Most comments - I'd say all posted so far - agree that this is a great movie. A classic western, sometimes even beyond that.
But they also ask why is it not so well remembered, not a member of the usually quoted giants, even without a DVD release.
Maybe there are small reasons that can be ignored when you love the movie, see its qualities (and that's an easy task), but for someone more cold these small imperfections can be a reason to vote for High Noon, The Big Country, Rio Bravo, Cimmaron, ...Yellow Ribbon, Searchers or ...Liberty Valance.
Doctor Frail. The secrets that main characters keep are very usual in westerns. So many mysterious gunfighters rode through screens. This can be solved either by revealing the secret or keeping it hidden till the end (when the hero dies, or more frequently, rides away as a mysterious stranger he was from the start). But doctor Frail's secret is not so well hidden, because several people know him and know at least something from his past - yet for some reason the authors decided to give us information a teaspoon every twenty minutes. And at the end it is not a complete secret anymore, but we still have to imagine some pieces of the puzzle.
Frenchy vs Frail. From the beginning we realize that Frenchy knew doctor Frail and has mixed feelings. He is very curious when he understands that some people can tell more about Frail - is it just curiosity for gossips, or is it a kind of repulsion that some less educated people show towards the intellectuals ("why is he so arrogant, as if he thinks he is better than us"). We never get an answer what in fact Frenchy objects doctor Frail.
Grubb. He is a preacher as so many others, almost a cliché in westerns (and we can see they aren't extinct today as well). But there is something happening between Frail and Grubb, they know each other from before, and we can see that this is not only a faith vs science conflict, also Grubb isn't only after the money that he could earn by his "treatment" if Frail hadn't appeared - this confrontation seems a lot deeper (probably they both know more about each other than they - or the authors - are ready to tell us). But Grubb soon vanishes and reappears only at the end of the movie.
End. Yes, the drunk herd could be expected to change its mind when offered a goldmine, but what about Grubb? He wasn't after gold, he had personal conflict with Frail, he managed to lead the whole village to hang Frail. Wouldn't at least he stay, uncorrupted and full of rage and revenge, trying to stop the others before finishing the task? Edna and Tom. Rather important characters, but simply don't appear near the end, in the situation where they could have done a lot. It reminds me on the movies where some of the actors died before the end of shooting, so his role had to be removed from the rest of the movie. Especially we miss Tom after Edna's attacking Elizabeth in the store.
These are not big flaws, but maybe enough to bother people who like secrets completely revealed (or completely unrevealed), and plot led to a logical end. (Happy-end, of course, but this demand has been fulfilled.)
And all my objections are just attempt to find reasons why this otherwise great movie hasn't achieved a cult status. (It has one in my heart though.)
But they also ask why is it not so well remembered, not a member of the usually quoted giants, even without a DVD release.
Maybe there are small reasons that can be ignored when you love the movie, see its qualities (and that's an easy task), but for someone more cold these small imperfections can be a reason to vote for High Noon, The Big Country, Rio Bravo, Cimmaron, ...Yellow Ribbon, Searchers or ...Liberty Valance.
Doctor Frail. The secrets that main characters keep are very usual in westerns. So many mysterious gunfighters rode through screens. This can be solved either by revealing the secret or keeping it hidden till the end (when the hero dies, or more frequently, rides away as a mysterious stranger he was from the start). But doctor Frail's secret is not so well hidden, because several people know him and know at least something from his past - yet for some reason the authors decided to give us information a teaspoon every twenty minutes. And at the end it is not a complete secret anymore, but we still have to imagine some pieces of the puzzle.
Frenchy vs Frail. From the beginning we realize that Frenchy knew doctor Frail and has mixed feelings. He is very curious when he understands that some people can tell more about Frail - is it just curiosity for gossips, or is it a kind of repulsion that some less educated people show towards the intellectuals ("why is he so arrogant, as if he thinks he is better than us"). We never get an answer what in fact Frenchy objects doctor Frail.
Grubb. He is a preacher as so many others, almost a cliché in westerns (and we can see they aren't extinct today as well). But there is something happening between Frail and Grubb, they know each other from before, and we can see that this is not only a faith vs science conflict, also Grubb isn't only after the money that he could earn by his "treatment" if Frail hadn't appeared - this confrontation seems a lot deeper (probably they both know more about each other than they - or the authors - are ready to tell us). But Grubb soon vanishes and reappears only at the end of the movie.
End. Yes, the drunk herd could be expected to change its mind when offered a goldmine, but what about Grubb? He wasn't after gold, he had personal conflict with Frail, he managed to lead the whole village to hang Frail. Wouldn't at least he stay, uncorrupted and full of rage and revenge, trying to stop the others before finishing the task? Edna and Tom. Rather important characters, but simply don't appear near the end, in the situation where they could have done a lot. It reminds me on the movies where some of the actors died before the end of shooting, so his role had to be removed from the rest of the movie. Especially we miss Tom after Edna's attacking Elizabeth in the store.
These are not big flaws, but maybe enough to bother people who like secrets completely revealed (or completely unrevealed), and plot led to a logical end. (Happy-end, of course, but this demand has been fulfilled.)
And all my objections are just attempt to find reasons why this otherwise great movie hasn't achieved a cult status. (It has one in my heart though.)