![]() ![]() And instead of leading a frightened beast across a busy highway rides him in clear danger.Īnd I don’t get this voluntary incarceration malarkey, highly principled though it appears, breaking into jail in order to break out a friend Paul (Michael Kane) who just wants to serve out his relatively short sentence instead of being faced with a longer one as an escapee. A man who refused to be tamed tames a wild horse, his freedom coming at the expense of a captive animal, hobbled overnight to prevent escape. The only problem for me are certain inconsistencies. You can see the end coming a mile off, a truck that interrupts the narrative for no particular reason. Freedom-loving, don’t-fence-me-in Jack Burns (Kirk Douglas) falls foul of the law by escaping prison and is pursued into the hills by competent and sympathetic Sheriff Morey Johnson (Walter Matthau) who is saddled with an incompetent law enforcement team out of their depth up against a true man of the west. Matthau’s warm performance gives the film life, while Douglas effectively becomes the voice of nostalgia speaking out against the dangers of the encroaching jet age and the loss of humanity to the technocrat.Wannabe blood brother to The Misfits (1961) but more like a distant cousin, cowboy out-of-time yarn too pre-emptive for its own good. The heavy-handed ending has the escapee, who eluded the police, run down on the highway during a rainy night by an eighteen wheeler carrying bathroom fixtures (the truck was driven by a concerned Carroll O’Conner). It’s a highly symbolic film making the Douglas character a martyr for the cause. Sheriff Morey Johnson (Walter Matthau) is in charge of bringing in the fugitive, and during the course of the chase the wry humored sheriff comes to sympathize with the last of the cowboys. The cowboy on his horse Whiskey takes to the foothills in the hopes of crossing over to Mexico. So Burns escapes by himself, after receiving a beating from bully Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez (George Kennedy), and first goes to tell Paul’s wife Jerri (Gena Rowlands) that her man loves her and will return when his time is up. Bondi refuses to escape, claiming to be a changed man who loves his wife and child. It ends up a contest between an escaped felon cowboy, Jack Burns (Kirk Douglas), pursued by a sheriff, Morey Johnson (Walter Matthau), using jeeps and a helicopter.īurns lands in jail over a drunken bar fight in order to free his close friend Paul Bondi, serving a two year sentence for helping illegal Mexicans cross the border to find work in the States. ![]() It waxes poetic about the vanishing frontier and a way of life doomed by progress and technology. Kirk’s personal favorite film is a gripping modern western set in the 1950s in New Mexico. Writer Dalton Trumbo bases it on the novel “The Brave Cowboy” by Edward Abbey. The black-and-white film elegantly directed by David Miller (“Midnight Lace”) and photographed by Philip H. One of only a few Kirk Douglas films where the hammy actor didn’t want to make me gag. “One of only a few Kirk Douglas films where the hammy actor didn’t want to make me gag.” “Jack” Burns), Gena Rowlands (Jerri Bondi), Walter Matthau (Sheriff Morey Johnson), Michael Kane (Paul Bondi), Carroll O’Connor (truck driver), William Schallert (radio operator), George Kennedy (Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez) Runtime: 107 MPAA Rating: NR producer: Edward Lewis Universal 1962) Lathrop editor: Leon Barsha music: Jerry Goldsmith cast: Kirk Douglas (John W. (director: David Miller screenwriters: Dalton Trumbo/from the novel “The Brave Cowboy” by Edward Abbey cinematographer: Philip H.
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