The Far Country
The Western genre is probably the one I’ve had most of a narrow focus on over the years. I’ve watched many of the staples, from John Ford to Sergio Leone to Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner, but especially in the 1940s and ’50s, my familiarity of the genre is lacking. “The Far Country” is a film that interested me because not only did it star Jimmy Stewart, but it was directed by Anthony Mann, a filmmaker known for film noir and westerns in that aforementioned time period. Plus, it’s part of The Criterion Channel’s “Snow Westerns” collection, and if you know me, you know how much I love films set in snow. A superficial interest, to be sure, but there’s something that just lends an ominous atmosphere to the action that instantly connects with me.
One of the things that is always interesting about the western genre is how it always becomes some sort of morality play- whether it is about good vs. evil, the morality of killing, greed and land exploitation, almost invariably, there’s going to be a fundamental human struggle with their worst instincts at the heart of this. (Hell, even “Blazing Saddles” and “Maverick,” which take more comedic approaches, do this.) In Borden Chase’s screenplay, “The Far Country” follows a cattle rustler-turned-murderer as his self-interest puts him at odds with a judge as he is moving his cattle west, and into the Alaskan territory. Seeing how his story plays out is part of the tension, as is seeing if he inevitably softens himself to something other than greed.
If you’re only familiar with his Frank Capra films- and even many of his collaborations with Hitchcock- seeing Stewart in this or “Vertigo” can be a shock to the system. When we first see Jeff Webster, he is pulling into the town of Skagway with his friend, Ben Tatem (Walter Brennan), where his cattle interrupt a hanging, landing him in jail by order of the town’s self-appointed Judge Gannon (John McIntire). He is let out when Gannon uses his cattle as his bond, but after taking supplies to nearby Dawson, he and Ben return to town, and take the cattle back, thus taking the feud with Gannon to a more dangerous level.
This is one of several collaborations Stewart had with Mann, and I like how this continues to show shading in Stewart as a performer that was only glimpsed at in his films with Capra, and it immediately makes me want to see more. Here, Stewart shows a self-serving side that we would see blossom into something truly sinister in “Vertigo”; Jeff puts on a tough exterior, but his friendship with Ben, and dealings with saloon owner Ronda Castle (Ruth Roman) and Renee Vallon (Corinne Calvet), show a softer side that runs counter to how he operates with Gannon. The film is a very familiar shape and structure for what we think of westerns at this point of film history, but Mann’s direction- which emphasizes the Jeff’s chilly sense of perspective in how he shoots the landscapes- and Stewart and McIntire’s performances keep us fully engaged with the narrative as it seems to follow to its inevitable conclusion. In westerns, happy endings aren’t a given; something important to the main character always feels like it’s taken away. I look forward to seeing more of how Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart portray that.
