note: I know that my Outlaw Josey Wales review was supposed to go up last week, I plan to post it sometime this weekend.  Until then enjoy this review for The Gunfighter.

Jimmy Ringo (Gregory Peck) is the infamous gunfighter has come to the town of Cayenne looking for his true love, Peggy (Helen Westcott).  After all his years of gunslinging he’s finally realised how pointless it all and has finally decided he no longer wants to be that man.  So while on the run from three brothers seeking revenge against him he spends the morning in Cayenne to try and convince the love of his life to go with him.

This is without a doubt one of the greatest westerns ever made.  It takes the character of the gunfighter that we all know and love from some of your favourites and ages him ten years and shows us who that man becomes and what he has to deal with.  We are always so anxious to see the story of the upcoming youthful gunslinger who wants to make a name for himself, but what happens after he’s done that.  Once he’s solidified his position in the Wild West as one of the greatest men with a gun?  The film answers that question quite simply: he becomes a lonely man always on the run and always being challenged by the first young slinger thinking he can take the crown.

The film gives us a comprehensive look at all the characters you can find in the west that has everything to do with gunslinging.  You have the great notorious gunfighter, Ringo, the older gunfighter who gave it up and got a real job and left the life behind him, Marshall Mark Strett (Millard Mitchel), and the young quick-on-the-draw upcoming fighter looking to make a name for himself, Hunt Bromley (Skip Homeier).  Through these characters and how they all interact in the town you can get a clear understanding of what a gunfighter’s career is like, and what life choices they have to look forward to.

Even though the film is about a man trying to reconnect with his love there isn’t a lot of time spent on relationships.  We see how he interacts with Mark Strett and Mac (Karl Malden) who are two old acquaintances.  Mark was Ringo’s partner in crime back in the day, and Mac was a bartender which knew him from a ways back.  When we do eventually get to see Peggy and Ringo meet and talk it becomes more of a 50s western cliché where the woman, even though she’s trying her best to be strong and sensible, she does eventually come to the man’s terms.  However, I really don’t mind because this desire for the reconnection is really just a facilitator of the main point the film is trying to tell.  This, as I’ve mentioned before, is the life of the gunfighter.

Overall I can’t recommend this movie enough.  It’s being immediately filed under one of my all-time favourites without a doubt.

IMDB says 7.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 100%

I say 10/10