BACKLASH

US, 1956, 84 minutes, Colour.
Richard Widmark, William Campbell, Donna Reed, John Mc Intyre.
Directed by John Sturges.

A competent and entertaining western. It combines the usual western ingredients: Indians, cavalry, gunfighters. with a murder mystery. There is irony in the solving of the mystery.

Richard Widmark plays his usual competent and laconic hero. Donna Reed is a strong heroine. John Mc Intyre has a good role as Widmark's father. The film in directed by John Sturges, a director of action films at this time, most notably Bad Day At Black Rock. In the sixties he moved to bigger budget action films as The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. His later films were not as successful although were big budget: Ice Station Zebra, Marooned, The Eagle Has Landed.

1. An entertaining western? The popularity of the American western. the American heritage? The frontier?

2. How well did the film blend the western conventions with the mystery? The dead men, the gold the gunfighters? The lay, the wagon trains, the Indians and the outposts? The final confrontation of hero and villain? The shoot-outs?

3. Colour photography, musical score?

4. The basic plausibility of the plot: Jim Slater and his search for his father? Karyl and her search for her husband? Bonniwell and his betrayal of his companions, the robbing of the gold, his building up a cattle empire? The clash with Carson and the final gun fight? The brothers avenging their dead brother? The blending of these characters into the western atmosphere?

5. Richard Widmark as Jim Slater searching for his father's grave, his father's letter to his mother, the encounter with Karyl, his shooting the brothers? The information given, his search, the encounter with the Indians, the sergeant and the escape from the outpost, going with Karyl to Carson's, the encounter with the young cow hand gun-fighter, the encounter with his father, the discovery of the truth, the final shoot-out? Conventional, but substantial?

6. Karyl and her search for her husband, the initial encounters with Slater the possibilities of his being killed? Their teaming together? Her understanding the truth? The romantic interludes?

7. The build-up to Bonniwell and his identity, his exploiting the cattle range? His double dealing with the sheriff and his men? The irony that he should be the sixth man and the murderer? His wanting to own his son? The final shoot-out and his dishonesty?

8. The background of the conventional characters of the west both good and bad? the brothers and their vengeance. the search for gold, the law men, Carson and his ranch, the young gun fighter and his boasting, his double dealing, the benign sergeant with the information?

9. How enjoyable the conventional material: the pursuit of the Indians, the defence of the fort, the escape, the final gun fights?

10. The basic themes of the American west? American heroes, law and order, justice, greed?