Rating: 
Summary: The Peaks of High Sierra Attract Clashing Personalities
Review: HIGH SIERRA is a gangster film, but it is also much more than that. Prior to HIGH SIERRA'S release in 1941, star Humphrey Bogart, who plays Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle, had played a host of snarling hoodlums, most of whom were one-dimensional, but in Bogart's hands, he still managed to infuse each with a level of complexity that only he could deliver. But it took his Roy Earle role to finally establish what has since been copied many times by future cinema criminals, the man on the run who, despite his willingness to kill, still maintains a Hemingwayesque code of conduct that allows him to function as the moral center of the film. Roy Earle is a life-long criminal, one who has spent years in prison, seeing up close the results of what happens to inmates who lack self-discipline and a moral code of conduct. For him, crime is not an end, nor are the ill-gotten gains. For him crime is the only response to a life that has denied him any other avenue. For life to have any meaning, he must adhere to a rigid code of conduct that is as every bit as moral (at least to him) as that which drives the very policemen who seek to apprehend him. Those who know him immediately recognize that in Earle, beats the heart and soul of a near-extinct species, one who is paradoxically a fearlessly moral gunman who will risk his own life for a cause or for a trusted friend. When Earle is released from prison, he is talking to a seriously ill cohort, Mac, who is planning one more high profile crime before he dies. Mac, who bemoans the lack of old style gangsters with class, tells Earle, "You know Roy, it is good to even talk to a guy like you." Mac has hired a pair of inexperienced thugs to help Earle, but Earle sees that they do not have what it takes to succeed in a life of crime. He expects them to screw up, and when they do, he shows no remorse at their demise. There are two subplots that suggest that Earle's code of conduct, while admirable in the larger sense, can sometimes cause him intense emotional pain when he feels betrayed by one whom he has allowed himself to grow close to. Ida Lupino is Marie, a female counterpart to Earle. She has had a rough adolescence, but sees in him her soulmate. She could be good for Roy, if only he would let her. Joan Leslie is Velma, a twenty-year old seemingly innocent girl-child, who represents everything that Roy thinks would elevate him from thug to respectability. Velma has a club-foot but is young and pretty, so Roy lends her the money for an operation. She repays him in a manner that surely ranks with the very worst sort of cinematic ingrates. It is painful to watch Velma show her true colors and see the crushing result on a man who thought that nothing could hurt him like that. And in the background lie the high Sierras, a vast set of peaks that act as metaphorical magnets, attracting the interplay between decent but misguided types like Roy and Marie and the truly inhuman types like Velma and Roy's hapless colleagues. The clashing between Roy and the police is not just the literal gunplay between the forces of law and order and those of crime, but, in the film's final scenes of Roy at bay, suggest that a style of life and a code of conduct have been judged and found wanting. HIGH SIERRA is an unforgettable classic that makes us remember that morality and decency can be found even in the most unlikely of settings.
Rating:
Summary: A superb film, a classic!!!
Review: High Sierra is the film that made Humphrey Bogart a big star. Bogie's Roy Earle is a complex creature - a gangster and a killer, yet also a sympathetic character with a sensitive, loving, and compassionate side. Bogie had previously worked with Ida Lupino in "They Drive By Night." Lupino's role was much juicier and complex in that film, but she's fine in "High Sierra" as well.
This film is also interesting in that it's a bridge between the gangster movies that were so popular in the Great Depression, and the Film Noir that was really taking off by the mid-forties. The plot of "High Sierra" is dramatic, with some very gripping and suspenseful parts and a terrific climax.
The picture and sound quality are surprisingly good. The DVD includes two extras - the theatrical trailer, and a very good 15-minute documentary about the film and this time in Bogie's career. The documentary is interesting and insightful (and I say this as someone that normally isn't too interested in DVD extras).
Bottom line: this DVD edition of "High Sierra" will be a terrific edition to any classic movie buff's collection.
Rating:
Summary: Bogart and Lupino at their best
Review: In HIGH SIERRA Humphrey Bogart plays professional criminal Roy Earle who is pardoned from prison because of the influence of a crime boss named Big Mac. Bogart is paid advance money to report to Big Mac in California. Mac is planning to use him to lead a small gang in pulling off a jewelry robbery at a swank resort hotel. En route to California Bogart helps a distressed family he meets at the scene of a minor traffic accident. He is attracted to the granddaughter who is played by Joan Leslie. She has a deformed foot which Bogart arranges to have fixed by a surgeon in California. When he arrives at the hideout he finds two cheap crooks and a dance hall girl waiting for him. One of the hotel employees is also involved in the robbery scheme. The suspense builds rapidly from this point on as we await the outcome of both the holdup and also the romances which are developing simultaneously between Bogart and the two women. Ida Lupino gives a stellar performance as the former dance hall girl whose love for Bogart isn't really appreciated until it may be too late. Bogart and Lupino are at their best in this film. A Strong supporting cast includes Arthur Kennedy, Alan Curtis, Henry Hull, Henry Travis, Jerome Cowan and Cornell Wilde. There is also a small dog in the cast who will win your admiration and break your heart. Raoul Walsh is known for his direction of many other fine movies including ROARING TWENTIES and THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE.
