Popular reviews

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  Review by Channing Pomeroy ★★★★★ 3

  “There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice.

  I don’t remember who I was or where I was bound.

  All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun and he was shot in the back.

  Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down.”

  — “Brownsville Girl” by Bob Dylan and Sam Shepard

  That wonderful line, “seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down,” tells us about the Dylan singing us this story and the movie that moved him. At one time Dylan must have felt much like Jimmy Ringo, the best there was, isolated by legend and with…

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★

  73

  A film that reconciles with regret, celebrity, and the reality of the myths created in the west. Quite lovely and understated.

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★½ 18

  At 35-years-old, you might envy a guy for going into early retirement. But in “The Gunfighter,” Gregory Peck makes every one of those trips around the sun look like an eternity he spent passing through hell. 

  Director Henry King’s Western is like a reverse “High Noon.” Which was, coincidentally, the role Peck was offered - and turned down - after “Gunfighter.” Similarly set over the course of one afternoon in a one horse town, “Gunfighter’s” build-up is not to a confrontation, but the hope of avoiding one. 

  King’s film works over the machismo of the genre. It mulls over what to do when an entire subsection of film depends upon the conflict from men getting into fights with other men.…

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 5

  "Well the trouble so far ain't been him demoralizing the town, it's the town demoralizing him. Some fella I hear just tried to demoralize him with a Winchester."

  One of the greatest western texts on honor and masculinity and how perception and reputation and mythology all misrepresent reality.

  Gregory Peck is The Gunfighter, the fastest gun in the West—but he doesn't want to be that anymore, and it becomes increasingly unclear that it was never a goal of his to begin with. But nevertheless, everywhere he goes he finds young, upstart little pipsqueaks who want to prove their worth by challenging him to a shootout. So when an arrogant kid draws on him in a saloon, Peck kills him in…

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  Review by Raphael Georg Klopper ★★★★½ 3

  A sorrowful wait for the chance of reconciliation

  ‘Early-revisionist’ is a term that may fall over-used, not to say redundant when used to some of the 50’s era Western that, in their own way, already started facing the genre as something away from the big heart-pounding evocative small-scale spectacles between the moral clash of good vs evil in a lawless time period. Henry King’s The Gunfighter being one of the greatest examples of such.

  Though I would complimentary argue that its own set “break of norms” that’s accomplished here, feel already very ahead of its time, in its cold lack of action and more lenient towards the dramatic angle than any care for gunfighting action – especially ironic hence the…

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  Review by Michael501 📺 ★★★½

  Films from 1950 - Film 12

  Disenchanted gunslinger Jimmy Ringo (Gregory Peck) is heading towards a reunion with his son, and, he hopes, a new life free of bloodshed. However, before he can reach his destination, he is confronted by a local hot-head who forces him into a shoot-out. The brothers of the young assailant vow to gain their revenge after Ringo guns him down in self-defence.

  This is another western from 1950 that I have thoroughly enjoyed. It has a tightly written script that’s about the perfect length, and it never got boring or outstayed it’s welcome. 
  Gregory Peck is outstanding, he plays a haunted man, trying to exchange his reputation for a simple quiet existence. This is further proof how was I wrong about older westerns.

  The Gunfighter is a well-written tightly constructed, tragic story filmed in stark black and white , and must be up there with one of Gregory Peck’s best films.

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  Review by eely 🌻 ★★★½ 1

  gregory peck: whips out his gun and shoots a man 
  me: alexa play “my heart belongs to daddy” by marilyn monroe

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  Review by Fabian ★★★★ 10

  Western Marathon | Film #26: The Gunfighter (1950)

  The Gunfighter is one of the most tragic tales of the western genre in that it deconstructs the myth of the celebrated gunslinger, likely the most recurring figure of the entire genre, who tries to circumvent his notorious reputation. A timeless statement on the side effects of celebrity culture and fake news, Henry King's film provides an argument that has not lost its value or its relevance during the past seventy years.

  Despite my usual indifference towards Gregory Peck's wooden style of acting, his presence works favorably in his recreation of the myth of the reputable western hero. He portrays the much-celebrated idol of western culture, except The Gunfighter reveals just how toxic the implications of such a concept are in the first place.

  1950 Ranked

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  Review by Jonny ★★★★

  Don't be a cowboy, stay in school
  
  That seems like a fitting tagline for The Gunfighter. A western about how it isn't what you do with your gun that makes you tough, but rather what you do with your life.

  While I do enjoy long films, I find it extremely admirable when a film can effectively condence it's entire message into a short runtime without losing any of the effect. The Gunfighter does that perfectly.

  It manages to be tense without overdoing it's action and it manages to be pensive without lulling you to sleep. A really tight package all around. Gregory Peck is also incredible here.

  The one issue I have is that there is one line near the…

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  Review by Steve G 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 ★★★★½ 10

  You Have 90 Minutes To Comply: The New Year Project

  According to my tags, the last time I watched a western (not including the recent Back To The Future Part III) was all the way back in July with Yellow Sky.

  Well that's just too long, isn't it? I guess certain projects have contributed to that quite significantly but as someone who loves westerns and grew up on them to a certain extent, that's a streak I certainly don't want to repeat. I might have to make my next project a western one, I think. The thing is that although I did enjoy a lot of the films that I watched during my October horror classics project, I'm generally reluctant…

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★

  "A big name, right on his tombstone."

  Fatalist despair cinema

  Ensnaring cycles of violence brought on by the toxic-masculine desire for reputation. Coming of age means being acknowledged by the Big Other, boys become men when they are seen and recognized and given a Name, but the tragic irony is that it's not until after these boys become men that they realize that the Big Other is not their friend and that their Name will only bring them trouble. Loss of innocence becomes not merely a descent from the state of grace but an ascent to something more insidious as well. Manhood is an evil burden. The cowboy who rides off into the sunset isn't the same as the one who rode into town, it's the next cowboy who heads for the horizon, destined for the same awful fate as all those who came before him.

  1950s | Westerns | Film Noir

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  Review by Andy Summers ★★★½

  There are collaborations between actors and directors that have become cemented in film history. Some directors have an affinity with certain actors, maybe they rose in prominence together or came from the same school of thought on how to make films? The longer a career, the bigger the pool of actors a director becomes involved with, but that trust and faith that develops between certain collaborations can last a lifetime. Scorsese has done it with several, from Keitel to De Niro, DiCaprio to Pesci, and Tarantino has his own inner circle too, and I can't imagine a Quentin film without Samuel L Jackson? Then there's Burton and Depp, Soderbergh and Clooney, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, Spielberg and Hanks, and…