Watch The Tin Star For Free

How sad is this?

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Anthony Mann could direct the hell out of a western. "The Tin Star" is one of his underrated ones, though like most films in the genre, there's also something sleazy about the whole plot.The film stars the always lovable Henry Fonda as an embittered bounty hunter who rides into town to find a young sheriff, played by a well-cast Anthony Perkins, struggling to maintain law and order. As he was himself once a sheriff, Fonda decides to hang around town and help the young gun. Much of the film's best moments involve Fonda dispensing wisdom, offering advice, teaching Perkins to shoot, disarm men, shell out justice and keep the citizenry safe.The film is impeccably shot, with Mann's usual plays on perspective, symmetry (the film opens and closes with the same shot, but from different angles) and "depths of field". It's Mann's sense of slow, mounting tension, and his interesting compositional work (lots of low angles, forced perspectives and shots which stress a kind of three dimensional depth) which would influence Leone's style when shooting duels, showdowns and gunfights. The sheriff's office in the film, with its expansive windows which offer massive widescreen views of the film's town, is also special.The film has a subplot about racism, the mistreatment of Native American Indians and the ostracising of "half breeds", a trend which began to filter into westerns only in the 1950s. See "Broken Lance" for another early example. The westerns of Mann and other auteurs were always ahead of Ford in this respect. Still, the film's subplots about racism and outsiders "trying to belong" are undermined by the psychic ripples of its very Wild West mentality, in which we're made to grin with glee when cartoon bad guys push our buttons and are summarily gunned down. The film's climactic gunfight practically baits you into lusting after murder, and like most Westerns the film hinges on false choices; either a lawless, anarchic violence perpetuated by psychopaths, or tough guy justice, in which its the white man's burden to keep order with barrels and bullets. Shoot to kill, always, Fonda schools us, because then Chaos comes knocking. By the 60s, Westerns would evolve into fare like "Shenandoah" (starring Mann-Western regular, Jimmy Stewart), which is openly anti-interventionism, anti-combat, before the blood and guts pop-nihilism of the Leone, Peckinpah era, with their oh-so-attractive mixture of dumb nostalgia (a mourning for the passing of those "olden days") and mindless, purgative violence."The Tim Star's" score was by the great Elmer Bernstein. It's regarded by hard-core Western-fans as Mann's last classic Western.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

This is a fairly basic Western. The story line here is the veteran helping the young lawman learn to be a lawman who lives long enough to do a good job.Fonda is the veteran, and Perkins is the young lawman.Neville Brand is the bully, of course, who wants to be in charge.A couple of subplot romances.It's what Mann does with an ordinary script that makes this a triumph. The story is well paced, and exciting, and ends with a showdown scene that has got to be on any serious top ten of all time list. The camera angles and the dialog would make even modern "in your face" directors envious. It is a showcase demonstration that should be in every "Film Director" class.

¨This is the story of the ex-sheriff who'd worn it -till he'd faced one gun too many...the young , novice sheriff he had to teach to wear it- or watch to die and the boy who lived only to wear one of his own ! .. and 40 dollars a month -that's what they gave you for protecting people who ran like rabbits when the going got roguish ! ¨ . The picture deals with a beginner young marshal ( Anthony Perkins ) who persuades veteran bounty hunter (Henry Fonda) to help him to rid a little town of bandits . Meanhile the old gunslinger falls in love with a widow (sensitive acting by Betsy Palmer) who has a half-breed son (agreeable Michael Ray) .This excellent , meaty Western contains interesting plot , a love story , shootouts and is quite entertaining . This outstanding Mann Western balances action , suspense and drama . It's a classic recounting about teaching an unexperienced marshal in charge of an older veteran ex-sheriff . The highlights of the film are the climatic showdowns , the educating scenes between master and pupil along the river and when the medic's carriage- very well performed by John McIntire- rattles back into little town while the citizens are waiting his arrival . Top-notch Henry Fonda as embittered gunfighter and magnificent Perkins as green lawman . The traditional story and exciting screenplay by Dudley Nichols won Academy Award nominations . Wonderful cinematography in black-and-white is superbly caught by cameraman Loyal Griggs . Atmospheric and lively musical score by the classic Elmer Berstein . This is another superbly powerful triumph from Perberg and George Seaton , producers of ¨The country girl¨ and ¨The proud and profane ¨. The motion picture is masterfully directed by Anthony Mann who realized various Western masterpieces such as ¨The furies , Devil's doorway and Man of the West ¨ and several with his habitual star, James Stewart, as ¨Winchester 73 , Bend the river , The far country , Man of the West ¨. Rating : Above average ; in spite of absence his ordinary star , Stewart, being perfectly replaced by Fonda , ¨Tin star ¨ is probably one of the best Western in the fifties and sixties . Well worth watching and it will appeal to Anthony Perkins and Henry Fonda fans .

The Paramount Perlberg-Seaton production THE TIN STAR (1957) is an unfairly underrated and for the most part forgotten fifties western. By no manner of means an action packed sublime example of the genre it nevertheless deserves reappraisal for it is a splendid character driven drama set in the west. The Acadamy Award nominated screenplay by Dudley Nichols just crackles with sparkling dialogue and situations. Beautifully photographed in glorious black & white Vista Vision by the great Loyal Griggs (the only Oscar winner from "Shane") it was directed with considerable flair and panache by Anthony Mann. It is curious that here Mann was making a western without the services of his friend and favoured western hero Jimmy Stewart. This time Henry Fonda - Stewart's own best friend was given the lead. Fonda is just perfect in an inspired bit of casting! Always a solid performer Fonda was one of the great stars of Hollywood during the forties, fifties and sixties. Perhaps never gaining the glamorous status of Gable, Cooper or Flynn he nevertheless always displayed winning character portrayals and was never known to give a bad performance. His laid back softly spoken reserved style with that twinkle in the eyes is ever appealing.In THE TIN STAR he plays Morg Hickman a bounty hunter who, at one time, was a sheriff. He arrives in a town to collect a bounty on a dead outlaw and comes in contact with a young inexperienced deputy Ben Owens (Anthony Perkins). Since bounty hunters are unwelcome in the town Hickman is shunned and asked to leave at first but when he helps out the deputy in a shootout with the town bully Bogardus (Neville Brand) Owens inveigles him to stay and coach him in the finer points of going up against law breakers. He finds lodgings with an attractive widow Nona Mayfield (Betsy Palmer) and her young son Kip (Michael Ray) and after a while strong feelings develop between them (Looking admiringly at her in one scene he quips "Kip is a lucky boy"). A fine set piece ends the picture with the capture of two brothers who have killed the popular town doctor (John McIntire). With the killers behind bars the bad element of the town - led by Bogardus - attempt to storm the jail to lynch them but armed with a shotgun ("a shotgun speaks louder to a mob" advises Hickman) the now well trained deputy faces up to the errant crowd and kills Bogardus. The final scene sees Hickman leaving town in a buckboard to start a new life elsewhere but he is not alone - by his side is Nona and her son.Supplying the music and adding greatly to the atmosphere of this most pleasing western drama is Elmer Bernstein. THE TIN STAR was one of the composer's early western scores. There is an exciting main theme first heard in its broadest form under the titles. Then there's a playful cue for the antics of the young boy and tender music underscores the film's softer moments. Of course with THE TIN STAR Bernstein was only three years away from what would be his greatest success in a western with his rattling score for "The Magnificent Seven" (1960). His memorable Coplandesque Americana approach would not only thereafter set the standard but would also set the tone for future American western film scores.