Ideal movie for Thanksgiving. It's a turkey.
This is a dismally bad
story of how Rangers Captain Spencer Tracy leads his men valiantly through all
sorts of hardships in order to massacre some Abenaki Indians. It is preachy,
overly patriotic, sentimental, absurdly false as history and, worst crime of
all for a Western, boring.
Part of the trouble was too
many cooks. Three people are credited as director, not only King Vidor. A whole
regiment of Rangers seems to have been conscripted to write it. Laurence
Stallings and Talbot Jennings are credited with the screenplay from the Kenneth
Roberts novel and twelve others, including Vidor, contributed. There were even
two directors of photography (William V Skall and Sidney Wagner).
There was a big budget as
Louis B Mayer wanted this to be a major spectacle. It was Tracy’s first picture
in color for MGM. Idaho locations represent New York State. As the title
suggests, it was intended to be the first of a series but the moderate success
and the costs mercifully spared us sequels.
Well, I guess the Indians did pursue them
Robert Rogers’s
prototypical Green Berets in their Rangers costumes look like nothing so much
as Robin Hood’s merry men. You expect them to burst into song at any moment or
hold up the Sheriff of Nottingham.
That must be Little John on the right
They burn down the Indian
village, massacre all the men of fighting age, steal all the food they have
left and cheerfully joke that anyone else can feast on roast Indian. So
amusing. The Union flags and variations on ‘Hearts of Oak’ make it a very Brit
film (although ‘Hearts of Oak’ did become an American song, ‘The Liberty Song’
by Philadelphia lawyer John Dickinson, so all bases were covered) and the
French and their Indian allies are the enemy.
Most of the tale, however,
is about the long retreat and the hardships they suffered. As such, the film
moves at the turgid pace of the men staggering along on foot.
Megaclunker
The most famous scene was
the human chain the men form to cross a treacherous river, filmed, without
stunt doubles, in an Idaho lake and a tank in Hollywood.
Tracy is dynamic, of
course, and suitable as the leader who drives them on to final safety. The rest
of the acting is satisfactory at best. Walter Brennan has the worst teeth ever
seen on film. He was already playing the crusty old fogey at 46. Robert Young is
the posh artist who will go off to London with Ruth Hussey. The picture he
paints of her in a book is hilarious. Pure 1940s.
They don’t even start out
looking for the north west passage till the last 5 minutes of the last reel. Actually,
it’s not even a proper Western (too early, too Eastern, too British) and I
don’t know why I have bothered to review it on this website. One gun,
gobble-gobble, watch out round Thanksgiving, it could appear on your table.
jeff Arnold is a jerk off and has a lot of nerve criticizing the movie Northwest Passage. It was a great movie. Further-more there was nothing wrong with the uniforms of the rangers in the movie though inaccurate as they may be.
ReplyDeleteArnold, you sound like the idiot that co-hosted TCM on the night they ran the movie last.
I'm glad you like it.
DeleteGood that someone does.
Jeff
Hello Jeff I'm a big fan of your blog and most of your articles are insightful and interesting whether I agree or not. Most of the time I think along the same lines. And I don't understand the posting drill which is why I am 'anonymous' but I'll get the hang of it post under my name soon. But the reason I'm getting off my backside and posting now is this review. We're 180 degree opposites on this. I think you've got a real blindspot about this movie. Maybe not a western but a great movie. Remade as Operation Burma and Seminole (if it's the picture I remember). It's a fantastic blog, Jeff. You're ALWAYS outstanding even on an average day but when you especially don't like something you can go to an absurd extreme. You're review of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was as unreasonable as this one.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right: I do go to extremes and if I love a Western I am a bit OTT and if I dislike it I am prety rude. Opinionated, I guess you'd say, and sometimes flippant too. But well, that's the way it is. Thanks for your kind comments and sorry we can't agree on this one (or 7 Brides, equally dreadful in my view) but that's the way the Western cookie crumbles.
DeleteJeff