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Just perfect...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

hyped garbage

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Produced and directed by Howard Hawks, based on the novel of the same name by A.B. Guthrie Jr. with a screenplay by Dudley Nichols, this above average, yet somewhat unusual Western is almost documentary- like in its storytelling, which is narrated by one of its main characters, Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt, who earned his only Oscar nomination (Supporting Actor) for his dual role.It's about a Lewis & Clark-like trip from St. Louis to Montana via the Missouri River in 1832. The other lead characters are played by Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin. Supporting roles are played by: Elizabeth Threatt, in her only screen appearance as an Indian princess; Hank Worden, who also plays a Blackfoot Indian, Steven Geray and Buddy Baer, who plays crew members on the boat, and Jim Davis, perhaps best known as Jock Ewing on the TV series Dallas, who plays a rival fur trading company employee. Iron Eyes Cody, recognizable from the "Keep America Beautiful" ads, appears uncredited as a Blackfoot sub-chief.Outdoors-men Jim Deakins (Douglas) and Boone Cardell (Martin) meet on their way to Louisville and, becoming fast friends, decide to go on to St. Louis together to meet up with Boone's uncle Zeb Calloway (Hunnicutt). After a scrap with the dominant trading company chief, Sam Eggelston (Fred Graham, uncredited), both land in jail where they find Calloway, who has a plan to travel 2,000 miles up the Missouri river into Montana to trade with the Blackfoot Indians. Louis MacMasters (Paul Frees, also uncredited and not seen until late in this 2+ hour film), owner of the aforementioned trading company, has an outpost which isn't quite as far up river since he's yet to strike any kind of trade agreement with the Blackfoot. Since Calloway has found a dislocated Blackfoot princess, Teal Eye (Threatt), he plans to return her to her tribe, using her as leverage to strike just such an arrangement. Frenchy (Geray) is the money man who finances the trip, paying for the necessary oar & pole boat and its crew; Romaine (Baer) is his strongman who manages its over-sized rudder.Once on their journey, they meet a straggler Blackfoot hunter named Poordevil (Worden), who helps them per his interest in their whiskey, and then for fellow Blackfoot Teal Eye. Their journey is interrupted by MacMasters's hirelings, which include Streak (Davis), per a blonde lock in his dark hair, and a normally docile tribe of Indians. Of course, Cardell and then Deakins must fight through injuries along the way and the two become involved in a love triangle of sorts with their passenger Teal Eye. Both Blackfoot Indians become valuable members of the group and its mission. While Poordevil, Deakins, Cardell, and Calloway hunt for food and stave off attacks by MacMasters's company, Frenchy, Romaine, and the rest of the crew pole and paddle their boat upriver.Despite its length, I found this drama to be compelling enough to watch without yearning for its end. However, the quality of the print I saw on TCM was uneven; perhaps the best quality footage was that which was filmed on location in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, whereas the studio scenes seemed to be shot with film of lesser quality.

This is a fascinating piece. Directed by Howard Hawks in the year after THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, THE BIG SKY postulates a highly liberal message about the possibilities of communication between Euro-Americans and Native Indians. Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) and sidekick Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin) join a group of fur-traders embarking on a perilous journey into America's wild interior. Despite their obvious resourcefulness, they find that they cannot do without the help of Native Indian girl Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt) and her ally Poordevil (Hank Woorden). The film outlines their various adventures, culminating in a climax that shows the two groups coming together - perhaps permanently. There are several familiar sequences showing the Euro-Americans repelling danger, as well as coping with potential threats within their own community (not everyone is as trustworthy as Douglas), but eventually the community emerges from the experience with a new sense of strength as well as a deeper sense of the lives of Others. There are certain scenes where the Native Indians are represented as savages - notably one sequence involving drums with strong visual links to Val Lewton's I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) - but Hawks tries his best to adopt an even-handed approach. Although the Native Indians are played by white actors, they are favorably portrayed: if people try to understand one another better, then perhaps they might get along.

