Ray's Run for Cover has a close kinship, and there's the Hellman of Ride in the Whirlwind already on the horizon following the terminal showdown. "We're going to set each other free." With Morgan Woodward, Robert J. Wilke, Jody Daniels, Ron Whelan, Rodolfo Hoyos, Natividad Vacio, and and Lane Bradford.
--- Fernando F. Croce |