Ride the High Country | 
| Director: Sam Peckinpah
Actors: Randolph Scott, Joel Mccrea, Mariette Hartley, Ron Starr, Edgar Buchanan
Studio: MGM (Warner)
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $4.99
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Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 12158
Format: Color, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6302032245
UPC: 027616085030
EAN: 9786302032246
ASIN: 6302032245
Theatrical Release Date: 1962
Release Date: April 25, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: VHS and cover are in excellent condition. Privately owned - not an ex-rental. Media mail shipping. Refund upon return of video if not satisfied.
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Amazon.com essential video
Next to The Wild Bunch, this may be director Sam Peckinpah's best movie--all the more extraordinary because it was shot almost a decade before his big breakthrough. Peckinpah cannily cast two aging stars of cowboy films--Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott--in their only film together, playing a pair of over-the-hill cowboys who take a job guarding a gold shipment on its journey down from a mining camp. A reflective tale about two men past their prime, looking back on the paths their lives have taken and the choices they've made, it features a stirring finale and terrific performances by McCrea and Scott. It also features, in her first movie role, a very young Mariette Hartley. Look quickly and you'll see Warren Oates, James Drury, and L.Q. Jones. --Marshall Fine
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 DVD, please. September 2, 2004
skytwo (Boston)
58 out of 61 found this review helpful
This is one time that I have to take exception to the house reviewer. Yes, it's an essential piece of American cinema. Yes, it's one of Peckinpah's best films. But the review overlooks so much.
This was the cinematic swan song for two more-than-noteworthy stars of quintessentially American movies. Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott both turn in magnificent performances, as do the extras-- notably Peckinpah regular (and perhaps the most under-appreciated American actor ever to grace the screen) Warren Oates. And you don't have to look fast for him, folks. He's a big part of the film.
In a way, Ride the High Country was deconstructionist before Unforgiven ever hit the big screen-- by thirty years or so. Like Eastwood's hit, the film manages to express reverence for and contempt of the mythology of the American West at the same time. All the stock players are here, but never presented as stereotypes. Bankers, prostitutes, prospectors, missionaries, young bucks, lawmen, hucksters and outlaws. Anyone familiar with westerns knows the drill. Only this time it's different.
Though recognized as a genius, Peckinpah is just as often derided as a misogynistic Hemingway-wannabe these days. What a shame. This film is no macho fantasy. Instead, it's a look at the seemingly inevitable (and lamentable) decay of principles that results when high-minded people find themselves in a situation and a setting that doesn't conform to their preconceptions of how things ought to be (Straw Dogs, anyone?)-- and what happens when they 'return to normalcy' in the wake of atrocity. When everything's on the line, one might just be faced with the sort of challenge to faith (in anything held dear) that we all dread confronting. Stand true and lose it all, or sell out and win? Or is there an easy out? This would be a theme throughout the director's work, but here it is ingeniously presented in an ostensibly straightforward horse opera that cleverly plays on viewer expectations. What appears to be another entry in a breezy, escapist genre ultimately reveals itself to be a meditation on just how difficult it is to ever escape the travails of life. And how much it can cost to achieve that same goal.
As much as the film points an accusing finger at the western, there are many ways in which the director expresses his own sense of hope that such fairy-tale wishes could come true. Guess I'll have to settle for the Police Academy box set while I wait for this one to turn up on DVD.....
One of the Finest Westerns Ever Made January 7, 2006
Matthew J. Gallagher (Wilton, Connecticut United States)
29 out of 30 found this review helpful
This is what they mean when they say, "they don't make them like that anymore." With all the praise inexplicably heaped on a piece of crap called "A History of Violence", a ridiculous, mindless film, based on a barely literate cartoon strip, you often wonder exactly what has happened to American films - which used to be the envy of the world for their craftsmanship and acting. "Ride the High Country" was apparently considered a very good little "B" movie in its first release - but time and care now reveals it to be an American classic. Two terrific actors, in their glorious twilight, working with an upcoming director, team up for a beautifully crafted, gorgeously filmed and scored, Western about character and justice. TCM has been showing the widescreen version of this gem for a couple of years - and now here it is where it belongs - on DVD for every true film fan to see. Forget Tarantino's mindless violence. Forget the quick cuts and lack of storytelling talent of practically every film director in the business right now: this is how it is done, and the director of this film never did as well (he too lapsed into cheap "slow motion" violence and other inhuman traits as his own film career lurched on). Here we have a story told with depth and clarity - and HUMANITY. Scott and McCrea are two great stars who know something about manhood, decency, wit, grace, and strength. Where are these kinds of films now? Where are the male actors who can inhabit these roles with some degree of class, grace, and strength? Why can't ANYONE do a simple, clear, human Western, as it was once done, which often had so much to say about contemporary times ("High Noon," as one example)? At least we have this and you can't argue with it: a spare, stunning Western, with one of the great climaxes in film history. A MUST!
