The Western showdown is a duel, a matching of gunplay skills in which the faster, more professional gunman wins... The logical extension of the show is without doubt a gladiatorial Roman circus combat between two fighters and such is the elemental structure of Lamont Johnson's film...
Kirk Douglas is a retired gunman sick enough of his life, and Johnny Cash is a weary gunslinger who knows that even if he wins, he will eventually lose... Both are famous, veteran gunfighters who provide their talent as the quick and the fast... The auditorium chosen is a bullfight ring...
Whether the two men are considered as gladiators or bullfighters, the film deplorably smashes the traditional conception of the showdown, twisting it from a clash between good and bad into a show of a very poor quality...
The situation exposed is certainly ambiguous, implausible and anti-climactic against popular blood lust...
The film captures the viewer with a double-ended showdown... One with Douglas as the winner, and the other with Cash...
Our feeling is that the strands of myth and honest re-creation which connect the American Western to the real American West are being cut by those whose roots are far removed from the actual frontier... To the Western purist, such tendency can only be seen with alarm... The screen showdown has been undermined and ruined... There are no white hats and black villainy anymore...
Kirk Douglas is a retired gunman sick enough of his life, and Johnny Cash is a weary gunslinger who knows that even if he wins, he will eventually lose... Both are famous, veteran gunfighters who provide their talent as the quick and the fast... The auditorium chosen is a bullfight ring...
Whether the two men are considered as gladiators or bullfighters, the film deplorably smashes the traditional conception of the showdown, twisting it from a clash between good and bad into a show of a very poor quality...
The situation exposed is certainly ambiguous, implausible and anti-climactic against popular blood lust...
The film captures the viewer with a double-ended showdown... One with Douglas as the winner, and the other with Cash...
Our feeling is that the strands of myth and honest re-creation which connect the American Western to the real American West are being cut by those whose roots are far removed from the actual frontier... To the Western purist, such tendency can only be seen with alarm... The screen showdown has been undermined and ruined... There are no white hats and black villainy anymore...