With this week’s look at a featured Letterboxd List, we’re pivoting away from the decades lists. Saddle up as we’re dipping our toes into the Top 100 Western Films with Ride Lonesome.
Title: Ride Lonesome
Director: Budd Boetticher
Released: February 1, 1959 (Limited theatrical – United States)
Runtime: 1 hour 13 minutes
Billy (James Best), traveling by horse, rests while drinking coffee as another man approaches. The other man, Brigade (Randolph Scott), is a bounty hunter who has been tracking Billy for days. Billy, though, seems to have let Brigade catch up with him.
So why does Billy have a bounty out on him? Well, he left a man dead in the street in Santa Cruz, having killed him from behind. Brigade even suggests that Billy is responsible for more deaths, each of them matching the one in Santa Cruz.
Despite Billy’s reluctance to be brought in, Brigade eventually persuades him. He gets Billy to call off the men in the rocks who are guarding him, cuffs him, and puts him on his horse. Before they set out, Billy shouts to one of the men in the rocks to find and tell his brother, Frank, what’s gone down.
Along the way, they’re joined by two outlaws, Sam Boone (Pernell Roberts) and Whit (James Coburn), and a stranded woman, Mrs. Lane (Karen Steele).
The group is Santa Cruz bound. That is, unless Frank (Lee Van Cleef) intercepts them first…
If there’s a genre I’m not incredibly familiar with, it’s westerns. Yes, I’ve seen the Eastwood classics. But outside of that, westerns aren’t ones I generally flock to. So, I figured the Top 100 Westerns list would be a safe place to start.
We’re dropped right into the action with Billy having been on the run for a few days already. Luckily, we avoid any confusion as we’re brought up to speed rather quickly.
Brigade is the glue that holds Ride Lonesome together, with the rest of the cast and their motives filling in around him. This gives the film more of an ensemble feel than a traditional hero-and-sidekick setup. The weakest character of the bunch is Mrs. Lane. She’s more of a focal point for the men than she is a character in her own right. Though given how much of this is about what each man wants, I suppose it fits.
The real stars, oddly enough, are the landscapes. The Alabama Hills and Olancha Dunes provide the rugged setting, offering cover from the elements, the Mescaleros, and anyone who might be on their tail.
Once everyone’s motives are revealed in the last twenty minutes or so, the pieces start to fall into place. It didn’t make me connect more deeply with any one character, but it gave the journey a point.
The second act loses a bit of momentum, but the ending lands. I have a feeling Ride Lonesome might be one that rewards subsequent viewings.