Ride the High Country (Reel West) by Robert Nott

In 2023, the University of New Mexico Press launched a series of newly-written books covering the (noble) genre of Western cinema. Branded as Reel West, the series explores “individual Western films across the whole history of the canon, from early and classic Westerns to revisionist and spaghetti Westerns”. Jeff has posted about the initial two volumes in the series, Blood on the Moon and Ride Lonesome; a new volume was published earlier this year. This post concerns the latest entry, which has Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country as its subject.

The book was written by Robert Nott. Readers will perhaps recognize the name, as Nott has written (or, in one case, co-written) several books covering icons of Western cinema. This site references his Films of Randolph Scott in multiple posts. Another of his books, Last of the Cowboy Heroes: The Westerns of Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Audie Murphy, includes an entire chapter on Ride the High Country. So the author has already written extensively about the movie in these two books, and this new Reel West volume expands upon his earlier work.

Cowboy heroes at rest…

Full disclosure, this film is a personal favorite… and for reasons beyond its considerable cinematic merit. The remembrance of Jeff written by his nephew has multiple pleasures; one of them is the completely unexpected top ten list (with seven as a bonus) provided days before Jeff’s passing. Ride the High Country is included in the top ten.

Since this post is about the book about the movie, one can access Jeff’s piece about the movie itself here. It is typically incisive.

… and in action

The book measures a compact 5 inches by 7 inches/12.7 cm by 17.8 cm, almost pocket-sized (like a field guide for the film!) Its 164 pages do include a smattering of black-and-white pictures from the movie and of its lead actors. The paperback and its textured cover is an attractive presentation.

Aesthetics aside, how do these 164 pages handle a film which is, by turns, comic, terrifying, and inordinately sad (recognizing that others might view the fates of Steve Judd and Gil Westrum through a different lens)? And its intertwined themes of aging, self-respect lost and regained, friendship, loyalty, redemption, and (of course, because Sam Peckinpah) the disappearing wild West?

Comic

This work is not a book-length critique of the picture. Indeed, Nott resists the urge to indulge in film criticism; a long-time reporter, he instead brings that profession’s eye for facts and detail. Mariette Hartley’s hairstyle, for example, was a holdover from her previous (stage) role as Joan of Arc; the worn leather jacket worn by Randolph Scott had made appearances in earlier films.

While the book inevitably includes a chapter devoted to recounting the movie, it does so with little speculation or interpretation. Chapters cover Sam Peckinpah’s pre- and post-Ride career, the movie’s rather tortuous gestation and production, lead actors Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, and the decline of producing studio MGM and the film industry generally. The Notes and Bibliography collectively list approximately 70 sources.

Nott accessed the multiple drafts of the movie’s script. He thus was able to determine elements retained from N.B. Stone’s original (titled Guns in the Afternoon), those from (uncredited) rewrites by William Roberts, and those contributed by Peckinpah. The sodden judge’s wedding sermon, so oddly eloquent given the circumstances and so beautifully delivered by Edgar Buchanan, was written by Peckinpah.

Words by Peckinpah, delivery by Buchanan

As was Joel McCrea’s famous line, arguably one of the best-known quotes from any Western (and one that struck this viewer like a thunderbolt while watching Ride for the first time). The saying, or some form of it, was a favorite of Sam Peckinpah’s father. McCrea’s reading summons all of the underrated actor’s considerable humility and sincerity. The film’s final sequence is a showcase for both leads, but the wash of emotions which cross Randolph Scott’s face, and the resonance he brings to his hope-filled last line, demonstrate the talent of that most stoic and laconic of Western actors. Nott includes a quote from his interview with fellow author Kip Stratton: “There’s so much going on in that film, starting with the acting. McCrea and Randolph Scott… These guys got to show their chops in that. They both really knew how to act when given the chance.”

“All I want is to enter my house justified.”

Nott does not recycle all of his previous material about Ride the High Country in this latest book. One anecdote exclusive to Last of the Cowboy Heroes comes from co-star Mariette Hartley. As Nott recounts:

“Hartley watched in amazement as McCrea effortlessly found the right physical and emotional tone for his death scene.

’I was awestruck,’ Hartley said. ‘I had never seen that kind of acting.’ She turned to see Scott, watching the scene from a distance, tears streaming down his face.”

One wonders about the reason for Randolph Scott’s reaction. The power of his friend’s acting? His (already announced) retirement? The end of an era in Western cinema?

We will never know.

After 25 years as a reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican, Robert Nott has recently taken the position of Communications Director for the New Mexico Department of Health.

His book is recommended, and beyond those interested in just the film or Sam Peckinpah.

Other books in the Reel West series:

Blood on the Moon by Alan K. Rode
Ride Lonesome by Kirk Ellis
Thelma & Louise by Susan Kollin

For those who have not seen Ride the High Country, the region-free Warner Archive blu-ray is a gorgeous transfer which showcases Lucien Ballard’s autumnal cinematography. As a bonus, the cover art eschews the line drawings and drab colors from the movie’s original poster, a poster that epitomized MGM’s marketing indifference to McCrea and Scott’s finest hour-and-34 minutes.

Not just the end of a motion picture