Synopsis
A Fast Buck... A Fast Bronc... A Fast Thrill!
Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of this rough sport.
1952 Directed by Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish
Retired rodeo champion Jeff McCloud agrees to mentor novice rodeo contestant Wes Merritt against the wishes of Merritt's wife who fears the dangers of this rough sport.
Nicholas Ray makes Western machismo into melodrama in “The Lusty Men.”
As in “Rebel Without a Cause” and “In a Lonely Place,” the director here uses high emotion and theatricality in service of dismantling the stiff upper lip of masculine expectation.
Robert Mitchum plays Jeff McCloud, a rodeo star (of sorts) who meets the bad end of a bull and finds himself at the finish of his paydirt days. Instead of hopping back into the ring himself, he mentors greenhorn Wes Merrit (Arthur Kennedy) to the stature of rodeo hero.
Mitchum learned how to perform a sizeable amount of rodeo tricks himself in preparation for the role. One of the key tactics - freezing when thrown from a bull -…
"Chicken today, feathers tomorrow," the independent artist’s existence. Nicholas Ray has a beautiful beginning, roughly in five swift strokes: The Brahman bull lumbers into the rodeo corral and snorts straight into the camera, which tilts up to reveal Robert Mitchum about to mount the beast, five seconds later he’s trampled in the dirt; dissolve to fanfare and dispersing crowds; dissolve to the discarded man limping out of the arena, alone with the trash and dust all around. Where have all the cowboys gone? Into the crawlspace under the dilapidated ranch, "looking for something I thought I’d lost." (Wenders re-creates the moment almost verbatim in Kings of the Road.) Sore after two decades on the saddle, the wanderer is ready for…
It's about Mitchum's broken dreams then it's about him seeing himself in a younger guy then it's about them kind of falling in love then it's about the wife being jealous then it's about driving down the highway at night then it's about the wife being jealous again but maybe in love with Mitchum then it's about the bromance again but maybe it's really all about the bull smashing its face into the camera, ya know?
Macho men and their death drive. Sort like one made a Hawks movie and replaced all the near juvenile stoicism with an acknowledgement of men’s damnation.
What an unusual film. Creeps up in unexpected ways. The dialogue really snaps against a backdrop of very physical work and images. Was surprised that it was the final act where Mitchum's romantic intentions come to the forefront that the film really clicked with me. Hayward is one of the actresses who can really match Mitchum's soft-faced, broad-shouldered brutalism with the same intensity. The backdrop of bucking beasts is such a twisted backbone of restrained passion. Love party images with the camera on the ground, bringing us intimately into the chaos of celebrating another escape from death. There is also magic to the way that Ray is able to make open spaces feel claustrophobic and closed rooms feel expansive. Dreams might be able to transform physical realities, but they can't protect you from a bull.
A complete control over the mythic masculine drive and a quietly subversive femininity -- Ray takes out the egomaniacal subtext throughout the western genre with one swift blow here. Possibly my favorite Mitchum, possibly my favorite Hayward, possibly my favorite Ray.
When the addictive taste of lust hits the tongue, the inextinguishable appetite is never satisfied, the yearning is so demanding it takes control. The unquenchable thirst for life is one of the most uncontrollable desires, in wake of its wrath comes cruelty, pain and jealousy.
Jacques Rivette: 'On Imagination'
('De I'invention', Cahiers du Cinema 27, October 1953)
Without any doubt, the most constant privilege of the masters is that of seeing everything, including the most simple mistakes, turn out to their advantage rather than diminishing their stature. If you are now surprised to see me give the benefit of this law to Nicholas Ray's latest film it means you are ill-prepared to appreciate a work which is disconcerting and asks for, not indulgence, but a little love. Far from wishing to excuse it, you must love this lack of artifice, this very pleasing indifference to decors, plasticity, evenness of light, the rightness of a supporting role, and you must recognize even in the clumsiness of…
Rodeo melodrama deconstructing the ideal of the freedom of the cowboy in a money-driven world, this film has all the potent undertones of Ray's best. Resentment and love, isolation and confidence, possession and acceptance counterbalance each other neatly as a love triangle remains nebulous in a way--there's emotional connection there, there's intention, hell there's a few physical interactions, but the story is never so much a question of who will love whom. It's as focused on the relationship between the men as the men and the woman, and it feels like the question is just whether they all dissolve or not. Not who with whom, but will they survive? (God what an evocative title this has; rodeo as metaphor for sex is as blunt a metaphor as there is--that's what makes it work.)
