Some things I liked some I did not.

Purely Joyful Movie!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It vies with The Naked Spur as the best Stewart-Mann western, although Bend of the River and Winchester '73 are also excellent. What I particularly like about this Stewart-Mann western is Stewart's hero is presented as flawed, often maimed psychologically, and never more so than here. The hero is superior but not superhuman. He's very human. Jeff Webster is taciturn, even righteously egotistical. Which, I guess, means Stewart is playing against type and does so expertly. Jeff's credo is totally solipsistic: he'll look out for himself (and in a pinch his sidekick Walter Brennan) and no one else. Of course, there's a price to pay. In a sense, Stewart's take and that of the movie is on It's A Wonderful Life. Only here Jeff Webster gets to see the effects of his willful withdrawal from the community in real time. Definitely top-notch.

James Stewart, Walter Brennan, John McIntire, Ruth Roman, Jay C. Flippen, Corinne Calvet, Steve Brodie, Harry Morgan, Robert Wilke, Jack Elam, Kathleen Freeman - lots of familiar names and faces in this western.It was my first look at THE FAR COUNTRY (1954) and I was very impressed. The story was terrific, acting solid and the scenery excellent (on location in Alberta, Canada). It was great story-telling. with the twist or two to surprise you. The ending featured a couple of more surprises. It didn't hurt that Anthony Mann was directing, too. He and Stewart worked a number of movies together.Here's an interesting tidbit: the horse in this movie was the same one that Stewart used in 16 other movies!!!!! He and this horse were great pals and the horse was an excellent actor. Really.....that's what I read, and I thought that was kinda cool. In fact, there is an example of it in the final dramatic scene in this film.

No need to recap the plot. The movie's an excellent western, maybe too complex for many folk's liking, but still it has all the necessary scenic and dramatic ingredients. I take Jeff's (Stewart) grouchy self-reliance as a commentary on the limits of rugged individualism. It's clear that his uncompromising trust only in himself has made him a successful cattleman. But it's also put him in a position to lose it all to the crooked Gannon who, unlike Jeff, has plenty of help even if it is hired. Jeff's problem is he's stood by uninvolved while his potential allies were subordinated by Gannon. So now Jeff risks fighting a loner's losing fight against much bigger odds unless he changes his ways.Mann's westerns are a long way from Ford's classical mythology of the old west. But Mann's characters are both more realistic and interesting. For example, note how Ford's expert pictorial eye uses beautifully composed landscapes mainly as an aesthetic backdrop, whereas Mann integrates his pictorial eye into heightening the dramatic scenes. It's the difference between an aesthete and a dramatist. Anyway, Mann's westerns need no lengthy rationalizing. They speak for themselves. And frankly, to those who complain of Mann's (the writers') apparent disdain for historical or geographical accuracy, I, for one, don't go to movies to collect facts. For facts, I go to books instead.

This is one of my least favorite films that James Stewart made during the 1950s. Why? Well, because unlike most of his western characters, this one is NOT a good guy. In fact, he's completely amoral and indifferent to the suffering and injustices done to others. He only acts when he personally is involved--even allowing those close to him to suffer immensely.The film is set in Alaska and the Yukon during the gold rush of the late 19th and early 20th century. Although the setting is different, the film is essentially a very traditional western. There is the usual formulaic bad boss-man (John McIntire) who tries to take over the land and cheat all the poor people out of their land--probably the most common theme in westerns. And, of course, he has his evil sidekicks. And the hero, of sorts, has his own sidekick--the always reliable Walter Brennan. In fact, it's all so very formulaic that I won't bother to elaborate further.The bottom line is that there is nothing particularly new here and Stewart is almost unlikable! Because of this, despite nice location shooting and decent production values, this is a rather joyless film. Watchable, but not especially fun.