Audience Member
Really good one right here. Highly recommend it James Welch, Henderson, Arkansas April 21, 2023.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
04/21/23
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Audience Member
Overacting on a grand scale.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
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Audience Member
When asked why he was drawn away from the trademark violence of his iconic work and towards an Edith Wharton novel of love, betrayal and high society, Scorsese responded that The Age of Innocence is ‘the most violent (film) I ever made'. I reflexively rolled my eyes at what I thought was a marketing trick to prick up the ears of middling-Scorsese fans that might otherwise swerve this kind of movie. I didn't get what Scorsese was getting at when I read the interview, or even when I watched TAOI, but I did sweating through one of MS's 125 essential movies: Duel In The Sun.
DITS is a bizarro-western, one existing in its own bubble without commenting or reflecting on the times it is made in, a freak western like Johnny Guitar or Terror in a Texas Town. There are gunfights, cowboys, the threat of modernisation etc, but this is decoration to a central brutal, warped and sadomasochistic tale of romance. The story follows Pearl Chavez, a beautiful biracial young woman sent to live with a rich relative on a gargantuan Texas cattle ranch, and is quickly caught between the affections of the McCanles brothers; the righteous older brother Jesse (Joseph Cotton), and the younger, violent rebel ‘Lewt' Lewton (Gregory Peck).
David Selznick envisioned this movie as his follow up, or one-up, of his blockbuster Gone With The Wind, but instead effectively wrecked his career after the project ballooned to over £8 million dollars, and 26-hours long. The film did turn a profit (thanks to an aggressive advertising campaign) but is considered a clunker, receiving an honorary place on Razzie's list of Most Enjoyable Bad Movies.
Duel In The Sun isn't an enjoyably bad movie, or even a bad movie, but it is an extreme movie, like The Red Shoes (which Powell / Pressburger would not appreciate, quipping DITS's screenwriter should be added to the body count of the film's climax). Camera movements are dynamic, the colour palette is oversaturated, and every emotion is overwhelming. DITS is a movie dialled to 11, but its most fascinating extreme is the emotional savagery.
The dramatic arc should be obvious: an inexperienced young woman's fate rests upon the influence of the Good vs Bad brother, she should be the rope in the tug-of-war for her affection until ultimately succumbing to the pull for good in the climax. But Jennifer Jones plays Pearl as anything but inexperienced. Her every move is like a cat unfurled on a cashmere rug by fireside, luxuriating in her own skin, dancing in her introductory shot with such allure that she entrances even her mother's lover. And while Pearl initially falls for Jesse, despite his sexless character and lack of reciprocation to her affection, this is merely lighting the fuse for Let's explosive emotional violence.
In one scene, Lewt jumps into a corral to break a stubborn horse bucking off the cowboys, going back again and again after being thrown to the ground, until he finally wrestles the wild animal into submission. Lewt does exactly the same with Pearl, he antagonises her, roughly kisses her whenever he wants, and terrorises her, like sitting on the edge of a pool where she has gone swimming, happily waiting until the evening's freezing temperature forces her scrambling naked for her clothes.
This is no rom-com where the heartless romantic interest is transformed by love, nor does the good guy eventually ride off into the sunset with the woman who has seen the error of her ways. Lewt and Pearl drag each other down, spiralling, all the way to a climatic and bloody end. The fault and fascination of DITS is that the couple are a deadly pair and a perfect match. No other woman could survive Lewt's brutality, and no other man could satisfy Pearl's lust. They are star crossed lovers with an ending equally bloody fatal and.
SPOILER AHEAD
Powell and Pressburger famously fervently argued over the ending of their masterpiece The Red Shoes. The issue was one of logic, Pressburger believed the ending should make logical sense, while Powell believed logic could be sacrificed for poetry. Powell won. DITS has a similar sacrifice in its climax. After Lewt near-fatally shoots Jesse, Pearl takes up a mission of vengeance to kill her lover before he comes back to finish off her ‘true love'. At no point does it feel believable Pearl has been harbouring a deep seated love for Jesse this entire time, nor is it logical that she would take on Lewt herself. But I am damn happy she did. The final duel between the lovers is pure poetry. It's a messy barrage of bullets with the couple crawling over jagged rocks to die in one another's arms, drenched in the hue of blood only technicolour can produce.
The savage lovers feel like a blueprint for so many killer couples that follow: Gun Crazy, Bonnie and Clyde, Natural Born Killers, and their ending made me yearn for another cut of the two out in the West, robbing banks, holding up trains, and riding off to the nearest hideout panting with excitement and lust. As it is, Duel in the Sun, or lust in the dust as it is nicknamed, is a bizarre marvel. An author-less grand soap opera that feels trapped by the limits of its time, and miles ahead in others. It is, as Scorsese has said, an essential movie, a fascinating film snuck into the 1940s that burns with passion and danger. To see it and know you are staring at the same oversaturated palette as a four years old Martin Scorsese, is to feel the seed planted in the auteur's brain, beginning to grow in the rays of the oversaturated sun.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
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Audience Member
I absolutely love this movie. So emotionally well made. The actors are perfect for the characters they portray.This is a must see western!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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steve d
The script is nothing special and the the production value is nonexistent.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Tom M
This one's tough to rate. Great cast. This would be the perfect western except for one thing. Spoiler alert. Jones' character, who wants to be a good girl from the beginning, just keeps being a bad girl over and over and over and over again. Sure, he's Gregory Peck, but get a hold of yourself ! It makes it hard to watch.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
04/06/20
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