Vinnie Holt, a single woman travelling with her baby niece, becomes stranded at Rawhide, a desert stagecoach stop managed by stationmaster Sam Todd and his assistant Tom Owens. Meanwhile, Jim Zimmerman, a fugitive murderer disguises as a Deputy, and along with three other ruthless escapees, takes over the station. They're intent on robbing the next day's gold shipment. After murdering Sam, Zimmerman knows they must keep Tom alive to complete their plans. Zim assumes that Vinnie is Owen's wife, and choosing not to correct him, Owen and Vinnie pretend, sensing that the misconception might be the key to her survival as well. They must work together to find a way to escape or warn the stagecoach before it's too late. Rawhide has to be one of my all-time favourite westerns, easily making one of my top 10 for this particular genre. It is packed full of tension, action, drama and romance. As well as being just an overall thrilling movie, it is also educational as it taught me some interesting aspects of the old west, like the features and inner workings of a stagecoach stop. It acts as a pit stop for stagecoaches so that the driver and passengers can eat, rest and wash whilst new mules get hitched to the stage. It is a very clever and effective method for such long travelling and very fascinating to learn about, even see how it could have looked and operated. One of my favourite aspects of the film had to be the leading protagonist captives: Owen and Vinnie. They don't quite get along in the first place. They bicker and dispute, not getting on with one another, however, as the film progresses and they are imprisoned, they begin to work together to escape. They even start to treat one another respectfully and even show signs of a possible romance whilst pretending to be married, in order to stay alive. Also, considering Vinnie has her baby niece to take care of and protect, it adds some apprehension to the story with a young innocent child thrown into the mix. I also found the fugitives to be very entertaining and intriguing. The leader, Zim, although ruthless and hot-tempered, is also respectful enough at times toward the prisoners if they behave and cooperate that is. He constantly keeps the other men in line since he devised the plan for the robbery and makes sure the others do what is right to succeed. Members: Yancy and Gratz are very loyal to Zim and do everything he commands, however, Tevis is wild and doesn't like Zim, who constantly has to put him right for trying to get with Vinnie and his constant desire to kill the prisoners. Tevis is extremely creepy and has some very chilling scenes, even some shockingly unexpected sequences that genuinely had me in disbelief, it came out of nowhere. Despite hinting at such an eventual outcome, I wasn't expecting it to actually come true, although, considering how he had been acting the whole film, his mannerism surely insinuated his rouge tendencies. All the attempts made by Owen and Vinnie to escape and alert the passing wagons of the danger they are in were certainly some of the best sequences of the whole film. Their desperation to be helped and freed drove the thriller aspect to its fullest. From trying to steal guns, digging a hole in the wall and handing a note to the drivers passing, each attempt has you sitting at the edge of your seat, hoping for them to escape the danger, almost as if we ourselves were with them in this dire situation. Whilst some attempts proved worthwhile, sometimes they would later go awry or come dangerously close to being uncovered. But by far the most exciting part was the climactic shoot-out that had all dangers, twists and heart-pumping action that makes for a fantastic finale. Overall, although a lesser-known flick (and Western at that), Rawhide is a true cult classic that should be more widely known. The whole feature is available for free on YouTube and should, without a doubt, be sought out by all Western fans. Even if you are a simple avid moviegoer, then this is undoubtedly worth your time for its abundance of exciting qualities.
Director: Henry Hathaway
No comments:
Post a Comment