Die fünf Vogelfreien

This film shows the power of the motion picture. It is entertaining and it sends a strong message about doing the right thing while avoiding stereotyped good and bad characters. It stars Jimmy Stewart as a farmer is also the honorary part time sheriff. A gang of outlaws lead by Henry Fonda rides into town and starts to cause trouble. Stewart and the rest of the town folk want to avoid rocking the boat and figure that the new visitors are none of their business. It is only after a terrible event that Stewart finally realizes the mistake of inaction and understands that it is everyone's responsibility to stand up for what is right. The true beauty of this film is that neither the hero or the villain are common Western stereotypes. They much more resemble real people. The hero is more concerned with his own life and doesn't want to risk bodily harm trying to stop troublemakers that will be gone by morning. The lead villain is a man that seems to be trapped by his own reputation. He doesn't agree with what his gang is doing, but feels that they expect certain things from their leader. He says, "I don't know what to do, I feel like I am on a greased pig trying to hold on." When asked why he doesn't just leave the gang he responds that he spent his whole life building a reputation and he can't go back to being a nobody. The greatness of this picture is that it has the noble purpose of bettering its viewers, but it does not sacrifice its entertainment value to achieve it.

Or may I say his masterpiece if you compare with what he will do later for Disney industry. This is a pretty good western though showing a scheme already told before ten million times; a sheriff alone against a bunch of outlaws. But Hank Fonda, supposed to be the leader of the "bad men" has very intersting character, ambivalent and touching in some points. It could be compared with the Richard Boone's character in THE TALL T, the leader of four outlaws, but a character for whom the audience can feel some kind of empathy. Not the ugliest guy in the world. A western that deserves to be seen over and over. Not so typical of the late sixties but rather the fifties. It could have been made ten years earlier.

Jimmy Stewart gets top billing and a lot more screen time than fellow mega-star Henry Fonda in this early modern western. 59 years old when the movie was being shot, Stewart looks if anything even older as remarked by many others. He is NOT credible as a new father even of his third child.

Fonda was three years older but has aged much better, looking fit, competent, credible even as a love interest for Inger Stevens who is just about half his age.

This movie is driven by character. The story is simple, not very original and quite slow to get going. However, and as one perceptive reviewer noted, Gary Lockwood's performance as a drawling, baby-faced killer is superbly convincing. His character shows a surprising self-possession, too, always giving part- time sheriff Stewart an excuse to keep looking the other way. It makes him dangerous to everyone, the boss of the outfit (Fonda), especially. Veteran western actor Jack Elam--later to appear in a soft drink commercial-- is no self-parody here! Tough, cunning, mature, his character is just amoral enough to be part of the crew of hired guns that the town of Firecreek has the ill luck to play host to.

In this age of dumbed-down scripts, mumbling actors and dialog that rambles on for no apparent reason, the articulately spoken, sharp and memorable lines given to all the characters is a poignant reminder of what movies used to be. They most of all are what make every minute of this picture worth watching.

I got tired of reading reviews containing either outright misinformation (suggesting the writer saw some other movie) or downright absurdity. From the top notch performances to the stirring Alfred Newman score to the brilliant Vincent McEveety direction to the detailed Calvin Clements script, this a western I can recommend wholeheartedly. This movie finally deserves its due, and a decent DVD release. Rather than falling into the spaghetti western mold popular at the time, this film looks and feels very American, a direct heir to the great Anthony Mann westerns of the 50s.

Jimmy Stewart, mystifyingly maligned in other reviews, gives a sincere moving performance. I wonder if the criticism comes at his farmer character's reluctance towards violence--disappointing no doubt to fans of "cartoon" westerns. The gritty realism extends to the easy, natural relationship among the gang played by Henry Fonda, Gary Lockwood, James Best, Jack Elam, and Morgan Woodward. This gang is the catalyst and their details, ticks and volatile unpredictability are portrayed with beautifully understated precision. And J. Robert Porter as the town simpleton will break your heart.

There's so much fine work by the cast, particularly Stewart, Fonda, Lockwood (who played another superb villain in the electrifying two-part "Gunsmoke" episode, "The Raid"), Best, Elam, Brooke Bundy, Jacqueline Scott, Louise Latham, Barbara Luna and Ed Begley. A dark, gritty, suspenseful western to be sure, but with a warm heart and soul at its center. Seek it out.

The late sixties, for me, were the last years of traditionnel Hollywood western, typical of the Anthony Mann type of films of the fifties. Western of the seventies will have all that Leone type of feeling, or the violent aura of The Wild Bunch (Of course, there's few exceptions, like The Shootist). Nothing new under the sun here : a little bit of High Noon here, a little bit of the Mann-type of western there. But the story, if not original, is strong and the acting is very fine. I don't think Firecreek was popular then, or got a reputation, perhaps because people were tired of that kind of films. But James Stewart is superb. As always.