Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Art Vandelay The main attraction here is bidding adieu to the Golden Boy early in this movie and watching the emergence of Bill Holden. It's his posture straightening up, his wide smile becoming more like gritting teeth, and how he delivers his lines from lower in his diaphragm. Oh, the blond dye job remains but the solid, serious man who owned the 50s is on show here, pre Sunset Boulevard. And as usual in the 40s, he's stuck in a crappy movie. We know Glenn Ford's character is nuts because he combs his hair with a six-shooter. This movie doesn't explore his PTSD (or whatever it was called post Civil War) any more than it explores the intracies of property law. It's just a loosely held together excuse for a love triangle and tangled loyalties over frontier justice. Edgar Buchanen was under-rated as a sidekick. He dispenses sage advice and acts as an excuse for exposition without getting on a viewer's nerves like Walter Brennan or Gabby Hayes or a few others. But this movie, jeepers, did the writers want us to believe Ford's character burned out the townsfolk so he could smoke out Holden's character. Just goofy.

Moviegeek-TFB Though in many ways a traditional western, Levin's (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1959) The Man From Colorado is also a psychological drama dealing with something as ever current as post traumatic stress. In a western there is almost bound to be a bad guy to stand against the good guy and it definitely makes for a more dramatic story that the two are good friends torn apart by the psychological destruction of one of them. No matter how bad decisions Owen makes, it is difficult to hate him, because Del never lets us forget that his friend is different and clearly affected by the war they have recently fought together. Both men does a good job, Holden (The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957) is so handsome he can only be the good guy, playing his part straight and as righteous while never loosing sympathy with his friend. No matter what happens, he fights till the end to try to do things right. Meanwhile Ford (3:10 to Yuma, 1957) is the one who truly impresses with his portray of a man looking quiet on the outside but who clearly has raving emotions stirring a chaos inside of him. Though he is aware he has become addicted to killing he finds himself unable to admit he has lost control or face the problem and part of the drama is to watch him slowly push himself further and further down. As the woman standing between the two men is a beautiful Drew (Isle of the Dead, 1945) convincingly going from carefree and happy to heartbreakingly realizing what's going on. The three of them make for an interesting watch that keeps you gripped until the dramatic ending.moviegeek.eu

Tad Pole This movie probably predates the Cato, Hoover, Mackinaw, American Enterprise, etc. think tanks, but Glenn Ford as Union Col.\Colorado Judge Owen Devereaux out-thinks them all. Realizing that despite 600,000 mostly poor people just having got slaughtered in the War (and countless thousands more civilians dead or on death's door), Owen realizes there are TOO MANY regular folk around for the number of available slave-wage jobs, and too many folks smart enough to know the difference between subsidence living and solid American union wages. Therefore, Owen begins this story by gunning down 101 surrendering Confederates (who by secession have shown they think for themselves, and obviously will be impoverished agitators after losing the War). Next, he begins hanging his OWN MEN on various pretenses, right down to their teenage kid brothers, now that there are job shortages, and the people who made him hanging judge would prefer to pay one slice of bread per family member per day in wages. ALL THE RICH PEOPLE IN TOWN GO ALONG with this "class cleansing," until Owen's plan to incinerate the remaining regular folk riff-raff (and presumably replace workers with steam punk robots or Native American slaves exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation) upsets the biggest slum lord in town. Still, it's refreshing to see a movie character not beat about the bush on his WWSD (What Would Satan Do?) life principles.

Jeff (actionrating.com) Skip it – An extremely young William Holden and a creepy-looking Glenn Ford star in this cheesy western. The problem is that it is supposed to be a serious psychological western. Unfortunately, this movie did not age well, and to top it all off there is a serious absence of quality action. Glenn Ford plays a power-hungry, Civil War ex-officer who begins to feel the psychological effects of a life of violence and killing. After the war, his own friend (Holden) must turn against him to protect the livelihood of an entire town. The plot is very good, but the action is few and far between, and most of the acting and dialogue comes across as corny.