MovieChat Forums > The Far Country (1954) Discussion > Your thoughts on this please

Your thoughts on this please


I love klondike gold rush movies. does anyone know of anymore? I love the outdoors wide open spaces, cold, wilderness beauty. Anyway this is a great movie like most of the Mann-Stewart Westerns.

only two issues I had with it:

1. why on earth is Walter Brennan character so stupid? 2 minutes after Jeff tells him to keep silent on something he blurts it out. My God.

2. gannon just seemed to brazenly evil. Hangs people he feels like it. Takes cattle just cuz' takes people gold stakes. It just seems too ridiculously brazen. Without any law, military, cavalry no military force whatsoever can shut him down? It's absurd.

That said any mores on the Klondike or wilderness between 1935 and 1965? North to Alaska is one. Thank you

reply

The lawlessness in Dawson City, Yukon during the gold rush is a complete fabrication by Hollywood.

In reality, the Mounted Police were in the Klondike in large numbers before and during the gold rush, and had a lock down on the place. Here's a quote from historian Pierre Berton in his review of The Far Country:

"The historical truth is that the Yukon Territory during the gold rush was the closest thing to a police state British North America has ever seen. The Northwest Mounted Police was stationed in the territory in considerable numbers long before the Klondike strike. They controlled every route into the Yukon and they brooked no nonsense. They collected customs duties, often over the wails of the new arrivals, made arbitrary laws on the spot about river navigation, and turned men back if they didn't have enough supplies, or if they simply looked bad. In true Canadian fashion, they laid down moral laws for the community. In Dawson the Lord's Day Act was strictly observed; it was a crime punishable by a fine to cut your wood on Sunday; and plump young women were arrested for what the stern-faced police called "giving a risqué performance in the theatre," generally nothing more than dancing suggestively on the stage in overly revealing tights.

In such a community, a gunbelt was unthinkable. One notorious bad man from Tombstone who tried to pack a weapon on his hip was personally disarmed by a young constable, who had just ejected him from a saloon for the heinous crime of talking too loudly. The bad man left like a lamb but protested when the policeman, upon discovering he was carrying a gun told him to hand it over. "No man has yet taken a gun away from me," said the American. "Well, I'm taking it", the constable said mildly and did so, without further resistance. So many revolvers were confiscated in Dawson that they were auctioned off by the police for as little as a dollar and purchased as souvenirs to keep on the mantelpiece.
"


So yes, the screenplay having Jeff Gannon ruling over a lawless Dawson City like a warlord is a little hard to swallow.



Oh shanty town, we're gonna tear ya down
I got me money come out of me stockins

reply

Some other "gold rush" films include:
Any version of THE SPOILERS, the best probably is the 1942 one, with Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne & Randolph Scott
NORTH TO ALASKA (a little too comedic for my tastes but Henry Hathaway directed, w/Wayne, Capucine, Fabian and Ernie Kovacs
THE GOLD RUSH (1925) A Chaplin classic, silent of course
THE NORTH STAR (1996)
ROAD TO UTOPIA (Hope-Crosby-Lamour romp)
THE CALL OF THE WILD (1972 version maybe closest to J. London tome)

May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?

reply


only two issues I had with it:

1. why on earth is Walter Brennan character so stupid? 2 minutes after Jeff tells him to keep silent on something he blurts it out. My God.


I suppose his character represents ignorance, as one of the film's themes is the dangers of ignorance and insensitivity. Walter Brennan's character is an affable, easygoing fellow who lives with his head in the clouds, believing that everyone's as affable and easygoing as he is, even when it's plain as day that they aren't, and goes through life thinking he can just do as he pleases and that nothing bad will ever happen to him or someone else because of him, because he just expects everything to just work out for him. Ultimately, this mindset doesn't work out for him and/or Jeff.

A similar theme comes up in "Shenadoah" but that's another conversation.


2. gannon just seemed to brazenly evil. Hangs people he feels like it. Takes cattle just cuz' takes people gold stakes. It just seems too ridiculously brazen. Without any law, military, cavalry no military force whatsoever can shut him down? It's absurd.


Outside of Hollywood being Hollywood, I would say that the conflict with Gannon ties in with the theme of insensitivity as portrayed in Jeff Webster (James Stewart). Except for Walter Brennan's character, Jeff just plain doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything that doesn't somehow pertain to his plans. His refusal to really stand up on behalf of the people factors into Gannon and his thugs attacking him and Brennan near the end of the film; Jeff survives and is treated with contempt by the townsfolk when he tries to talk them out of leaving under pressure from Gannon and his thugs.

reply