Horizons West

Horizons West is directed by Budd Boetticher with a story written by Louis Stevens. It stars Robert Ryan, Rock Hudson, Julia Adams, John McIntire, Raymond Burr & Dennis Weaver. It's a Technicolor production with Charles P. Boyle on photography.

It's the end of the Civil War and the Hammond brothers Neal (Hudson) and Dan (Ryan) return to the family ranch in Texas. Neal is happy to graft away on the ranch but Dan wants considerably more. But Dan's plans are altered after an encounter with Cord Hardin (Burr), an encounter that sees Dan switch to the wrong side of the law. A switch that drives a wedge thru the Hammond family, particularly since Neal has decided to don a badge and become a Marshal of Austin.

Interesting and watchable early Western effort from Budd Boetticher. It has some psychological aspects that mark it out as being above average. Themes of greed and family strife are of course nothing new in the grand scheme of the Western movie, but Boetticher and his cast knit them together here with some conviction, notably Ryan who was in the middle of a great run of movies that included On Dangerous Ground, Beware, My Lovely and The Naked Spur. There's no real complexities to the characters, but they are well formed, and the finale has the courage of its convictions. There's also some very neat period costuming from Rosemary Odell, with the quite ravishing Adams benefiting greatly there. The main problematic issues outside of some narrative familiarity come with being asked to believe that Ryan and Hudson (whose limp) are brothers, and that McIntire is Ryan's father (there's only two years between them in reality). Whilst there's sadly a lack of impacting outdoor photography; even if that's off set a touch by the easy on the eye set designs for the town by Russell A. Gausman & Joseph Kish.

A more than adequate time filler for the discerning Western fan. 6/10

the best thing about this western is its title. the next best thing is its glorious technicolor imagery. the 'look' of this film makes it a classic western - fully lit western skies, iconographic star close ups of confederate soldiers and texas belles - richly textured in luscious technicolor. the title - horizons west - and the beauty of the images sum up the idea of manifold destiny and western expansion. curiously the narrative itself contradicts the look as elder brother robert ryan abandons the simple homestead lifestyle for the corruptly sophisticated attractions of town life. as younger brother (rock hudson)is pitted against older brother (ryan), there are suggestions of biblical undertones. hudson, now a deputy marshal, eventually hunts down ryan for murder thereby restoring the idea of honesty and integrity as part of western expansion.

Home from the Civil War, young Neal Hammond : Rock Hudson and his older brother : Robert Ryan are glad to return to Austin Texas ranching. However , brother Dan wants more and he takes over properties . As 2 brothers go their separate ways after Civil War , one leads a peaceful life as a rancher , but the other corrupted by the war engages in a violent campaign to build his own empire ,and carrying out terrorisation . His attempt to enter business is thwarted by carpetbagger Cord Hardin : Raymond Burr . But among the growing opposition to his band is the new sheriff , to become his his nemesis , his brother Neal, along with an old friend : James Arness .

It begins as a sluggish , slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with complex characters , thrills , breathtaking patches and decent plot about two differen brothers ; as both of them end up on opposite sides of the law . The simple tale is almost rudimentary though full of clichés, as the monotonous script lines too often settle for crude routine . Suspense and tension builds over the time in which the outlaws and the starring await to take the farmer's lands . The action is decently made , as when the nasties shoot without remission and rustling cattle . The highlights of the film are the facing off between Robert Ryan and his enemies and the climatic showdown on the ending . Robert Ryan gives a nice performance as the ex-officer who forms a rustling gang and parlays his ill-gotten gains into a land empire . Rock Hudson provides a slighly laborious acting as new Marshal of Austin , but his interpretation is really eclipsed by the great Robert Ryan . His acting as the mobster-tycoon reverberates all the movie in a manner that sometimes anticapates ¨The rise and fall of Leg Diamond¨ considered to be Boetticher's the best . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Burr as as the nasty owner who beats and humiliates Ryan in a poker game , John McIntire as the honest father though he was only 2 years older than Ryan , James Arness , Dennis Weaver , Mae Clarke , Tom Powers , Douglas Fowley , among others.

It displays an atmospheric score by Herman Stein and Henry Mancini , both of whom uncredited . Colorful cinematography in Universal style by Charles Boyle . The motion picture was professionally directed by Budd Boetticher in ordinary and traditional wake.Still apprentice work , so don't expect anything quite so stylishly spare as the Randolph Scott/Boetticher cycle , but Burt Kennedy's intelligent scripting was probably the decisive factor in those later films . Boetticher formed a production company called ¨Ranown¨ along with Harry Joe Brown and Randolph Scott and as usual writer Burt Kennedy. The first Harrry Brown-Boetticher-Scott movie was 1956's " Seven men from now" , following ¨Decision at sundown(57)¨, ¨Buchanan rides alone(58)¨,¨Westbound(59)¨ ,¨Ride lonesome(59) ,in the decades since, they have produced and directed one Western ¨Comanche Station(60)¨ . Boetticher was a great expert on Western genre and also on the bullfighting world as ¨Bullfighter and the lady¨, ¨The magnificent matador¨ and ¨Arruza¨ . Rating : 6/10 . Well worth watching .

As in many westerns, including Richard Thorpe's VENGEANCE VALLEY, or Phil Karlson's GUNMAN'S WALK, it is question of a brothers feud story; here Robert Ryan and Rock Hudson, and in the MGM western, there were Burt Lancaster and Robert Walker. There is always a bad brother and the good brother, as in the Bible you have Cain vs Abel, a recurrent western scheme. And the Civil War element of course enhanced, emphasized, this feud between brothers matters. No surprise in the end. Here, you explore the Universal Studios Budd Boetticher period, before he came to Columbia and the awesome Burt Kennedy's stories, starring Randolph Scott, his best of the best stuff. It is very unusual to see Bob Ryan working for another studio than RKO. The rest of the cast is however typical Universal Studios"home": Rock Hudson, Julia Adams; only Piper Laurie and Tony Curtis or Jeff Chandler missed.... So, this is an efefctive, taut, Boetticher's material. Ray Burr is of course excelent as a genuine villain character.

How many westerns (and others) feature two brothers ,the good and the bad,Abel and Cain?It was already in Genesis after all.It's more Ryan too old to be Hudson's brother than the other way about;sixteen years between the two leads is much and it shows.But Robert Ryan was as excellent as ever in his part of an ex-confederate soldier who does not want to work on a ranch and dreams of building an empire ,abetted by a femme fatale -a rare character in westerns.But as Springsteen sings,a king ain't satisfied till he owns everything and as Shakespeare wrote,(man)gains the world and loses his soul.On the contrary ,brother Hudson is a loyal good son,probably remembering the prodigal son parable ;Hudson would play a similar part in Sirk's modern western (the sport car replacing the horse)"written on the wind" (1956):some kind of adoptive child opposite a wealthy bad son (Robert Stack);he was also the good guy in "Giant" in which Dean became a racist tycoon.

"Horizons west" is an entertaining western,its last pictures summing up its moral in admirably succinct style.