Gold?

Ride the High Country (1962)

This is the second film from director Sam Peckinpah and stars Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea and Mariette Hartley. An ageing former law man is hired to transport gold from a mining camp in the mountains to the local bank.

Fitting into the “end of the west” cycle of Westerns this film is about growing old and friendship/loyalty. There is some nice scenery and the film is well shot but it does fail to really explore it's themes in enough depth while the younger characters do seem a little out of place given the films central themes. Really this film serves as a dry run for Peckinpah's later Wild Bunch (1969) which does a much better job of looking at the same ideas.

3/5