Comanche Station

I like these Boetticher Westerns, simple and spare, yet elegantly constructed. It's like he's honed it down to the essential pleasures of the genre.

Like other Boetticher Westerns, this one has a solid plot, sprinkled with interesting supporting characters and subplots. Boetticher cares about the story and characters, and he deserves praise for this. I wish more action filmmakers will approach their films in the same way. (The action sequences probably wouldn't excite modern viewers, but who cares.) At less than 80 minutes, you're not giving up too much of your time either.(ps:65)

This one feels less charming, perhaps because a certain formula has developed in its own way. The earlier films often felt like sophisticated variations on a theme, but the 'Cowboys and Indians' trope that is prominent here does a lot to undermine that.

Fascinating character-driven western that, as Dave Kehr has notices, is basically composed of horseback and campfire conversations. Our hero wanders through Comanche territory for at least ten years looking for his kidnapped wife. Every time a new bounty for a white woman pops up, he's the man for the job. But now he's gotta face this outlaw Ben, who's willing to do everything to get the bounty for himself (5k). Just a beautiful 73min western in every way you look at it.

a lonesome western about men whose futures have already been determined by their weighty pasts even as they struggle to do better, the themes laid out elegantly by the stunning and distinctive location shooting the characters journey through.

The last of the Scott/Boetticher westerns is a marvelously sparse and tense western with beautiful Cinemascope photography. Akins is a particularly good foil for Scott. All of the westerns these two made together are worth a look. This is one of the best. Scott retired after this film, but was briefly pulled out by Sam Peckinpah 2 years later.

Beautifully shot. The stones and boulders in this movie might be more expressive than the star, Randolph Scott (but he isn't bad!).

Viewed June 3, 2021.

Há 60 anos Cavalgada Trágica estreava em Londres. Esse filme é tão singelamente bonito que qualquer coisa que se diga só limitará a experiência de vê-lo. Plus: É tão curto que passei mais tempo vendo os extras do que o filme em si. Box Versátil Cinema Faroeste Volume 9.

Seems like a pretty standard Boetticher + Scott western. The plot gets set up, a group of people with various conflicting motives are thrown together, some decent but terse dialogue lays out the themes, everything is punctuated with a few tense action scenes and then it ends wrapping everything up simply and neatly. It's nice quick fun with a bit of heart, but never aims for more.

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

Mostly a retread of previous Boetticher/Scott westerns with some nice photography and typically brisk pacing.

It's somewhat difficult to review this western. On one hand it's very well crafted, visually interesting and at less than 80 minutes strips the story down to its barest essentials. However aside from being a good western, there's not much else to give it higher praise.

Exellent Burt Kennedy script. Cody is Scott's most admirable loner. Akins is a great baddie, and the ending is very, very moving.

Burt Kennedy was a decent writer but it appears that he became repetitive over time. Comanche Station seemed to me like an inferior variation on the themes from his other works for Boetticher and Scott (7 Men From Now, The Tall T, Ride Lonesome). The only really new addition is the killing of some faceless Comanche attackers, which to tell you the truth I could do without.

The usual stuff.