The Big Sky

Plot synopsis:
In 1832, Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) is traveling in the wilderness when he encounters an initially hostile Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin). However, they soon become good friends. They head to the Missouri River in search of Boone's uncle, Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt). They find him when they are tossed in jail for brawling with fur traders of the Missouri River Company. When 'Frenchy' Jourdonnais (Steven Geray) comes to bail Zeb out, Zeb talks him into paying for Jim and Boone too.
The two men join an expedition organized by Zeb and Frenchy to travel 2,000 miles up the river to trade with the Blackfoot Indians, in competition with the Missouri Company. Zeb has brought along Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt), a pretty Blackfoot woman Zeb found several years before after she had escaped from an enemy tribe. Zeb intends to use her as a hostage, as she is the daughter of a chief. On the journey, they encounter another Blackfoot Zeb knows, Poordevil (Hank Worden); they take him along. Later, Teal Eye falls into the river and is rescued from rapids by Boone.
The Missouri Company knows about the threat to their monopoly. One day, it makes its move. A party led by Streak (Jim Davis) captures Teal Eye and tries to burn the boat, but Frenchy wakes up before the fire causes much damage. Poordevil tracks the enemy and Zeb and Jim rescue the woman. Later, the expedition puts in at a company trading post and leaves a warning not to interfere. A week later, they repulse an attack by Crow Indians. Jim is separated from the group and shot in the leg. Boone, followed by Teal Eye and Poordevil, finds him, extracts the bullet and waits for his friend to heal. When they rejoin their band, they find Streak trying to buy the boat and the goods on it. Jim compares the bullet dug out of his leg with one of Streak's and finds them to be the same. Streak and his men are killed in the ensuing shootout.
The expedition reaches the Blackfeet and begins trading. Teal Eye tells a very disappointed Jim that she loves him... like a brother. Boone follows her back to her teepee. When he emerges much later, he is surprised to find out he is now married. However, Teal Eye makes him buy her from her father, so that he can leave any time he wants to. With winter coming on, the men begin the long return trip. However, Boone changes his mind and decides to stay with Teal Eye.

Tags: revenge, murder, violence, historical fiction

Review:
As usual in Howard Hawks' works, the movie is based on swift-pace-action amalgamated with the human interaction of the characters.
Set in the American frontier of the early 1800s, it's the story of an ambitious party who pole their keel boat up the Missouri River into new territories, far beyond where other white men have ventured, to trade for furs with the Blackfeet Indians."The Big Sky" was filmed on location, and this alone makes the film worth watching, for the splenor of the Snake River and Grand Tetons, where the film was actually shot, is breathtaking.But "The Big Sky" has other virtues which raise it far above the average "scenic".
Third, and perhaps most touching, is the tale of male bonding not only among the group of men, but one-on-one between Jim Deakins, played by Kirk Douglas, and Boone, his young sidekick, played by Hawks protegé Dewey Martin.
Bringing to life the major characters of this exciting adventure are Kirk Douglas as happy-go-lucky Jim Deakins, Dewey Martin, adequate as Boone Caudill, Arthur Hunnicut in award-winning form as Uncle Zeb, Jim Davis as Streak, Steven Geray lovable as Frenchie, owner of the riverboat, the Mandan, Hank Worden as Poor Devil, and Elizabeth Threatt as Teal Eye, the Amerind girl Geray is returning so they can open fur trade with the proud and wary Blackfleet chiefs.
What propels the first portion of the film narrated Hunnicutt, is developing friendship between Jim Deakins and enigmatic runaway youth Boone; then they find Uncle Zeb in a St. Louis jail and are freed to join a dangerous very-early voyage up the Missouri River.
It would be hard to credit Hawks enough for all the good things that happen in this film; he even finds a way to enliven the story by playing up the differences between Martin and Threatt one of h signature male-female disagreements.
The Big Sky is generally considered inferior and less important compared to Red River, the Western Howard Hawks directed in 1948 or four years before this one and which already has a status of a classic and Hawk's masterpiece.
Howard Hawks himself wasn't pleased very much with the final result because he wanted John Wayne to play Kirk Douglas's role and mainly because the studio insisted on cutting out 20 minutes of the film to facilitate its distribution.
But in my opinion The Big Sky stands on the level of Howard Hawk's best work remarkable for its visual beauty (though filming it in colour would definitely improve it), fine performances (Kirk Douglas is magnificent here and it's hard to imagine other actor playing this role), wonderful music from Dimitri Tiomkin and interesting story of, basically, friendship, that even might be called love, between the two main characters of Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) and Dewey Martin (Boone Caudill) but friendship on a background of a perilous and adventurous journey up the Missouri river to the Indian territory where no white man ever set his foot before, with a group of peculiar French adventurers and an Indian princess Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt) who steals their hearts and threatens their friendship.
Kirk Douglas (Jim Deakins) is superb as he portrays one of three game hunters, along with Dewey Martin (Boone), and the comic backwoods relief of Arthur Hunicutt (Uncle Zeb).
