Can't accept the major plot point

Eh, just an aside about that "Kubrick was the Tarantino of his time." That's like saying Mozart was the Elton John of his time. Here's a better one to consider: "We throw around the word 'genius' today like it's a nickel, when in fact, it should be more like a manhole cover.'

True, it's made known that the sheriff carries some serious authority. I should revise this thread title, because in theory, this explanation fits fine within the context of the story. I think the reason I gloss over it is because the movie does. Everywhere else, the story properly unfolds through the characters - including how we realize that the sheriff chucked ethics out the window a long time ago.

But we need to see him (or any unethical major character) actually swing his weight around. Otherwise:

1.) The character isn't fully developed. It takes zero effort to let the audience know that someone is a jerk. In the case of the sheriff here, he agrees to screw with the rescue. OK, case closed. He's a jerk. But compare him to the reporter, who has also chucked his ethics. We aren't just told that, we see him in the act of chucking quite often.

2.) More importantly, the storytelling runs into trouble. If we know that the sheriff is an unethical jerk, why would that be important? It wouldn't be, unless his ethical lapses affect the story. Technically, he doesn't have to be unethical all the time. He might be that way with his wife but never his job, or with some parts of his job and not all, etc. But the power to control an engineer in this situation is so super-colossal. Just because you're an unethical jerk doesn't mean you get that kind of power.

Maybe that power was shown earlier and I missed it? I don't think that happened. Because even though the sheriff apparently had it all along, it always sounds like it's coming out of left field during that one important scene (which is about the worst time for something like that happen.)

The rest of the narrative is pretty dang solid. But all that stuff relies on the stall tactic, and I've never noticed it had much or any context to it.

yeah, really, drew-155, i agree with you.

also why do they never tell us how to weave an Indian rug? i mean, that's a dangling plot point if ever i saw one.

This has nothing to do with the original thread, but I missed something else in the film: how is Tatum bleeding? I rewinded the video several times and could not catch the moment he was pierced in his side. Can somebody help me on this?

Forget the second-hand and unreliable Wikipedia, I have the book, and its account is at least partly inaccurate -- because Tatum does collude with the corrupt sheriff, who in turn blackmails the engineer into going along with their plan to delay Leo's rescue.

And as far as the audience knows, neither Kretzer nor Smollett is ever made to answer for their actions. We may want to assume that the sheriff loses his reelection bid and consequently Smollett loses his contract with the county, but the only hint of that in the film is that at the end Tatum brings Herbie back to the newspaper office, sits him down at his desk and tells him to write the story. But Herbie has only limited and frankly uncorroborated information from Tatum about his dealings with the sheriff, and as Tatum dies right after it'd be hard for the paper to make such accusations without any proof or more information. (Remember how careful Mr. Boot is regarding what he prints, as he says at the beginning.)

Besides, not much is made of this last action by Tatum -- it's almost incidental to what's going on. The audience may want to believe that Kretzer and Smollett will pay for their acts, but there's no guarantee of this. Not to mention that Lorraine walks off scott-free, and she's the one who stabbed Tatum. One reason so many people disliked this film in 1951 is that most of these detestable characters seemed to get away with their actions.

The whole point of this movie is how people are corrupted. Tatum is corrupted by his drive for the big time. Lorriane is corrupted by the promise of enough "dough" to get out of there. The sheriff is corrupted by the promise of being made a hero guaranteed reelection. Smollett is corrupted by fear of losing his contracting business and the hope of becoming "the biggest contractor in the state", as Tatum says.

Of course, all these people are corrupt to begin with, even Smollett (he got his present job through Sheriff Kretzer). But even the good people are corrupted, at least for a time: Herbie by the lure of a big city newspaper job; Boot by huge circulation; even Leo by the prospect of becoming a hero in the papers. The carnival people, songwriters, the Indians, all the hucksters are corrupted by the prospect of easy bucks. The spectators are corrupted by flocking to the scene of a disaster and turning it into a zoo.

Everything in this film follows that central plot point. I really don't see how the characters' motivations aren't obvious, or that their actions or behavior are somehow not adequately explained. Smollett is one of the most blatant examples of this absence of morality, and how he gets pulled into this web of deceit and selfishness, even if reluctantly and with a flash of conscience. In a way, that makes him even worse than someone like Tatum or Sheriff Kretzer: they're thoroughly morally bankrupt anyway and behave accordingly. But Smollett shows some sense of right and duty, yet drops it like a coward when he's simultaneously threatened and offered the chance to become even bigger in the business.

Yes, and that's the point. It may be understandable that Smollett wants to hold on to the construction business he's built up with Sheriff Kretzer's patronage. It's also understandable that he could succumb to the prospect Tatum laid out for him of becoming "the biggest contractor in the state".

But understanding these natural human impulses doesn't mean he doesn't realize he's doing the wrong thing. He knows perfectly well what Tatum's plan -- going through the top of the mountain -- will mean. He even argues with them for a bit before the threats of losing his present position and the promises of even bigger things get to him.

Smollett may not be evil, but he's something that may be worse: an amoral man complicit with evil due to his own lack of character and integrity. Ultimately he's an unethical coward, and worse, unable to acknowledge his own culpability and guilt. Later on, when he tells Tatum and Kretzer that it's too late to switch and get Leo out through the cave, he tries to weasel out of his part of the responsibility by telling them (roughly), "Don't look at me. I never wanted to go in through the top in the first place. I never wanted to be part of this whole thing."