👍 La fotografia è superlativa, soprattutto la prima parte con i colli in lontananza e i fienili hopperiani
👍 Bella la resa dei rodei
👍 La Hayward espressiva e coinvolgente
👎 Ma queste donne che vengono sempre paragonate a buoi
👎 Un film non troppo coinvolgente
Nicholas Ray makes Western machismo into melodrama in “The Lusty Men.”
As in “Rebel Without a Cause” and “In a Lonely Place,” the director here uses high emotion and theatricality in service of dismantling the stiff upper lip of masculine expectation.
Robert Mitchum plays Jeff McCloud, a rodeo star (of sorts) who meets the bad end of a bull and finds himself at the finish of his paydirt days. Instead of hopping back into the ring himself, he mentors greenhorn Wes Merrit (Arthur Kennedy) to the stature of rodeo hero.
Mitchum learned how to perform a sizeable amount of rodeo tricks himself in preparation for the role. One of the key tactics - freezing when thrown from a bull -…
GRITTY & REALISTIC RODEO DRAMA...IT'S MAGNETISM FOR MACHO-MEN & THE WONDER FROM THEIR WOMEN
Director Nic Ray along with Headliners Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward with Arthur Kennedy Manage to Make One of the Best Rodeo Movies.
The 3 Leads are Cast with a Certain Fit, However Kennedy may seem a Bit Old to be a Rookie.
Mitchum on the Other Hand, Younger than Kennedy, had to Hang Up His Saddle because of the Inevitable Injuries Inherited in the Grueling Sport.
Susan Hayward, the Wife of Rancher Kennedy is Semi-Satisfied with Their Semi-Comfortable, but Hardly Luxurious Life.
Kennedy is Itching for More.
After Teaming Up with Mitchum, a Former Popular Champion, Kennedy Gets the Fever and Off the 3 Go Riding to…
Cómo "On Dangerous Ground" podría durar 2 horas y dura 1 hora y veinte, y esta dura 2 horas y debería durar 1 hora y veinte.
Criterion 2021 Challenge
Prompt: Western
Surprisingly compelling movie about the rodeo circuit. Jeff (Robert Mitchum) is a former rodeo star who ends up coaching Wes (Arthur Kennedy), a ranch hand whose dream it is to buy a farm with his wife, Louise (Susan Hayward). The goal is to get a stake through entering rodeo events, quit, and then fix it up and have their own place.
Now I like all of these actors, but I can't say the rodeo has ever interested me at all so it was a pleasant surprise that this was fascinating and I thought well done. I have no idea how accurate it is a depiction of this kind of world in the 1950s, but it worked for me.
Acting was solid. Ray manages to keep the direction looking fresh, especially in the tight confines of the trailers, barns, etc. Well worth the $2.99 I paid to watch this.
So much of The Lusty Men resembles a documentary of bull riding, bronco busting, and calf tying. Ray holds both ideas at once, the other being a reflective film on midlife crisis, marriage of convenience, domesticity as desperate security, the perils of the rebel life, living and dying for the ego and the money, sexual tension, a revolving love triangle, and I could go on, but I’m already well past the “both ideas” I started the sentence with. These men have a lust for life that doesn’t adhere to responsibility of any kind. Warning to all you Howard Hawks manly men: this is a cautionary tale. It is such a somber film, capturing the wide open spaces of San Angelo,…
-horse is a lot like woman, minds you a little bit for love, but a lot more for fear.
-its easier to get a horse afraid than a woman.
-ever thought you could fall in love with someone else?
Resulta un poco molesto ver una película con un solo personaje interesante. Obviamente me refiero al personaje del tipazo definitivo Robert Mitchum, contemplativo, quizás crepuscular. En paralelo (en realidad en perpendicular) a la historia de un cowboy de rodeo que ya no puede competir, nos vemos obligados a atender a las desavenencias de una pareja de boludos. Sentí a Ray desmotivado con el material, una lástima.
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