One of my favorite Kirk Douglas films is The Big Sky where he plays mountain man/trapper Jim Deakins.
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.
RKO did use color on films with a lot less budget.There's a lot of similarity between The Big Sky and Red River.
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.
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.
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.
The Big Sky is directed by Howard Hawks and adapted by Dudley Nichols from the novel of the same name written by A.B. Guthrie Jr. It stars Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt & Arthur Hunnicutt.
Dimitri Tiomkin scores the music and Russell Harlan photographs on location at Grand Teton National Park & Jackson Hole in Wyoming.1832 and Jim Deakins (Douglas) & Boone Caudill (Martin) meet by chance out in the wilderness.
After finding him via a bar room brawl, the two men agree to join Zeb in a venture up the Missouri river to trade fur with the unpredictable Blackfoot Indians; their insurance against attack by the Blackfoot coming courtesy of Teal Eye (Threatt), a beautiful Blackfoot princess kidnapped years previously and now being returned home.
Western fans were grateful that the experience didn't make him turn his back on the genre, tho, for he delivered Rio Bravo 7 years later.Having not seen the full uncut version of the film, I personally have to say that the 122 minute version viewed was pretty uneven and lacking a certain narrative spark to make it fully work.
Undoubtedly the star of the show is Hunnicutt (who also narrates), tucking into a boozy, grizzled, teller of tall tales character, Hunnicutt lifts the film on the frequent occasions it threatens to sag beyond repair.With the visuals and enjoyable Hawksian take on "man love" the film is worth the time of any Western fan.
If you put in a film one of the best directors ever, some of the better actors of all time, plus a marvelous screenplay like this, you only can get an astonishing movie.
Howard Hawks's strong point is showing relationships, and here he is at his best with Douglas, Dewey Martin, Arthur Hunnicutt and Elizabeth Threartt (excellent as the Indian woman).
Like Red River where they make a long journey to sell the cattle here they make quite a journey but this time up the river.This film should have been in color, there was no reason for it to be in black and white, considering it was filmed in a national park and the scenery is so important.
A great cast makes the story come alive; Kirk Douglas is great as Jim Deakins, Arthur Hunnicutt cements his place as one of America's great character actors with his role as Uncle Zeb, and what can you say about Elizabeth Threatt--a beautiful gal with eyes that could melt an iceberg.
It is an excellent movie, with an outstanding cast, a very good story, and one of the best performances by a supporting actor, Hank Worden as "Poordevil".
This was directed by Howard Hawks and stars Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin as two, well i don't know what to call them but they join up with Arthur Hunnicutt on a some sort of mission to go way up in Indian country to trade or something and also drop off this Indian girl.
Even though Kirk Douglas has top billing, he just doesn't seem to have much to do and Arthur Hunnicutt has the best role as an Indian scout and Dewey Martin's uncle..
I say slightly better because the film's vivid color really made it much more attractive than the black & white in "The Big Sky".
Based on the novel by A.B. Guthrie, it has KIRK DOUGLAS in the lead as the head of the expedition but most of the footage belongs to young DEWEY MARTIN in his first big screen role.
I found none of the narration objectionable (as others here seem to imply), but the structure of the screenplay is awkwardly handled, especially toward the latter part of the film.Another minus point, the night scenes in the woods look as though they were photographed in a studio and not on location which minimizes the sense of danger from Indians and other trappers that the story requires.
But most of the exterior daylight scenes are photographed in crisp B&W photography in real outdoor settings which tend to jar against the studio-lit scenes, making them more noticeable.There's plenty of male camaraderie and friendship among the trappers and colorful incidents involving the Indians, so if this kind of western is your thing you'll undoubtedly find it interesting.
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.
It's HOW Hawks tells and shows that story and its characters that makes this an unforgettable film.
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 western features lovely scenery (alas, in black and white), a fairly good chase story, impressive music, and some excellent props and sets.
Yes, I know this is a frontier western but it yet is one that manages to feel more like an adventurous pirate movie at times.
It makes this an unique sort of western, by Howard Hawks.In its setup and with its story, this foremost remains a quite simplistic movie.
In so doing, they removed the soul of the story and any edge and impact it may have had as a film adaptation.The epic nature of Guthrie's book and the evolution of its main character, Boone Caudill, from a naive, Kentucky lad into a hardened and competent survivor/mountain man, has been replaced with a downscaled riverboat farce that bears little resemblance to the author's intent.
It is also apparent that director Hawks decided the Zeb character in the movie, played by actor Hunnicutt, wasn't irritating enough.
And unfortunately, Kirk Douglas' star appeal, which could have helped lift this film, was scuttled by the milktoast role he was given.If you can believe it, the film version of Guthrie's Pulitzer prize-winning sequel, "The Way West," also starring Kirk, is even worse.In my opinion, "The Big Sky" further solidifies Howard Hawks' place as one of the most overrated, tepid directors in the history of cinema..
