a5c7b9f00b In 1885, a Texas Ranger travels to Canada to arrest a trapper who's wanted for murder and who's stirring up the Natives in a rebellion against the Canadian government.
Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation. Dusty falls for nurse April Logan, who is also loved by Mountie Jim Brett. April's brother is involved with Courbeau's daughter Louvette, which leads to trouble during the battles between the rebels and the Mounties. Through it all Dusty is determined to bring Corbeau back to Texas (and April, too, if he can manage it.)
If they allowed one-word reviews on this thing, that's all I'd need: hokey. Right from the beginning I found myself positively spellbound by the unabashed hokiness of the plot, characters and dialogue, not to mention the embarrassingly dated costume and production design. Every scene startled me - they'd come out with so many stupid lines, maudlin heroics and old-fashioned cliches (often of a racist, sexist or jingoistic nature, even down to my first genuine encounter with a stern, monosyllabic Indian chief) that I couldn't stop watching it. Of course, it doesn't have any real entertainment value; the story and the characters are impossible to care about, and most of the scenes are dragged out beyond all reason. But it might be worth your while to check it out anyway, if just to be thoroughly appalled.
De Mille just simply knew how to make films. Period. It's totally amazing that he is still the champ of all time.<br/><br/>A lot of all star casts flounder with weaker directors and scripts, but de Mille is epic.<br/><br/>This is story telling. The story here is based around Riel and the Mounted Police of Canada. We even begin with Riel, but soon the wing of the film takes the turn towards the big name stars.<br/><br/>The scenes with the two minor love interest characters are the most stunning. You know there will be a tragic end, but you aren't sure what the tragedy will be. Always the expert, de Mille knew that had he staged these scenes with the leading love triangle, we would not have the suspense. We would know they would turn out okay. Masterfully, he arrays them in a position of caring about the wild young beautiful couple, and their beauty is cinematic greatness, perfectly filmed and choreographed. Paulette Goddard, from her very entrance, is breath taking, and her beauty is perfectly enveloped with de Mille's cameras. Incredible, astounding, and unsurpassed to this day.<br/><br/>The spectacle of de Mille has never been surpassed, and neither has his directing of characters. As in UNION PACIFIC, it is the minor characters such as Overman and Tamiroff who take this up to the top notch. The comic relief here is one that we also see leading up to a Shakespearean style duel.<br/><br/>The characters and the story keep you riveted. This is a long movie, but it seems like it takes only a few minutes. The mixture of spectacle, action, comic relief, characters, suspense, romance, adventure, and perfect cinematography is the sought after recipe that wise directors will copy and jealous directors will foolishly ignore.<br/><br/>And the moron who put this on the 50 worst films of all time list, we have to wonder what hallucinogens he was on. This is one of the 50 best films of all time. THIS is a clinic. THIS is how to make a film.