Rating: 
Summary: Bogart on the Run
Review: In High Sierra, Humphrey Bogart plays one of those characters that we shouldn't admire because he has led a "bad" life of crime, yet somehow we find ourselves rooting for him to get what he wants, because we suspect he's a decent guy at heart that didn't get the right breaks. In other words, he's a complicated character, and in the hands of Bogart, he's well played and very compelling. Ida Lupino gives another one of her intense performances as the girl who loves him and who herself is in need of a break. Joan Leslie plays a teenage girl that Bogart helps out and falls in love with. Leslie seems like an unlikely choice for Bogart to love. She's too young and there isn't any chemistry between them at all. But for me, that's about the only real flaw in this film. Director Raoul Walsh blends a lot of elements together: gangsters, bank caper, chase scenes, love story, and drama at a very human level. And he blends those elements into an excellent movie.
Rating:
Summary: Bogart on the Run
Review: In High Sierra, Humphrey Bogart plays one of those characters that we shouldn't admire because he has led a "bad" life of crime, yet somehow we find ourselves rooting for him to get what he wants, because we suspect he's a decent guy at heart that didn't get the right breaks. In other words, he's a complicated character, and in the hands of Bogart, he's well played and very compelling. Ida Lupino gives another one of her intense performances as the girl who loves him and who herself is in need of a break. Joan Leslie plays a teenage girl that Bogart helps out and falls in love with. Leslie seems like an unlikely choice for Bogart to love. She's too young and there isn't any chemistry between them at all. But for me, that's about the only real flaw in this film. Director Raoul Walsh blends a lot of elements together: gangsters, bank caper, chase scenes, love story, and drama at a very human level. And he blends those elements into an excellent movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Old style Hollywood crime thriller
Review: One of the old films that when we start watching it, we know how it will turn out-making it sad and a bit predictable, in a funny way. Still, I was glad to see it finally out on dvd, ready for a re-viewing out of the old UHF channels from which it came. Good solid, characters, old fashioned cars and shoot outs---it's a pretty fun movie to tank a few beers to. Not a real classic, but worthwhile as an addition to a film buff's library.
Rating:
Summary: High Sierra
Review: Probably one of the best movies that relates to human nature that has become more predominant today in corporate activities.
Rating:
Summary: The film used the gangster image as a critic of its time.
Review: Taking the novel by Burnett, Walsh made a film on the injustice of society during the Depression times in the U.S. The gangster is not a bad man but a man obliged to be out of the law because there is not any other way or survival. So he has his own ethic and moral. The film is now a classical. Its action scenes are magnificent and Bogart began to build up his romantic rol about a man who knows everything but has to accept a fate that he is unable to change
Rating:
Summary: The convergence of old ways and newly found self...
Review: The callous Roy Earl (Humphrey Bogart), a skilled robber, is pardoned and released back into society from being locked up in a prison. Once outside Roy goes back to his old ways as an old friend is planning a new heist. However, age has caught up with Roy as he realizes that most of his friends have passed away and that most people in his trade are very young. This leads Roy to gently reaching out to a handicapped woman with whom he can empathize with and relate to, and helping her out of a battered situation. In addition, Roy forms a strong emotional bond with a dog, Pard, that seeks Roy's affectionate care. The question is if Roy can balance his old lifestyle with his newly discovered self as he is about to carry out a criminal plan. High Sierra is a terrific cinematic experience as it offers both suspense and human connections in a tragic story in which Bogart gives an outstanding performance.
Rating:
Summary: The convergence of old ways and newly found self...
Review: The callous Roy Earl (Humphrey Bogart), a skilled robber, is pardoned and released back into society from being locked up in a prison. Once outside Roy goes back to his old ways as an old friend is planning a new heist. However, age has caught up with Roy as he realizes that most of his friends have passed away and that most people in his trade are very young. This leads Roy to gently reaching out to a handicapped woman with whom he can empathize with and relate to, and helping her out of a battered situation. In addition, Roy forms a strong emotional bond with a dog, Pard, that seeks Roy's affectionate care. The question is if Roy can balance his old lifestyle with his newly discovered self as he is about to carry out a criminal plan. High Sierra is a terrific cinematic experience as it offers both suspense and human connections in a tragic story in which Bogart gives an outstanding performance.
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