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Pretty Good

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I have scanned the other reviews here of DITS and am flabbergasted as to how anyone in their right mind could vote this a "10." Although "gorgeously photographed," the best thing that can be said about this travesty is that all film students should study it to avoid its litany of mistakes. The first most obvious one is: You cannot remake "Gone With the Wind" -- which DITS producer (and screenwriter and occasional director and ultimate destroyer) David Selznick was obviously trying to do. In GWTW, Scarlett O'Hara had clear-cut goals: to get Ashley, yes, but more importantly, to survive. In DITS, poor "half-breed" Pearl (Jennifer Jones) has apparently nothing else to do but be sex bait for good brother/closeted homosexual Jesse (Joseph Cotten) and bad brother/moron POS Lewt (Gregory Peck). There is no one to root for in this movie because it is unclear what it is about. Is it about the sad life of Pearl, who has no one in her corner, except possibly Laura Belle (Lillian Gish), mother of Jesse and Lewt, and wife of the Senator (Lionel Barrymore)? Is it about the railways making progress across the United States and encroaching upon the self-made kingdom of the Senator? Is it about Jesse and Lewt as Cain and Abel? Is it a comedy with laughs provided by poor Butterfly McQueen as "Vashti" (and why on God's earth did they name her that?! Research it!!), who is phoning in her performance from GWTW? I didn't care about anyone for one second... except I did feel bad for Jennifer Jones. It is clear she was a very attractive woman. Why they felt compelled to cast her as a "half-breed," I don't know. In order to achieve her "look" they had to bathe in her a sort of cocoa powder and constantly light her to make her look like Lupe Velez after a harsh day in the sun. She was obviously directed to lower her voice and have an inner struggle of wanting to please any man who looked at her twice and to hold on to her virginity. But throughout the story, I kept asking myself: What does this woman do? What did she do before she arrived at the Senator's home, what did she do while she was there, and what could she possibly have hoped to have done if she left? Many reviews focus on her "awful" performance. But my take is: She was doing her job. She was treated like "trash" for the entire film, and, in this way, I felt for her. She also kept referring to herself as "trash" -- but... based on what? The idea that she "succumbed" to POS Lewt? Lewt -- what a fine character he was! He would kill anyone he wanted (Charles Bickford, the only person in the film who seemed to have any morals), and blow up trains in some sort of deluded dream that he was going to please his father. He had absolutely no redeeming qualities. He was NOT Rhett Butler, who may have been a gambler, but he was a man with feelings and some level of intelligence. We can see why Scarlett may have ultimately fallen for him. But for Pearl to "give in" to Lewt... it was all so pathetically sad and insulting and degrading. This movie made it crystal clear that women were either mothers (Lillian Gish), virgins (Joan Tetzel), slaves (Butterfly McQueen) or whores (Jennifer Jones). It was a man's world and women were just expected to figure it out on their own. It is really hard to watch this in 2017, for the above reasons, and also because this film is a big, meandering mess. Who cares about the cinematography when everything else is incomprehensible? Also, apparently Selznick argued with composer Dimitri Tiomkin that he wanted "real music"; no, what he wanted was the score to "GWTW" -- and, not to demean Mr. Tiomkin, his score is completely unmemorable, no doubt because he was trying to please Selznick. Finally, since it is impossible to believe for a nanosecond that Pearl could have ever possibly loved Lewt, the entire ending is ludicrous. Some people are lucky to strike gold ONCE; that's what Selznick did with GWTW. He was unable to come close with DITS (which perhaps should be known as DITZ), and was never able to again. All in all, an absolute mistake.

A truly spectacular motion picture the likes of which simply aren't made today. Selznick produced an unforgettable cinema experience with a vision so majestic it is almost too much to endure. Starting with a script that smolders with raw passion, King Vidor gets ultimate credit for directing what is simply a masterpiece after other directors proved to be overwhelmed by the scope of this project. The cast is uniformly superb and a group of finer actors, giving performances as grand as the movie itself, could never be imagined. Tiomkin's score is masterful in conveying the savage emotions that run wild across the screen and the cinematography is incredibly beautiful, with burning sunsets and stunning prairies, purple rocks bursting with color, and fiery, flashing gunplay. This is cinema as it was meant to be, alive and flaming, depicting the adventure and violence of the Old West in a way no other motion picture has ever equaled. The characters are simmering with emotion until the untamed hearts of the era finally explode, no longer contained by the flimsy restraints of civilization that are not yet strong enough for the wild wilderness. This is man at his most primitive, clashing with a law that is meaningless to him. Thundering posses of thousands are merciless as they try to bring order to chaotic vistas against which showdowns are illuminated. The mighty magnificence of Duel In the Sun is everything the West was and what we want it to be. This is a place where gunfire is the only language spoken by both men and women, the only words listened to coming from the barrel of a gun, with epitaphs written on the head of a bullet. Passions are laid bare in the dunes of sunbaked sand and love and hate blur into one. This is Duel In the Sun! It stands as an everlasting monument to a Hollywood that was once populated by producers and directors both bold and unafraid to make big motion pictures with huge themes and giant stars.

