Popular reviews

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★ 3

  Possibly the most sensuous of all westerns - a society in microcosm converges and diverges, becoming communal and then the opposite. Dignity and humanity and then perverse human depths, the drowning of man that another is indebted too, Nihilist gambling den owners, loan sharks and lynch mobs, massacres in daylight. What is going on here, exactly? Andrews frees Donlevy from the prison out of friendship and the trust that he didn't kill. But Donlevy did kill, the lynch mobs are right and Andrews, the individual, wrong? Andrews is the typical Tourneur hero, nothing is more important to him than his own freedom and idiosyncrasy. Yet he defends a killer out of misguided trust, leads a war-party to kill a group…

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★ 2

  "You see how thin the margin is."

  Terrific, microcosmic western deeply ambivalent about the society it's depicting and its ambitions and motivations, and also just a rousing, lush, gorgeous melodrama. Sort of a Lagrange point between WAGON MASTER and THE BIG COUNTRY.

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  Review by nathaxnne [hiatus] ★★★★★ 15

  Canyon Passage is one of the most beautiful Technicolor Westerns I have ever seen. Jacques Tourneur directs a film that is primarily attentive to the time of day: early morning, late afternoon, after midnight. Beginning in rain-shrouded 1856 Portland, Oregon and travelling to Jacksonville, Oregon to the south, the film brightens and concerns itself with light filtered through pines and the shadows the pines themselves cast. At the heart of Canyon Passage, there is a love pentagon formed by Logan, mule train operator and store proprietor with big dreams of franchisement, Lucy, ex-girlfriend of Logan, current fiancee to George, who is spirited and yearns for adventure and a stable, committed partner, George (Brian Donlevy = Professor Quatermass!, best friend of…

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★

  "this is jacksonville, clench USA. we sail with the tide."
  "all americans think that. they think the tide flows forever for them but... gold veins run out, crops fail, men starve, wars come."

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★ 3

  "There's a very thin margin between what could be, and what is."
  --
  "In some other kind of country, he might have made the grade."

  
  The opening shot of Canyon Passage must be in millions of Westerns - the lone horseman rides into town. Yet it feels something like a dream: there is an 'accent', a very specific one in how things look. And frankly, Tourneur made many films that in other cases we can call 'generic,' yet within each of them we cannot mistake these works as that of a different filmmaker. Tourneur worked in seemingly every genre, perhaps he believes in 'genre' - in any case, these works are proof that to make a film, or to make…

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★½ 6

  Viewed with the Amazing Edith’s *Collab Film Group*.

  It's a thin margin, Johnny, between what could be and is.

  A romance adventure brought to you by French director Jaques Tourneur, Canyon Passage flaunts stunning Oregon vistas and foliage in Technicolor. The depth provided by the real setting is in this case a great argument against studio-era artifice (which I particularly have an affinity for when executed keenly—i.e. Blood on the Moon, Juliette Or Key of Dreams, etc). Although, at times I could not quite tell if some scenes had in fact been shot on a set this would simultaneously make an equivocal argument for the potential exotic qualities of production design, if this is true. The dust on the trails, distant…

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 1

  90/100

  "Caroline, crying helps some people a lot."

  "Some people it doesn't help."

  Canyon Passage - Tourneur's first Western and his first dive into color - is a vertical Oater in terms of landscape, mood, and character. The American Northwest is a communal space, lively in the ways people interact but mysterious all the same. The vast, gloomy forests around their scattered towns and homes are barriers to their businesses and helpful land to the Indians, and as a result, Tourneur creates a dichotomy between the nature-based mystique of the Other and the developing enterprise of America. It is not a film which has a consistent sense of progression, instead operating through vignettes and the gradual collapse into violence. Like…

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  Review by nrh ★★★★★

  a film of so many strange and mysterious transferences - hi linnett hands his beloved mandy to the indian, logan stuart hands his gun to george primrose and has it returned to him before he leaves the town of jacksonville, two men are declared guilty by two mobs (they are) and executed by their accusers (it was one of our boys who got him, they say about the lonesome offscreen death of george primrose). it's that handing of a gun from one gambler to another, one condemned and one free, a "strong man" and "a weak man," one doomed to fall and one doomed to wander, that is the key here. the key is logan stuart knows his friend is…

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  Review by sakana1 ★★★★ 8

  I am obsessed with the central relationship in this movie, and by “central relationship” I mean: the one between Logan (Dana Andrews), George (Brian Donlevy), and Lucy (Susan Hayward). I have many (many) thoughts on it, but on this particular watch, I was particularly interested in the frank portrayal of Lucy’s sexuality. Apologies in advance for the terrible screencaps that follow.

  The first time we see them together, Lucy needles Logan about his many women. It’s teasing that is more interested than judgemental, and makes it clear to us that she isn’t someone who will, for the sake of propriety, pretend sex doesn’t exist. We see this even more explicitly when, after Logan gives Caroline the necklace, Lucy tells him…

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★★★★

  The most restless 40s film you'll ever see.

  The camera is always moving, the characters constantly shifting in the frame, the dialogue forever about wanting to leave, to move, to just go anywhere else but here.

  Tourneur gets to shoot in colour for the first time and he goes hog wild.

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  Review by Bruno Andrade ★★★★★

  Sob a forma de aventura, sob os contornos da epopeia, narrando os trabalhos de um herói essencialmente positivo, foi necessário para o western ter atravessado as areias do deserto, ter passado sede, ter passado fome, ter sentido medo, ter acreditado mil vezes que havia chegado aos seus instantes finais para então versar sobre o outro lado da noite, aquele que precisa permanecer na escuridão, que semeia a invenção do mito e que diz respeito, precisamente, ao mundo dos mortos. Não é um paradoxo que um dos westerns mais desoladores seja também um dos mais radiantes: quando Tourneur realiza Paixão selvagem, a “terra desconhecida” já deixou de ser apenas mais um terreno propício à imaginação, à fantasia, um tema preferencial do…

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  Review by pirateneckbeard ★★★½

  This was an interesting western that takes place in Oregon and mainly deals with a small community of mainly goldpanners that reside in the deep woods but hold a somewhat law abiding form of society. I do like Jacques Tourneur as a director and his effective way of setting a vibe in the story with character arcs and set structure that really reels you in. This had a lot of twists but I wouldn't label them crazy cause they are played off and tee them up. I did find it kinda funny how steadfast or main character Logan(Dana Andrews) was and yet understanding plus helpful that seemed saint worthy but somewhat too Jesus like but maybe that was the point.…