What a HOOT! For out and out Hollywood History at its best this is the film for you. Absolutely laughable from start to finish. We get blue eyed Donna Reed as Sacajawea gazing like a cow at at Charlton Heston as William Clark. "Oh Bill!", "Oh Janey!" they croon. (Nevermind that Sacajawea actually made the trip with her baby and husband.) The insanely ridiculous climax of this affair takes the form of an ackward love triangle...in the Whitehouse no less! Yes, Sacajawea, wearing a stunning powder blue leather outfit to offset her eyes, does a non-existant turn in Washington D.C. vying for the hand of "Bill". Throw in non-existent conflicts with Indians, a non-existent near-courtmarshall of William Clark and, I'm not making this up, a giant rope net slung across the Columbia River by "savages" in an effort to slow our intrepid heroes and you've got a whale of a tale. When I wasn't holding my sides in laughter I simply stared at this puppy in slack jawed wonder. A must see.
Colourful Historical Adventure
Released theatrically in 1954, "The Far Horizons" is an entertaining film about the Lewis and Clark expedition at the turn of the ninteenth century, a pivotal event in the history of the United States. I suspect that historians will roll their eyes at the "Hollywood" version of this famously long, arduous but important expedition that ultimately ensured that America would reach from "sea to sea". Personally I have no problem with actual events being "enhanced" for the entertainment, as well as the enlightenment, of an audience.
President Thomas Jefferson (avuncular Herbert Heyes) has just completed the massive Louisiana Purchase deal with Napoleon, greatly expanding the territory of the United States. However, this vast area now needs to be explored and mapped. The President decides that his loyal secretary, Meriwether Lewis (steadfast Fred MacMurray), is the man for the job, along with a soldier experienced in fighting Indians, William Clark (a driven, intense Charlton Heston). The Lewis/Clark partnership gets off to a rocky start since both men are in love with the same woman, Washington socialite, Julia Hancock (long-suffering Barbara Hale--Della Street on TV's "Perry Mason").
Fortunately, these necessary but rather dull opening scenes soon give way to the expedition itself, at which point the film remains consistently engrossing. Of course, this new territory is by no means uninhabited--many Native American tribes have long established themselves, and regard the coming of the "white man" with great suspicion, even outright hostility.
Clark, a veteran of various "Indian wars", has little patience or sympathy for these people. It is Lewis who must use all of his diplomatic skills to gain their trust, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. They meet the Shoshone maid, Sacajawea (lovely Donna Reed), a prisoner/slave of an enemy tribe. After a few "hurdles" are overcome, she agrees to serve as their guide--as it turns out, the trip would not have been successful, and they would not have survived without her. Her intelligence and beauty soon melt Clark's hard heart, and Lewis finds that he has the distraction of a romance on his hands, as well as more hostile tribes and natural disasters to contend with.
There are many scenes in this film which are gorgeous--the natural beauty of America's plains, rushing rivers, lush forests and snow-capped mountains more than compensate for the hardships that our intrepid explorers must endure.
The DVD is presented in widescreen format with outstanding colour--the sound is mono--don't look for extras.
"The Far Horizons" is a rousing adventure that the whole family can enjoy. Mr. MacMurray, Mr. Heston and Ms. Reed are all highly watchable stars, and kudos to Paramount for releasing this lovely disc.
Nineteen thirty-nine is often proposed as the movies' halcyon year, and three reasons why were directed by John Ford: Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk. In that exalted company Drums... would have to be accounted "merely superb"--even if it's the best film ever made about the American Revolution and, oh, only about eighth-best picture of its year.
Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play newlyweds in New York's Mohawk Valley at the time of the Revolutionary War. That war is more a distant rumor than a direct concern of people with cabins to raise, crops to harvest, and firstborn on the way. When it comes to their valley, in the form of hitherto-peaceable Indians whipped up by a gaunt Tory with an eyepatch (John Carradine), life changes... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Claudette Colbert - Henry Fonda - Edna May Oliver Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were canceled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee--The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful.
Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlton Heston - Richard Harris Director(s): Sam Peckinpah DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Out of circulation for a quarter-century following the death of producer-star John Wayne, Island in the Sky is a tale of survival focused on the pilot (Wayne) and crew of a DC-3 forced to crashland somewhere in the uncharted Canadian wilderness, and the fellow airmen (Lloyd Nolan, James Arness, Andy Devine, Paul Fix) determined to find them before hunger and the 70-below winter do them in. The movie, set in the post-WWII era when military and commercial aviation were still intertwined, was written by bestselling novelist Ernest K. Gann and directed by William A. Wellman, an aviation-movie veteran whose Wings won the first-ever Academy Award (1927–28).
Wellman resolutely downplays the histrionics and conventional heroics; Wayne indulges in none of the macho... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Lloyd Nolan Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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