Bad Day at Black Rock

Rating:
Summary: superb movie in every way; director's best
Review: This is a fantastic, compact little drama about mistrust and murder, set in a dusty little whistle stop in the west. The title makes it sound like a western, and I, being a fan of westerns, picked it up as a result at the local video store. It's kind of a western in a sense, only it's set 60 years after the cowboys. The plot is divided neatly in half: the first part deals with the townspeople trying to figure out the secret of the one-armed man (played brilliantly by Spencer Tracy) who has just arrived in their town; the second half with the one-armed man trying to figure out the secret of the town, and once he finds out, the conflict that follows. Brilliantly directed by John Sturges (of Great Escape fame, a film which is much inferior to this lesser known movie) with great performances by almost all the cast, and a great script to boot. This is 50s Hollywood filmmaking at its finest. The only complaint that I have is that MGM only has this available in the pan-and-scan format on VHS, which cuts off more than half of the wide Cinemascope format's screen. This film is meant to be seen in a theater, with an ultra-wide screen, but the second best thing would be to watch this in enhanced widescreen on a widescreen TV. It just doesn't do it justice to watch it in this format! It was directed, like Lawrence of Arabia, to make the best use of the aspect ratio. So I certainly hope MGM gets the point and releases it on DVD in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs. (also, Turner Classic Movies occasionally shows it in widescreen as well.) But in the meantime, suffer through the poor quality and watch this gem on VHS.

Rating:
Summary: Tracy terrific, no fluff, his best role, film taut.
Review: Tracy completely believable as a handicapped man who is no match for his enemies and yet wins. One of my top five films.