One of the very best...of all time June 9, 2002
B. Cathey (Wendell, NC United States)
16 out of 19 found this review helpful
When this film came out in 1962 I went with my Dad to see it at the movie theater. Its images, its words, its story have remained with me ever since....Sam Peckinpah's RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is one of the finest western adventures in cinematic history. Everything---the superb acting from old time veterans Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, the crisp and pointed dialogue, the camera work (and film editing), and the never-overdone elegiac underlay of farewell and warning, not just about the "old west" of the motion pictures (of the 1930-1960 period), but about the reality of the American frontier and the American spirit--adds up to excellence. If two actors truly symbolized the Old West of public imagination, certainly those actors were Randy Scott and Joel McCrea. How fitting that RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY should be their "so long, pardner" to the genre! In 1962 the classic Western was dying, the genre changing, just as America was changing. The spirit of American innocence and optimism was subtly being transformed--while we longed for the return of Randy Scott, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and moral certainties, Vietnam would soon make us a nation of cynics and skeptics. Thus, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is more than just a salute to two great Western actors and their farewell to that enduring American film creation the classic Western; RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY tells us, through two of the most admired cowboy actors of all time, about ouselves, about changing American society, and presents us with a classic morality tale. Steve (McCrea)Judd's remarkable words to Gil (Scott) Westrum, when Westrum gently suggests they might skip out with the gold they are charged with transporting, says it all: "All I want to do is enter my house justifed." It was the classic, optimistic American dream that motivated the pioneers of the old West just as it did the pioneers of Virginia or Massachusetts, the foundation of our society "to enter our house justified," to make a just and fair life for ourselves in a new land. RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY reminds us, this one last time, of our original national purpose, and shows us the pitfalls along the way--not just temptation but the "times" that threaten us. In the end Westrum (Scott) returns (repents of his deviation from the moral course) to Judd's rescue...and Judd's response is: "I knew you would [return] all the time." Perhaps it is indeed too late, for Judd dies, alone, in one of the most amazing scenes in all cinema. Does his fervent dream of a "house justified" die with him? Does the older America of undbounded optimism and a moral code disappear with his departure and the end of the western frontier---and the end of "old time" Westerns? Peckinpah does not answer, and we are left to ponder. But one thing IS certain...we are never the same after watcbing this marvelous film.
About darn time! November 17, 2005
William W. Miller (Sparks, NV United States)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
One of the best westerns made. It was released on laser disc a long time ago. Now they're finally getting around to DVD. Two venerable stars go out with a blaze of glory in this tale about the end of an era. Both in terms of time and setting of the film and also the end of Hollywood turning out westerns as standard movie fare. And as to the latter, I am sincerely regretfull. You have adequate folks laying out the story line here, suffice it to say it's about two old friends who have a falling out over a gold shipment they're transporting and their commitment to get it to the rightful owner, complicated by the marriage gone wrong of a young lady that joins them along the way. Just know that's it's done with class and a bit of reverence for the genre. As it should be.
Please release this masterpiece on DVD!!!!!! April 11, 2005
Adam W. Kelley (Winter Park, FL)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
"Ride The High Country" has got to be the best overlooked Western. Period. I am an enourmous fan of Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" and this is his "other" true masterpiece. The performances by McCrea and Scott are perfect - nothing feels forced. The scenery is a pleasant change to the beautiful landscape of Califonia. But what really holds the film together are its themes and values. "All I ever want to do is enter my house justified" - wow. Almost poetic at times. It breaks my heart when Elsa says, "My father says there's only right and wrong - good and evil. Nothing in between. It isn't that simple, is it?" and Judd responds simply "No, it isn't. It should be, but it isn't." I am grateful for Turner Classic Movies and the fact that they show this wonderful forgotten gem in letterbox. The print is looking weary, though, so it's high time we preserve this classic. It is one of the top ten best Westerns ever. PLEASE RELEASE THIS MASTERPIECE ON DVD!!!!!!!!!
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