Yellow Sky (1948)

[Novecento]

I thought you were region free?

[Novecento]

Seems DVD Beaver has now confirmed it to be region free.

[dave jenkins]

Great. Yeah, I'm (theoretically) region free, but maybe others on the board aren't? So, in case they're interested . . . .

[T.H.]

I watched the first ten minutes of the region free Koch digibook bluray and it looks beautiful. There's a lot more depth than I expected, everyone should jump on this. I got it shipped to the US for 22 USD, not bad considering I'd pay 40-45 if need be.

[Groggy]

Groggy review:

William A. Wellman enjoyed a long and varied career, helming such perennials as Wings (1927), A Star is Born (1937) and Beau Geste (1939). He hit his stride in the '40s with stark, unsentimental genre flicks like The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Battleground (1949). Yellow Sky (1948) fits snugly within that rubric, a simple but striking Western.

After a botched bank robbery, James Dawson (Gregory Peck) leads his outlaw band across Death Valley. They arrive at Yellow Sky, an abandoned mining town occupied only by a prospector (James Barton) and his tomboy daughter Mike (Ann Baxter). Dawson discovers the two sit atop a gold mine, which his gang's eager to plunder. But Dawson has other ideas. He'd really rather go straight, and starts developing an attachment to Mike. His lieutenants Dude (Richard Widmark) and Lengthy (John Russell) don't like that idea, initiating conflict.

Yellow Sky wraps a lot of story in its 98 minute runtime. There's a gritty sparseness reminiscent of Budd Boetticher all the characters and situations are stock, yet so expertly presented it's hard to complain. Dawsno starts as a rough character, roughing up his men and threatening to rape Mike, but a few heart-to-hearts and a shave later, he's your typical Western hero. Writer Lamar Trotti gives villain simple motives to drive their treachery: Dude just wants to justify the gang's hardship; Lengthy falls for Mike. It's  frontier myth splashed with a dose of harsh reality.

But Wellman's direction really stands out. Yellow Sky's opening is a self-contained gem, with Dawson's gang trekking across Death Valley. It's a remarkable sequence, presaging Wellman's later Westward the Woman: frontier life is no grand adventure but a wearying hardship. He makes ingenious use of the ghost town setting and handles mandated set pieces well, occasionally even subverting them (a band of menacing Apaches come and go without incident). Joseph MacDonald's photography adds a noir-ish feel, mixing stark shadows with neat optical effects (including a proto-Bond "gun barrel" scene). Along with the near-absence of music, it's a unique experience.

Gregory Peck successfully transitions from rapacious lout (shades of his Duel in the Sun character) to straight-edged hero. This convenient reform works because, well, he's Gregory Peck. Richard Widmark adds another pre-stardom dastard to his resume. Anne Baxter makes a convincing tough gal who never goes completely soft. James Barton can't help coming off as a Walter Huston manque - though this film came out the same year as Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Yellow Sky is a solid Western. The story breaks little new ground, but its efficient structure and foreboding photography make it worth a watch. 8/10

http://nothingiswrittenfilm.blogspot.com/2013/09/yellow-sky.html

[dave jenkins]

Excellent review, Grogs. Hmmm, that German Blu-ray is starting to tempt me all the more (especially since I could bundle it with the German Blu of Western Union). But there IS a UK Blu of YS, and it is also supposed to be playable in all regions. Does anyone know if the transfers are the same?

[dave jenkins]

US Blu on the way: https://twitter.com/KLStudioClassic/status/708339519653879808

[Moorman]

The conversation over in the Ride Lonesome thread about The Gunfighter, reminded me that i've tried to see this movie several times from a bad copy and could only get as far as the ranch and the gang trying to run the ranchers off their land.  I got interested in this movie specifically because i love The Gunfighter. I wanted to see Peck in another western.  I've got this on my purchase list.  Quick note. At the beginning of the movie, when the gang is in the bar admiring the painting on the wall. That scene is EXACTLY like the scene at the beginning of The Oxbow Incident. 

