dougdoepke No need to recap the plot. It's an unusual western for the time, with dark psychological undercurrents and noirish stylings. Mitchum carries the movie without changing expression let alone emoting. Not so, Miss Wright who has a little too much malt shop for my liking. Pairing her with the studly Mitchum is risky, to say the least, but she's a good enough actress to manage. The story's dark with some striking b&w visuals, especially those awesome rock monoliths peering down like silent gods. The story's told in flashback such that we're intrigued by the main thread of what it is that haunts Mitchum's character. And that's despite a lengthy and somewhat turgid screenplay given to sub-thread meanderings. I would have liked it better had Mitchum's haunting gotten more screen time. Anyway, the great Judith Anderson gets a sympathetic role for once that also turns out to have some depth. Given the year 1947, Pursued embodies two emerging fashions of the period—concern with psychological afflictions and couched on a background of noirish stylings. The trends characterize many post-war productions, and here even spread into that most conservative of Hollywood genres, the western.All in all, it's a suspenseful story, well acted, with impressive visuals, even though the screenplay could use some tightening up.

jc-osms Described in my TV film guide as a noir Western, I'm not about to argue. Unlike more typical director Raoul Walsh fare this western is far less about rollicking action than psychological drama and is thus a refreshing change from the norm.That said, Robert Mitchum's about the last person you'd think of being traumatised by childhood nightmares that dog him into adulthood, but elsewhere we get all his usual "ics" - laconic, sardonic, ironic and of course ultimately iconic. The story probably has too many twists and turns for its own good, with Bob's on-off again romance with Teresa Wright, she less convincing in her star-crossed lover role, hard to believe at the best of times. I also couldn't quite swallow badman Cullan's all-powering motive to wipe out every member of Mitchum's family, himself being the last survivor, while the reveal-all conclusion is over and done with too quickly and doesn't really deserve its build up.I've always been a sucker, mind you, for the then in-vogue use of dollar-book Freud stuff as Orson Welles once described it and other noir conventions like the use of flashback sequences and the persistence of fate are present and correct enhanced by a moodily effective Max Steiner score. No one else in the cast has Mitchum's charisma, but the debut turn by Mitchum's brother is well done and an effective counterweight to Bob's work. Best of all though is James Wong Howe's marvellous photography with wonderful deep perspective interiors and some exceptional night work, particularly the scene where Mitchum is drawn into the fatal gun-fight with his "brother".There's much to savour then, even if the weakest element is probably the story itself which is really just a typical noir plot backdated to the turn of the century.

Spikeopath Pursued is a very decent picture, very nicely shot, darkly imaginative, and dripping with Noir style, but if it's actually a Noir film then that really is up for debate, as is, if this film really is a Western? It wasn't quite what I was hoping for, and in truth it was a little too offbeat for the frame of mind I was in, but it's definitely one I'll go back to at some point to re-evaluate prepared with the awareness of what type of film it actually is. Robert Mitchum {excellent} is Jeb Rand, who is constantly pursued by assailants all his life. The film is told in flashback from his childhood tragedy when his family were all murdered, with him being the only survivor. Upon learning that there was indeed a survivor, the killers set about erasing Jeb from the planet, thus Jeb spends all his life trying to find out what the hell is going on, and just why did his adoptive mother raise him in the first place?An oddity of sorts because Pursued is thinly embracing a number of genres, stretching the elements of each strand to create a film that once viewed, leaves one very intrigued as to its purpose......... 7/10

justincward The theme of 'Pursued' is violent revenge. Don't forget that this was made shortly after WWII ended, so that the theme of men returning from combat, and the constant threat of death, was something everyone was conscious of; it's almost as if Jeb has PTSD (the 'black dog riding his back'), and death follows him, through no fault of his own, throughout the movie. The premise isn't complicated at all: a man brought up to love the daughter of his adopted family kills her brother - the fact that her family killed his is a bit irrelevant; see below. When Thorley reveals her intention to murder Jeb on their wedding night, I have to concede that it's a little unconvincing, but this is a limitation of Teresa Wright's performance, which is too wholesome - if she'd played it a bit sexier, more hot-blooded, she'd be much more believable. In terms of the 'operatic' plot, it's completely logical; two men have had a go at Jeb, now it's a woman's turn, and the stakes are even higher. Jeb phlegmatically welcomes death each time, and each time it turns out that he's the only one with the true killer instinct. The posse coming for Jeb is his real nemesis, and it's here that the happy (happy? Your mother-in-law shoots the guy who shot your father just as they're about to string you up?) ending lets the movie down; Thorley should have sacrificed herself to save Jeb and redeem herself and the Callums, but presumably this was thought too depressing for 1947. This would have dispensed with all the desperate last-minute exposition, too. The camera work is sublime, and Judith Anderson does a great Ma-in-law from Hell. I wonder what Elvis Presley would have made of the role...Mitchum shows just how far ahead of the 1950's beefcake field he was.