The Big Sky

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.

This feature is an exercise in pure filmic story-telling for Howard Hawks; and the talented veteran director appears to enjoys this unusual freedom from having to worry about indoor sets, intricate lighting setups and costume designs (although Dorthy Jeakins' costumes are wonderful). Here he gets to realize the best elements of A.B. Guthrie's tough novel of the early West, "The Big Sky". 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. The film tends to be a bit leisurely in its development, but the action sequences are unusually exciting, and the characters are very believable at every moment. The cinematography by Russell Harlan and the music by Dimitri Tiomkin are very fine indeed. 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. The battle between their group and deadly agents of "The Company", led by Davis, are the major elements in the remainder of this often-rough, humorous and very moving story. 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. Douglas and the other two form an interesting love triangle; and the climax that requires Martin to decide whether he is going to turn down what Douglas would give anything he has to obtain is very satisfying to my way of thinking. This a film that is atmospheric, always interesting, and a first-rate look at the old West as it was before it was changed forever. The characters' comments on the ant-hill aspects of overcrowded St. Louis, the jumping-off-place to the west, population 12,000, tell us that we are in a different, simpler and cleaner era of civilization. This is one of the best films about the era of the fur trappers and their ways and trade ever produced in every way.

This film is EXCELLENT and is filled with many vivid scenes of the Jackson Hole Valley country. Being shot along the Snake River and within easy sight of the Teton Mountain range it gives an amazingly accurate account of what early Keel Boat travel might have been like along the Missouri River and other Western tributaries. 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). Mr. Hunicutt steals the show with his Southern drawl and folksy way cultivating a feeling for the viewer as being one of the "crew". The use of actual French actors & accents adds to the believable setting of the early 1800s environ and customs of the trappers and mountain men who blazed the trails into the West and survived through trade and co-operation with the Indian tribes who populated it. From using trees along the bank to catapult game down to the Keel boat, to the unforgettable scene where "medical" aid is rendered to Kirk.

Well worth your time and any children should be shown it as well because they'll remember it throughout their lives. I certainly have!

The Big Sky is a classic screen gem, filmed in black & white in the style of Ansel Adams. A great print with delicious contrast that is an eye-feast for photography buffs. The script is rapid paced; be sure to train your ear to catch the snappy, fluent dialogue. Tender care is given to every character development, and many scenes that are so subtle are intended to breath real-life into the story. This is one of my all-time faves.

This film is a true joy, and one of Hawks's greatest works, though it's often underrated. It has all the great Hawksian themes: adventure, feisty women and cool men who, no matter how cool they are, need the feisty women. It's also a great classic Western, with beautiful outdoor photography and a terribly poetic evocation of going down the Missourri (it's vaguely based on Lewis and Clark). It's leisurely and enthralling in the way only Ford and Hawks could do. While Arthur Hunnicut in no Walter Brennan, and Dewey Martin is cute rather than great, Kirk is superb as ever. Don't miss.