Smoreni Zmaj Top 10 best western movies of all time?! Nope. In my opinion, just an average movie. After Hawks' "Bringing Up Baby", "His Girl Friday", "Scarface", "The Big Sleep"... this comes pretty much as disappointment. :(6/10

JohnHowardReid Most people are going to enjoy this film. The story builds up well with some wonderful action set-pieces and montages, even though it could certainly benefit from further trimming. Coleen Gray making too much of her one scene would be twice as effective at half the length; and as for Joanne Dru, she doesn't belong in the film at all. True, she makes an extremely late entrance, but the story got along quite effectively without her. All she does is to slow down the pace and dissipate most of the tension. Mind you, the plot has some gaping holes. For instance, Wayne claims that he's too poor to buy some sacks of flour and few pounds of beans, yet he has no trouble engaging a band of badmen and buying them ammunition! And what a neat co-incidence that one of the pursuing Indians was wearing that charm bracelet that belonged - of course - to Wayne's mother! Wayne is his usual ruggedly roughshod self, Clift is less neurotic than usual, Brennan minus more teeth is more talkative than ever and even has an off-camera commentary as well! A fascinating assembly of support players includes the Careys, father and son (though the two never meet), Tom Tyler (briefly glimpsed), Paul Fix as a whinger saved from a hanging and Chief Yowlachie surprisingly amusing as a comic relief assistant cook and bottlewasher!

SusanJL Wayne was great, a flawed hero, and the way they aged him and he acted made it so convincing he was supposed to be around 60 by the movie's end. Clift was great, too. But that ending - yikes!!!! Totally unconvincing!! Clift and Wayne grinning at each other minutes after almost killing each other, with no concern for Cherry, whom Wayne just shot??? Bizarre!!! But otherwise great film. I have given this film more thought, and this is how I would have made it. I would still have Wayne livid when Clift takes over the drive, but NOT threaten to kill him. I would have Wayne tell Clift he was going to show up and confront him some day, leaving it as a veiled threat of some type of retribution. But when Wayne shows up at the end, I would let the surprise be that Wayne realized Clift did the right thing and - like when Jacob and Esau meet in the Bible - they make up. I would just have Wayne shoot Cherry's gun out of his hand and not really hurt him. Then I'd have Wayne make a dramatic speech to the effect that "it takes a big man to admit when he's wrong and I'm a big man" and then show Clift how the brand will be changed to include him with the M.

guisreis This great film is an archetypical Western. Trust depends on a peculiar game of bravery and intimidation. Taking risks is always part of this game of men and cattle. Fear and punishment are the law. Men cannot accept they are wrong, as imposing themselves is essential for keeping authority. Authority is perceived as necessary in a place where the strong gets what he wants and the weak is killed if he does not accept to obey. John Wayne has one of his best roles: an authoritarian and stubborn cowboy and gunman. There are quite nice characters, besides Wayne's Tom Dunson, each one representing one archetype: Monty Clift is the good and handsome gunman Matt Garth, Walter Brennan is the funny elder Groot, and John Ireland is the arrogant and dangerous Cherry Balance. The movie is also very well filmed, with quite impressive cattle footage. In my opinion, this is one of the best Westerns made in the United States in the classic times of this genre, before the 60's and its many reinventions: perhaps only High Noon and Ox-bow Incident are better.