This is a movie that I try to watch whenever it is on but I am sad because there is so much that I don't like about it. First the positives... I love the haunting theme music that just seems so appropriate for this movie. I also like the story about a largely unknown time in western America and and I like the way it is presented as a story being told by the Arthur Hunnicutt character, the old mountain man Zeb Calloway. The narration is just perfect with Hunnicutt's folksy voice and because it mostly fills in the holes and keeps it all moving. And then there are the interesting characters of which I especially like the seemingly hapless Indian Poordevel played by Hank Worden. And now the things that bother me about the movie... I hate the fact that it is in black and white and moreover it seems dark and lifeless to me. All the wonder that could have been made of the magnificent scenery is lost. What a waste. Second, I generally dislike Kirk Douglas who always seems so over the top, so overbearing and obnoxious and unlikeable that I have difficulty watching any movie that he is in. (I've read that he was rather unlikeable and this aspect of his personality seems to show through in his roles.) In this one he is a frontiersman, Jim Deakins,who mainly plays against another frontiersman, Boone Caudill, played by the unknown actor Dewey Martin. Martin's personality is nonexistent with the result that the overpowering Douglas dominates every scene so the movie is mostly about the Douglas character and a lot of the other character development is not done sufficiently. For example we wonder why Poordevil is the way he is, a drunken Indian caricature yet reliable when he is needed. We also miss the fact until the very end that something is going on between the Indian woman Teal Eye whose character is totally undeveloped and the Martin character Boone Caudill. We really never get to know either of them so for me at least the ending came as a surprise. In fact, I'm not sure Teal Eye, who is played by Elizabeth Threatt, has a single line in this movie and Boone has little to say except in the scenes dominated by Douglas. Arthur Hunnicutt shines through all this but except as the story teller, his is a minor role. The clash with the trading company is predictable and the story ends well as we suspect it will since the narrator lived to tell about it. All and all, a very watchable movie that makes me crazy when I think about how good it could have been .
Review of The Big Sky