[cigar joe]

The conversation over in the Ride Lonesome thread about The Gunfighter, reminded me that i've tried to see this movie several times from a bad copy and could only get as far as the ranch and the gang trying to run the ranchers off their land.  I got interested in this movie specifically because i love The Gunfighter. I wanted to see Peck in another western.  I've got this on my purchase list.  Quick note. At the beginning of the movie, when the gang is in the bar admiring the painting on the wall. That scene is EXACTLY like the scene at the beginning of The Oxbow Incident. 

Yes very similar.

[Moorman]

Yes very similar.

 

I gotta get this film. I'm thinking that it MIGHT have the same bar that was used in The OxBow Incident and The Gunfighter.  I'm almost positive i saw it in at least 3 movies...

[Moorman]

Finally got a chance to see the complete film.  This was a pretty good American western.  Again, i love lean, uncomplicated plots and this delivered.  The movie starts fast with the bank holdup and chase.  It slows down somewhat to play up the gang admiring the prospector's daughter.  It picks up again when the gang tries to double cross stretch.  On a side note, i liked each character that was in the gang.  Each one gave a different element to the film.  Widmark was his usual self, slimy. 

One more thing, Cigar Joe,  no, this film doesn't come close to being as great as The Oxbow Incident, lol.

Cinematography- 2 points. This film has some beautiful on location shots thru out.  The black and white cinematography was superb.

Musical Score- .5 point.   Outside of the opening and closing score, there was no music.  That score was horrible.

Plot- 1.5 points.  I love plots that deal with morality.  It was pretty good.

Acting- 2 points.  Everybody was convincing in this film.  Very well acted.

Directing- 1.5 points.  Solid. I didn't like the played up admiration of the prospector's daughter. I felt it bogged the film down somewhat.

Overall  7.5 out of 10 points. 

[stanton]

One more thing, Cigar Joe,  no, this film doesn't come close to being as great as The Oxbow Incident, lol.

I think it is better, despite the weak ending.

[Moorman]

I think it is better, despite the weak ending.

If you are looking for your typical straight forward western, then yes, Yellow Sky is the better straight forward western. If you are looking for the better western FILM,  i don't think its even close. The Oxbow Incident is a masterpiece.  Heck, even Clint Eastwood said its his favorite western.  He ALWAYS mentions The Oxbow Incident when asked about his favorite westerns.

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-08-02/entertainment/ca-5558_1_western-films

Q: Have you always been a fan of Westerns?

A: When I was a kid there was no television, but you had Westerns on the second half of the bill in theaters a lot. I grew up watching all the John Ford and Anthony Mann Westerns that came out in the 1940s and '50s, John Wayne in all those cavalry kinds of Westerns and Jimmy Stewart. The B-Westerns too, the ones with Randolph Scott. Some of them were good, some were not so good, but we enjoyed them just for the adventure of it all. I grew up through a whole era of them.



One of my favorite films when I was growing up was "The Ox-Bow Incident," which analyzed mob violence and the power of the mob getting out of control. I saw it again recently and it holds up really well. I don't know how the public feels about those kinds of films, but I just felt it was time to do one again.

[stanton]

The Ox Bow Incident is of course a pretty good one too, but Yellow Sky is the more fascinating film. One of my 20 favourite westerns.

The Ox Bow Incident is a bit marred by being a message film with a bit too much talk. And too much studio sets. It is 8/10 for me, but Yellow Sky gets one more. Wellman made some more good westerns, and I probably prefer Westward the Women also over The Ox Bow Incident.

[Moorman]

The Ox Bow Incident is of course a pretty good one too, but Yellow Sky is the more fascinating film. One of my 20 favourite westerns.

The Ox Bow Incident is a bit marred by being a message film with a bit too much talk. And too much studio sets. It is 8/10 for me, but Yellow Sky gets one more. Wellman made some more good westerns, and I probably prefer Westward the Women also over The Ox Bow Incident.

I agree with this comment.  Yellow Sky IS a fantastic movie. I can see why Cigar Joe and yourself say its a better western than The Oxbow Incident.  Its a opinion thing.   The Oxbow Incident is kinda like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ( another Eastwood favorite) in that they are set in the west but have elements of other genres in them. ( As you already know).  

Me personally, if i wanted to show someone a example of a great western, i would not show them The Treasure of the Sierra Madre or The Oxbow Incident. I would show them Yellow Sky.  If i wanted to show them a example of a great FILM, i would show them Treasure or Oxbow...