Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Wuchak RELEASED IN 1952 and directed by Anthony Mann, "Bend of the River" stars James Stewart as wagon master, Glyn McLyntock, who leads pioneers to a remote settlement near Mount Hood, Oregon. When a profit-minded Portland boss confiscates the settlers' winter supplies due to a gold rush, McLyntock teams-up with a good-natured-but-dubious gunman (Arthur Kennedy) and a gentleman gambler (Rock Hudson) to get the supplies to them. Harry Morgan & Royal Dano are on hand as ne'er-do-wells while Julie Adams, Lori Nelson and Frances Bavier appear in feminine roles.This was the second of five Westerns Mann did with Stewart. These were uncompromisingly harsh, psychological Westerns featuring themes of revenge, obsession, rage and redemption. They were spectacularly shot on location, rather than in the studio, providing a backdrop of authentic rugged beauty. In this film you'll often see Mount Hood looming in the distance.A lot of action & events are crammed into an hour and a half, which is great for action fans or those with ADHD. Take, for instance, the opening campout sequence where the Natives waste little time in attacking; or the saloon scene where someone gets fatally shot within minutes. I'm not complaining because I enjoy muscular action, but the downside is that the movie lacks the mundaneness of real life in the Old West. That said, it's highly realistic in that it shows you how tough it was for settlers. Take, for instance, the rough, bumpy trails the wagons had to traverse.In any case, this is a dynamic, tough, psychological early 50's Western with James Stewart. It's atypical and original (although people say it has similarities to 1946' "Canyon Passage, which I've never seen). You just have to acclimate to some old-fashioned hokey elements.THE MOVIE RUNS 91 minutes and was shot in the Columbia River/Mount Hood region of northern Oregon. WRITERS: Borden Chase from William Gulick's novel.GRADE: B

jackasstrange Despite having some impressive technical aspects for the time of it's release, 'Bend of The River' don't has that much of a coherent and catchy story. Still, it's pretty enjoyable, i've never seen a western with James Stewart before. I guess that he is a fine actor.The editing is a problem in this film: there is just too many things going on each minute, making the events very hard to follow. Some of the important dialogs are quickly cut, while pointless ones are given very carefully attention, such as the ones about how to take care of a shirt and stuff of that genre, while the essential dialog showing Cole being convinced by the 'bandits' just runs for about ten seconds or so. I mean, come on. The bit that is coherent still a bit enjoyable, but the ending is disappointing, it is not as powerful as i was expecting, and like many westerns in that time, too cheesy for his own sake.The cinematography is very good, and there is some 'perspective' games that i personally found interesting. Despite knowing that the scenarios were all painted, about 80% of them convinced me of the opposite, being one of the exceptions the obviously 'mountain' in the background of the settlement, which was blatantly fake.But what i really liked about this film and i honestly think that it was the best thing by far about it was the soundtrack. It's terrific, one of the best that i've heard in an American western so far.It is worth a watch. 6.0/10

Spikeopath The second of five genre defining Westerns that director Anthony Mann made with James Stewart, Bend Of The River is the first one to be made in color. The slick screenplay is written by Borden Chase from William Gulick's novel "Bend Of The Snake," with support for Stewart coming from Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson & Jay C. Flippen.Stewart plays guide Glyn McLyntock who in 1847 is leading a wagon- train of homesteaders from troubled Missouri to the Oregon Territory. What the group are hoping for is a new start, a paradise, with McLyntock himself hoping for a new identity to escape his own troubled past. But after rescuing Emerson Cole (Kennedy) from a lynching, it's an act that has far reaching consequences for McLyntock and the trail once they get to Portland.In typical Anthony Mann style, McLyntock is a man tested to the maximum as he seeks to throw off his shackles and find a new redemption within a peaceful community. Cloaked in what would be become Mann's trademark stunning vistas (cinematography courtesy of Irving Glassberg), Bend Of The River is often thought of as the lighter tale from the Stewart/Mann partnership; most likely because it has more action and no little amount of comedy in there. But although it's a simple story in essence, it is given a hard boiled and psychological edge by the makers. An edge that asks searching questions of its "hero" in waiting. Can "McLyntock" indeed escape his past? And as a "hero" is it OK to use violence when he is wronged? Potent stuff that is acted with tremendous gravitas by Stewart.Very recommended picture, but in truth all five of them are really. 7/10

FightingWesterner Jimmy Stewart leads a wagon train to the Oregon wilderness and settles down to help build a settlement and after a gold rush, having to battle thieves and a greedy merchant to get a shipment of supplies back before the settlers are snowed in for the winter.Tense, exciting, and extremely violent for a fifties movie, this film really delivers the goods in terms of action and drama.Jimmy Stewart is especially hard boiled in (for him) a darker-than-usual role.Arthur Kennedy and Rock Hudson are excellent as a couple of shifty gunmen who are tentatively on the side of good. They try hard (Kennedy especially) to steal the movie away from Stewart!Julie Adams was one of the most beautiful women of the nineteen-fifties. Despite a long career in films, (which isn't over yet) she's almost entirely remembered as the girl that made the gill-man go Ga-Ga in The Creature From The Black Lagoon.