Rating of
3.5/4
"Pursued" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/11/12
Robert Mitchum plays a rancher who has been stalked since childhood by a one armed man with a grudge, without ever knowing why.The themes of twisted psychology, sibling rivalry, jealousy and revenge presented by shadow steeped photography and narrated by Mitchum who is on top form as the hapless anti-hero who is unwillingly forced to kill by circumstances beyond his control all point to the same thing; I don't care how many stetsons or six guns are on show, this IS Film Noir. The intelligent character driven plot is all very Freudian, which makes for a very unusual hybrid of genres. It looks fantastic and has a solid supporting cast, the pick of which is Judith Anderson as the matriarch whose guilty secret lies at the core of the events Mitchum finds himself caught up in. I'd never heard of this one before, and I'm glad I stumbled upon it. If you like Noir, westerns, or classic film in general, it's worth hunting down a copy.