Producer David O. Selznick sought to surpass his blockbuster epic "Gone with the Wind" with director King Vidor's lavish but tawdry western "Duel in the Sun." This oater takes place on the sprawling Texas ranch known as Spanish Bit and concerns a half-breed Native American damsel, Pearl Chavez (Jennifer Jones of "Since You Went Away"), who stays in distress throughout the film's drawn out 129 minute running time. No, this sagebrusher is another white man versus the red man saga, but a white versus white with a lot of racism in the boil. Our poor heroine is the product of miscegenation. Inexplicably, her snobbish father Scott Chavez (Herbert Marshall) took an Indian squaw as his wife during a moment of weakness and has since regretted the act. Although she is pretty, the wife has an adulterous streak that pervades her personality like a cancer, and Scott refuses to tolerate her indiscretions. At the outset of the action, Scott catches his wife with another man and shoots both of them in cold blood. After he turns himself into the authorities, Scott suggests that not only should they hang him because he has confessed to the crime but also because he would have rather die than live in shame for the remainder of his life. This sets the stage for the rest of the action, and Pearl's journey of hardship that ultimately ends on a rugged stretch of parched desert with her lover and she shooting it out.While he sits in the calaboose awaiting his date with the hangman's noose, Scott learns that his gracious second cousin Laura Belle McCanles (Lillian Gish of "Intolerance") is willing to take Pearl in as one of her own. Pearl is surprisingly beautiful but extremely naïve about the ways of the world and from the moment that we see her first, you know that her life is going to end rather like her doomed mother. When she arrives at the sprawling McCanles ranch, she finds herself caught between Laura Belle's debonair oldest son, Jesse (Joseph Cotton of "Citizen Kane"), and the rowdy youngest son, Lewt (Gregory Peck of "The Yearling") as they compete for her attention. Of course, Lewt takes advantage of Pearl before Jesse can, and their torrid romance plays out to a disastrous conclusion in the desert, hence the title "Duel in the Sun." From the moment that Pearl arrives at Spanish Bit, the name of the McCanles' Ranch, she must contend with Lewt's lusty behavior and Lewt's father's racist comments about her ancestry. Laura Belle dotes on her and Jesse has nothing but kind words for her, but she struggles to fit in as one of the clan. The cinematography, credited to lensers Lee Garmers, Ray Rennahan, and Harold Rossen, is spectacular! The long shots of riding crossing the horizon are breathtaking. The art direction and set design are just as impressive. Selznick literally spared nothing for this production. Composer Dimitri Tiomkin wrote a marvelous orchestral soundtrack the underscores the drama and the tragedy. The cast is great, too, with Lionel Barrymore playing Senator McCanles, Walter Huston as the Sin-Killer, Harry Carey as Lem Smoot, and Charles Bickford as Sam Pierce. "Duel in the Sun" isn't a bad western. Epic moments occur throughout the action. The opening scene in a dance hall where Pearl's mother dances looks like a miniature production itself with loads of atmosphere. The showdown between Senator McCanles army of cattle drovers and the cavalry over the intrusion of the railway into his property is suspenseful as is his later accident. The problem is that none of the character is sympathetic. Pearl is essentially a hopeless victim, while Lewt is a worthless, no-account dastard, particularly after he guns down the one decent man who wants to marry Pearl. Nothing about Lionel Barrymore's patriarchal is sympathetic. He is a thorough-going bastard and a racist, too. Lillian Gish is sweet but she is confined largely to the house. Joseph Cotton's Jesse is admirable, but he never gets to show off his finer qualifies and seems more effete than effective. The finale between Pearl and a desperate Lewt is hardly the stuff of duels. Despite first-rate production values and a top-notch cast, "Duel in the Sun" ranks as an above-average but uneven oater.

David O. Selznick's misguided attempt to recreate the success of GWTW in a western setting. The film has pleasures to be sure but also some woefully terrible parts. On the plus side: the cinematography is gorgeous and some of the supporting performances are good, Lillian Gish and Charles Bickford come off best. However there are some fatal flaws: a meager story to pin two and a half hours of film on and an overly earnest tone are two big deficits but what really hurts the film the most is the complete miscasting of the two leads. Gregory Peck was a fine actor but he was also an icon of resolute decency, whereas other actors with that persona like Henry Fonda could occasionally play a villain convincingly Peck could not. His casting alone would not be so bad if it wasn't paired against the absurdity of Jennifer Jones as Pearl. While I'll admit to never being a fan of hers within a limited range she could be an okay actress when the role wasn't too demanding, for instance The Towering Inferno. Pearl Chavez is far outside that scope, the part isn't really that good to begin with, even an actress as skillful as Vivien Leigh would probably been hard pressed to make her real although Ava Gardner with her raw sensuality probably could have made her if not necessarily real at least convincing but Jones mistakes over emphasis with depth and Vidor's florid style of direction doesn't help her. Part of the blame probably rests with Selznick's famed smothering control and that fact he was determined to make Jones the greatest of all stars which resulted often in putting her in material for which she was not suited and away from her strengths as a performer. The film is entertaining in an often campy way but one viewing should be enough.