Although it only covers the first half of A. B. Guthrie's masterpiece novel of the same title---leaving out the very dark events of the second half---Howard Hawks' 1952 film version of THE BIG SKY is unique unto itself: it need not be compared with the novel, nor history itself. What it is, is an atmospheric impression of a keelboat voyage up the Missouri River of the 1830s into dangerous Blackfoot country. It is simply a beautifully lensed film: you can almost feel the river breezes on your face, the warm sun poking through the clouds, and the "skeeters" that pester Caudill, Calloway, Deakins and Poordevil as they scout the Jackson Hole wilderness. Don't look for probing examinations into human behavior here: most of the characters are surface-deep, and the story is really not all that remarkable. The costumes are little better than "ok" in terms of providing a credible idea of what was worn in those days, but of course the scholarship into this area is much more advanced now than it was in 1952, so the makers of the film can be forgiven. It's HOW Hawks tells and shows that story and its characters that makes this an unforgettable film. And the rivers, plains, forests and peaks of the American West have rarely been so lovingly "understood" on film as they are here. Other movies about trappers and mountain men, especially ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI and JEREMIAH JOHNSON, have moments that are wonderfully evocative of that era, but for me THE BIG SKY possesses the one scene that has never been bettered in terms of capturing the spirit of these men and their times. This occurs near the end, when Boone, Deakins, and Poordevil ride the crest of the bluff as they wave to the keelboat "Mandan" below. With the Grand Tetons looming magnificently behind them, and Dimitri Tiomkin's score lushly but understatedly highlighting the moment, the pure essence of those long-gone days is artfully, and beautifully conveyed. I first saw this film 45 years ago on television, and I never get tired of watching, and hearing, it. It has a certain magic that either touches you, or it doesn't. Fault-free it is not, but by the end of the voyage its virtues overwhelm those faults.

One of my favorite Kirk Douglas films is The Big Sky where he plays mountain man/trapper Jim Deakins. It's a great part for Douglas with his incredible charm and quick burn when someone does him wrong.The Big Sky was RKO Pictures big production for 1952. I'd like to say that Howard Hughes spared no expense in making this film, shooting a good deal of it in the Grand Tetons, the actual location for the adventures of many fur trappers. But for the life of me I don't understand why Hughes and RKO after doing that, didn't spring for color.Possibly because director Howard Hawks wanted black and white. His last epic film Red River had done well in black and white. Still I really think something was missed. RKO did use color on films with a lot less budget.There's a lot of similarity between The Big Sky and Red River. Both films involve a group of men on an epic journey into the unknown for business reasons. In Red River, John Wayne has to get that huge herd to market and has to use a trail few have used. In The Big Sky a group of independent trappers basically want to land a nice fur contract with the Blackfeet Indians where few whites have gone up the Missouri River. Going against them is a fur trading consortium kind of like the one John Jacob Astor put together.The trappers are mostly French Canadian Metis headed by Steven Geray, but also along is Arthur Hunnicutt who speaks the Indian language. Their ace in the hole is Elizabeth Threatt, a Blackfoot princess the trappers have rescued and are bringing back to her people in the hopes that her old man will be grateful. Hunnicutt is also the narrator of the film.Douglas and Dewey Martin join up with the group in St. Louis and the trappers have the usual adventures as they take the flatboat up into the Missouri River country. The scenes showing journey upriver are nicely photographed.Two others in the cast merit attention. Hank Worden does a nice job as a lost Blackfoot Indian who the trappers pick up. He may not be playing with a full deck, but he does come in handy. Jim Davis is one lean and mean villain as the company troubleshooter who wants to keep the independents out.Arthur Hunnicutt got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role, The Big Sky proved to be his career film. Unfortunately he lost to Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata. Still Hunnicutt's folksy charm was always something to look forward to in any film he was ever in.The Big Sky is one of the best films ever done about the mountain man era of the American frontier. If they'd only spent for color.