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.

those men, they're just so... *clenches fist* lusty

"Cinema is [Robert Mitchum's chin dimple]." - Jean-Luc Godard

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.

it's now or never.

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.

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.)

Robert Mitchum is my absolute jam!

👍 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

Mitchum crawling underneath his childhood home was pure cinema.

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.

-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.

6.5/10

A tomar la leche Chloe Zhao