Rating: 
Summary: The Tin Star: A Badge is What You Make of It
Review: In THE TIN STAR director Anthony Mann creates a western variation of the Grizzled Old Vet Teaching the Raw Rookie. This kind of film has built within it a pre-existing allure for the audience who will want to know if the rookie can learn what his mentor has to teach before crunch time. Henry Fonda is the veteran who used to be a sheriff before he turned to bounty hunting. Anthony Perkins is the green as grass newly appointed sheriff of a small western town who wants only to be good enough to be considered a permanent choice. In strolls Fonda looking for a bounty and what begins as a confrontation between established law and mercenary law soon morphs into a buddy movie. Each sees in the other either what he could be or what he once was. For a gunfighter movie, there is surprisingly little gunfighting. Most of the time, the audience gets a crash course in the finer points of being a peace officer. By the film's midpoint, Perkins wants to know why the Fonda character made the switch from a sanctioned badge to a hired gun. Fonda, as bounty hunter, tells a riveting tale of how a sheriff whom he once knew well (himself) needed money and had to catch a wanted man for the bounty only to find that when he was paid the money it was too late for the reward to be of any use.The charm of THE TIN STAR is that it shows a character-driven western, a type that was not used again until Clint Eastwood revived the genre in his pre-DIRTY HARRY days. Fonda and Perkins bounce off each other in all the right ways. In supporting roles, Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, John McIntyre, and Betsy Palmer add their distinctive style to a beloved genre of the western. In the extended conversations between veteran and rookie, both learn that a badge has a value unconnected to its metallic composition. A true lawman will comport himself just as if the badge were pure gold. THE TIN STAR is a movie of pure gold.
Rating: 
Summary: GOES AGAINST MANNs OWN FORMULA
Review: THE TIN STAR seems to go against Anthony Mann's own formula, not so much for its plot, but in its casting of the principal actor Henry Fonda as the catalyst that motivates young sheriff Anthony Perkins (and the film) to live up to the demands of the position. Fonda's casting and presence as the hero seems to make the role static and less complex when compared to what James Stewart could have brought to the role (Stewart was Mann's usual choice for the leading man in his Westerns). Fonda's character is one of a bounty hunter / ex-sheriff who appears to have no moral ambiguities, thus the apprenticeship of Perkins under Fonda's moral stalwartness brings a very straightforward relationship to these main characters. Visually the film also seems to be limited to the town rather than on the wide unclosed vistas of the open range. This claustrophobic effect seems to repress elements of this otherwise interesting screenplay. However, these are only observed peculiarities to Anthony Mann's usual style. This is still a tightly scripted and enticing Western. The showdown between Perkins and Neville Brand is excellently played out. Elmer Bernstein's early Western score is very absorbing and insightful to the film's narrative. I particularly like Henry Fonda's role and his performance in this film. This is a good Western.
Rating:
Summary: A great western that's not just about the body count.
Review: This movie definitely bridges two "genres": Chick Flick and Western. The strength of this movie is not the gun play or the horses - it would succeed even if not presented as a western - but rather the tenderness and understanding that develops in the relationship between the characters played by Perkins and Fonda. Hopefully, this won't scare you off, because it's the reason I have been trying to get my hands on this movie for the past five years.
Rating:
Summary: An exceptional western
Review: When you think of westerns you usually think of movies that have cowboys and indians fighting with the good side winning in the end. Well this movie is quite different in that it does not have indians. Where it lacks in this feature, it reminds you that learning to be a good sheriff was an important thing back in the past. This movie is about Henry Fonda,once a sheriff himself. teaching a new sheriff,Anthony Perkins, how to be an law officer. The bond between teacher and student is emphasized here as Henry teaches Anthony to become a good sheriff. It is handled in a superb manner. Watch for excellent acting from another actor Neville Brand, a star from the TV show Laredo. Watch for good acting from Betsy Palmer, Fonda's girlfriend. Watch for good acting from the town doctor John McIntyre with his good sound advice. And,of course watch for good acting from Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins. Everyone plays their characters well here. Just a fine movie that you should see. An A++++++++++/5 stars
Rating:
Summary: heavy hard star
Review: You can make easily a tin star by cutting that feeble metal from, for example, a fruit can. To carry it is more difficult. From outside the USA it seems public workers aren't so valued as private entrepreneurs.
But not all people serve to do business privately, and some have to choose public work. One of these tasks is being sheriff in old west. In this movie the figure of the sheriff as a public server is well seen: a man not very capable as I suppose were almost all, elected between the people of a small village, honest but without real skills to impose the law against dangerous bandits: So then, that famous tin star should weigh terribly. In contrast there is the gunman: he's very able with firearms but in this film shooting exhibitions pass to a secondary plane. The personage played by Henry Fonda basically knows his profession in full and furthermore, it remains in a slight dark the feeling that he doesn't value life too much, nor those of his preys nor his own, as he's a bitter, lonely, disillusioned man of and uncertain age with not much to lose. That quality, paradoxically, gives him an advantage in all fights owing to a quiet, indifferent mood the sheriff can't attain as he wants to live and hates troubles. The sheriff must risk against his will; the gunman afford these risks without much worry and all these isn't only a matter of mastery with the revolver. The two protagonists are very well chosen, contrasting the sober Fonda with the disquiet Perkins, but in the film at the end, the two men have changed.
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