The Big Sky

Jim Deakins and his friend Boone join a trading party going up the Missouri River from St. Louis. The purpose is to trade furs with the Blackfoot. Along the way they have to pass through the land of hostile tribes. There is a French trader on board, an experienced guide, and the leader of the party has also taken on returning a Native woman, Teal Eye, to her home. The river is hard, the climate hard, and a rival trading party tries to stop them. Howard Hawks directs. Dudley Nichols adapted the screenplay from the 1947 novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr. Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt and Arthur Hunnicutt are in the cast. Russell Harlan was the cinematographer and Dimitri Tiomkin wrote the music. It is an American production. The film was nominated for the Oscar for cinematography, and Arthur Hunnicutt was nominated for best supporting actor. Harlan worked on many of Hawks's westerns and here gives the river landscape in wide shots. The matter it treats is friendship; the bond between the two men is held stronger than the danger. The film gives its Native characters a relatively fair place for its time, though the representation still carries the moulds of the period. The narrative moves by gathering small events along the journey and does not rest on one large conflict. Kirk Douglas plays the character hard and stubborn. The film was shot in black and white and is long for its time. The ending closes as the river's end is reached. Its limit is pace; the narrative is long, the middle slows, and some scenes repeat. Who it is for: viewers who like classic westerns and river journey narratives. Who it is not for: it is long, slow, and its period representation troubling.