Movie Type: Psychological Western, Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film
Themes: Going Straight, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Gregory Peck, Cliff Clark, Helen Westcott, Angela Clarke, Millard Mitchell, David Clarke, Jean Parker, Ellen Corby, Karl Malden
Release Year: 1950
Country: US
Run Time: 85 minutes
Plot
In this classic noir-influenced Western, Gregory Peck stars as an aging gunslinger, sick of killing but haunted by punks wanting to make a name for themselves by slaying a legend. After being warned by his old friend the Sheriff, Peck decides to return East to see his estranged wife and the child he left behind. Knowing his death is an inevitability if he stays, Peck leaves but before he can reach his destination his past catches up with him in the form of a young outlaw. A showdown-cum-Greek tragedy follows and the film ends on a haunting, bleak note. Nominated for an Academy Award in Best Motion Picture Story, The Gunfighter was often imitated by other Westerns, most notably by High Noon, and its minimalist, morally difficult, and compelling tale made it one of the most important films produced in the 1950s. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
Review
A character study of a reluctant gunman, The Gunfighter (1950) was a notable predecessor to the revisionist emphasis on the end of the Westerner (and the West) in such 1960s and 1970s films as Ride the High Country (1962) and The Shootist (1976). The questionable morals of Gregory Peck's mustachioed Jimmy Ringo make him less than ideal, but Peck's mien and the exhausted Ringo's wish to be reunited with his estranged wife lend the character a measure of heroic gravity that sets him apart from the "squirts" eager to take their shot at him. The portrayal of a gunfighter at the end of his rope is underlined by the frequency of indoor scenes; the frontier vistas that defined the Western genre are nearly absent. The visual promise of the move westward is transformed into muted, shadowy gray interiors, in which Ringo deals with the legacy of his notoriety as the top gun in the West. Lauded for Peck's laconic yet deeply felt performance and its adept psychological examination of the unwanted results of myth-making violence, The Gunfighter earned an Oscar nomination for William Bowers's and André de Toth's screen story. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
