An interesting early American feature narrative, based on the novel by Owen Wister which was also the basis for a number of later films as well as the famous television series. DeMille's film is a model in early action storytelling, with the travails of the Virginian and his feckless friend interspersed with the Virginian romancing a prim new schoolmarm.
The Virginian and his friend are pretty unlovable characters, bullies and tedious practical jokers, although the film seems to posit these as positive traits. Although the Virginian is happy to bully weaker men out of their beds for the night and worry women by switching their babies around, he is slavishly bound to the rule of private property and acquiesces to the hanging of his best friend because he seems to have transgressed that law. The original book is a partisan version of the Johnston County War told from the point of view of the wealthy landowners - this film continues the book's noxious suggestion that lynching is the rightful if rough frontier justice of power.
So, as usual with DeMille, we get reactionary ideology told with immaculate storytelling skill.
The Virginian and his friend are pretty unlovable characters, bullies and tedious practical jokers, although the film seems to posit these as positive traits. Although the Virginian is happy to bully weaker men out of their beds for the night and worry women by switching their babies around, he is slavishly bound to the rule of private property and acquiesces to the hanging of his best friend because he seems to have transgressed that law. The original book is a partisan version of the Johnston County War told from the point of view of the wealthy landowners - this film continues the book's noxious suggestion that lynching is the rightful if rough frontier justice of power.
So, as usual with DeMille, we get reactionary ideology told with immaculate storytelling skill.