Saddle the Wind (1958)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This is the classic Western as it is just one of the millions of different stories of the old West but similar to all of them. You get a glimpse of the lifestyles, the risks and the rewards and yes the law was settled by gun-play until it was not. This Western has it all. Gunfights, horses, cattle, bar, whiskey, a love interest with a backstory and of course heroes and villain. Great emotional scenes that just push and pull on you too making it a must see for the viewer so you can be entertained. All the actors are at the top of their game too. Scenery is beautiful and one can easily imagine how pleasant it was to live this simple and rewarding life as the seasons changed. Nice song in the opening credits and later on too. Listen to the words for they are well chosen. Nice ending with good closure. Recommend a dinner meal with tasty drink followed by a good snack for the maximum viewing enjoyment. Saddle up, mount up, ride and then call it a night...

I am of the belief that "Saddle The Wind" (1958)can be pretty much summed up when Robert Taylor (Steve Sinclair) takes a gun away from his brother John Cassavates (Tony Sinclair)after he kills a man and says, "The use of it ... you got from me .... but where did you get the love it?" How many times have we seen the older reformed gunfighter take away a gun from his gun crazy kid brother who just happens to be full of hubris? We have seen this pedestrian western plot time and time again. Sometimes it is reworked, and the kid brother full of hubris may be changed to a son full of hubris or a friend full of hubris but regardless of whether they be kid brother, son, friend or any other concocted character, it is the "hubris" that leads to their untimely demise which is usually delivered by the reluctant reformed gunfighter. Examples of these re-occurring reformed gunfighters and kid brother type of characters show up in films such as "Vengeance Valley" (1951)starring Burt Lancaster (Own Daybright/fast gun) Robert Wagner (Lee Strobie/friend with hubris), "Man Without A Star" (1955) starring Kirk Douglas (Dempsey Rae/fast gun)and William Campbell (Jeff Jimson/friend with hubris), "Gunman's Walk" (1958)starring Van Heflin (Lee Hackett/fast gun father)and Tab Hunter (Ed Hackett/son full of hubris). What I find most astonishing about these usually entertaining pedestrian western with similar plots is they always seen to work and entertain time and time again. Rod Serling wrote this one and the dialog is everything a western movie fan could ask for!

Robert Taylor turns in a understated performance as Steve Sinclair, a reformed gunfighter who only wants to build a ranch and be peaceful. John Cassavetes as Tony Sinclair, the younger brother is excellent as the confused, trigger happy malcontent. When Tony brings Julie London back to the ranch, and annonces that they are to be married, Steve finds it necessary to warn her that "this boy has problems". When Mr. Deneen, the man who runs the valley finds that Tony has killed a famous gunslinger, Charles McGraw, to save Steve from the confrontation, he warns Steve that if it happens one more time, they have to leave the valley. Mr. Deneen is played well by Donald Crisp, who has played a similar role many times before. In the end Steve must confront Tony after he shoots Deneen in an argument over open range. Tony turns the gun on himself to save Steve from killing him. All in all, this is a very good western, with beautiful scenery. Robert Taylor as the older brother is thoughtful, and conflicted about the fate of this young man, who it is clear to see, he loves. The script is intelligent, by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame. He gets a wonderful performance from Taylor, and a young Cassavetes. Great western, with the quintessential cowboy, Robert Taylor.

"Saddle the Wind" is the first of two 1958 Westerns in which Taylor plays a reformed outlaw... He is cast opposite a promising newcomer John Cassavetes... The sexy and flamboyant Julie London provides the love interest but her role is poorly defined and almost working from outside the plot...Robert Taylor is a personality on screen rather than an actor... He plays here an ex-gunfighter who has reformed and is living and working on his ranch peacefully... But fate will not allow him to retire... Cassavetes, his wild young unstable brother shows up carrying a six-gun, and with a sexy dance-hall singer London...Cassavetes' intensity did add excitement to the show... He shoots down a tough character and with his killer instinct now waked up, he attacks a group of homesteaders led by Royal Dano and sets fire to their belongings... This battle has much more cinematic electricity than the final confrontation between the two brothers...Strong landowner (Donald Crisp) imposes himself at this point, and asks the two brothers, now troublemakers, to leave the country...Shortly after that time, Cassavetes gets into a wild and confused struggle with Crisp's men and is wounded, but manages to escape... Taylor goes out to get him...With some magnificent Colorado Rockies scenery caught effectively by George Folsey's CinemaScope and Technicolor photography, "Saddle the Wind" is modestly effective, humorless Western drama...