NR | 2h 2m | Drama | 1952
One of the characters in the “The Big Sky” muses, “Sure is big country. Only thing bigger is the sky. Looks like God made it and forgot to put people in it.” Beneath that big sky, producer-director Howard Hawks’s epic Western depicts the coming together of whites and Indians, and women and men in miles and miles of country; it was once hidden, now wide open, but everywhere untamed.
Dangerous Trapping
Northwestern trading routes are fraught. This isn’t due to the daunting terrain only. Free trappers, who prefer a personally lucrative operation, must fight off the trappers who work for a large fur company. Against that backdrop, friends Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) and Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin) reach St. Louis, looking for adventure, a livelihood as free trappers, and maybe a little romance.Perhaps Caudill’s uncle, Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt, also the narrator) can lead them to all of it? He does. The trio joins a free trapper band led by Frenchman ‘Frenchy’ Jourdonnais (Steven Geray). They boat their way beyond the familiar routes of the monopoly that tries to co-opt or crush competition.
Romance comes in the shape of Blackfoot Indian woman Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt, in her only film appearance). Both Deakins and Caudill have their eyes on her; hers is on only one of them. The daughter of an Indian chief, she’s a bargaining chip. The Indians won’t harm any hunting expedition, as long as she’s with them. So, company and free trappers tussle among themselves to do all they can to protect her and prise her from each other. The guts and guns of Deakins and Caudill, and the mountainous arms of Frenchy’s bodyguard, Romaine (Buddy Baer) keep Frenchy’s band mostly out of trouble. Mostly.
Filmed in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, this film includes breathtaking shots of the countryside. With all the action he orchestrates, Hawks films so unobtrusively that it’s like he’s just eavesdropping on real conversations and peeking in on real-life adventures as they unfold. He cloaks intrigue in his six-minute, fog-drenched sequence as the men board the boat and leave St. Louis.
Lots of Action
Amid that stunning natural landscape, free trappers engage in gun battles with company mercenaries, foil an attempt to burn their boat, and take refuge under a roaring waterfall. In the melee, Deakins loses a finger and almost a leg. Watch for spectacular action scenes as men pole, row, and even haul their way past Fort Leavenworth and the Yellowstone River, braving heat, cold, rapids, rain, mosquitoes, and squabbling Indians; the Blackfoots can’t stand the Crows.Douglas and Martin shine, but grizzled Hunnicutt is the star here. His steady, rapid-fire voice and piercing eyes dominate every scene he’s in. He commands the workmen, the natives, even Frenchy, by the sheer weight of his knowledge and experience. With no prior acting experience, former model Threatt brings a fiery dignity to her role, speaking only native Indian.
Hawks’s storytelling is too action-packed to allow for a meditation on patriotism. Still, he manages to use the initially wild and hostile Teal Eye as a metaphorical personification of bewitching virgin territory and new country. Once befriended or betrothed it expects, even warrants, the deepest love and loyalty. Hunnicutt knows it, but he’s unsure about which of his two young wards feel it. Deakins or Caudill? You’ll have to watch to find out, as they take amusingly contrasting and conflicting approaches to win her womanly charms.
In one striking scene, the boat docks at a riverbank, crawling with men who are noisily disembarking, unloading gear, weapons, food, drink, and supplies. The men are largely unaware that Frenchy has stashed Teal Eye, the only woman, on board. Suddenly, she steps down, her braids tucked beneath a veil, and walks ashore past them. A hush falls. The men stare open-mouthed, abruptly on their best behavior, knowing that only one among them will be lucky enough to win her over.