Great 50's adventure.But I have one question, why would Hawk's film in black and white?
"The Big Sky", which Hawks made made in 1952, was a western produced on a scale every bit as grand as his earlier effort, "Red River".
There is also a great deal of water in evidence for a western, since most of the action takes place on board a boat making it's way up the Missouri River.
In fact, the biggest conflict is with the large "Trading Company", with which the protagonists are in commercial competition.Filmed in black-and-white amid some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States, "The Big Sky" is a spectacular and somewhat unusual western that is well worth a look..
It's also fun to see Jim Davis before his Dallas days as well as Dewey Martin (The thing from another world, The longest day) and Paul Frees (countless movie voice overs).Although not my favorite adventure film, the story is believable and without any serious gaps.
Once I see the name Howard Hawks, I know immediately the picture is going to be a great film with outstanding actors.
Even though the film is in black and white, it still captures your imagination as to those early pioneer days and the desire for men to fight the many odds against them; Indian attacks, fur traders and even a single female Indian Blackfoot, Elizabeth Threatt,(Blackfoot Princess) who managed to entertain the old timers and the young French bucks in the camp.
I also like the story about a largely unknown time in western America and and I like the way it is presented as a story being told by the Arthur Hunnicutt character, the old mountain man Zeb Calloway.
In fact, I'm not sure Teal Eye, who is played by Elizabeth Threatt, has a single line in this movie and Boone has little to say except in the scenes dominated by Douglas.
A Howard Hawks/Kirk Douglas/ Arthur "Arkansas" Hunnicutt/ Dewey Martin/ Elizabeth Threat/ Jim Davis/ Steven Geray movie for the ages.
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.
I'd heard very good things about Howard Hawks THE BIG SKY and the synopsis in TV guides made it sound good - A fur trapper makes a dangerous voyage into the American wilderness and battles Indians .
Sounds good doesn't it so I was hoping to see the type of colourful fast paced adventure that Hollywood does best As soon as the opening credits came up it was only then that I realised the movie was filmed in black and white .
One the way up river they have many things to contend with including Company men, Crow Indians, nature and Teal Eye who wants to kill Boone because he has the scalp of the Blackfoot warrior he believes killed his brother.I was a little surprised when the film started to see it was in black and white and 'narrow screen' I'd imagined with a title like 'The Big Sky' it would be in Technicolor and widescreen to show of those big skies to maximum effect.
In the Big Sky, we first meet Jim Deakins in Kentucky, where he meets his new friend, Boone Caudill, (these characters were originally to have been played by Wayne and Clift in a re-pairing from their Red River success).
Kirk Douglas account addresses this as he mentions loving doing this movie in spite of spending more than 2 weeks tent camping.The lack of money for a long feature contributes to the fact this one was shot in black and white in an era where color had taken over for films like this.
Lewis & Clark-like adventure featuring Arthur Hunnicutt's best, Kirk Douglas.
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.
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).
In fact, he is over-shadowed by Dewey Martin and Arthur Hunnicutt, the latter winning a best supporting actor nomination for his part as the heavy-talking fur-trader in the film.
One can only guess why Hunnicutt was nominated.The film recounts the meeting of the two men and their journey along with Hunnicutt up the Missouri River to trade with Indians for furs.
The Big Sky. From director Howard Hawks (Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, To Have and Have Not, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), this is a film I found in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I hoped it would live up to that designation.
Basically set in 1832, frontiersman and Indian trader Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) and Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin) are initially hostile to each other, but soon become friends and head for the Missouri River to find Boone's uncle Zeb Calloway (Oscar nominated Arthur Hunnicutt).
On the journey they encounter Poordevil (Hank Worden), another Blackfoot that Zeb knows, Teal Eye falls into the river and is rescued from rapids by Boone, but she is captured by Streak (Jim Davis) from a party of The Missouri Company, they try to set fire to the group's boat, but Frenchy wakes in time to stop severe damage.
I agree with the critics that Dougles is good but perhaps a little too suave and intense, and I can see Hunnicutt was nominated an Oscar, the black and white film definitely has great landscape scenes and is pretty well acted, my only problem with it was that it was a bit slow for the majority, only the action sequences saved it being from being boring, I'm not sure it's the sort of film I'd see again, but it's not a bad western adventure.
The movie, on the other hand, although long, is a rollicking adventure and the story of a friendship between two men, Martin and Douglas.
Along the way they face many perils, especially hostility from agents of the Missouri River Company, who see the expedition as a threat to their monopoly, and attacks from the Crow tribe, mortal enemies of the Blackfoot.The main characters are trapper Jim Deakins, his younger friend Boone Caudill, Boone's uncle, Zeb Calloway and Teal Eye, a pretty Blackfoot princess who has escaped after being kidnapped by an enemy tribe.
I hope a better print of this has survived somewhere.Dewey Martin was a weak co-lead as Boone.The heavies were underdeveloped, which made the film feel even longer than 3 hours.This could have been a top ten of all time movie if they had:1.