Winchester 73

Year: 1950

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Mann

Review

as the title indicates this film is more about an object, and what it represents, than the people within the film. the object (the winchester 1873 rifle) is, in many ways, a more important player than the human characters in the film. in fact, the characters are mostly just archetypes, and thus symbols for ideals beyond the individuals and their issues. surely i don’t mean to make petty the struggles of the individuals, but given the biblical nature of the story and the fact that the camera always draws the eye to the rifle, i think that there is certainly something more at stake here than a man (stewart) trying to recover his weapon. it could be a cold war allegory like high noon, or a more abstract/universal morality tale about greed and the desire for power. like lord of the rings, which also made an object a primary character, winchester 73 need not be allegorical, but it is certainly applicable to many historical times or events. more superficially the story is just a darn good yarn. stewart’s character isn’t as dark and mysterious as john wayne’s in “the searchers,” but he also isn’t a “shane.” we get the sense that he’s a good guy, but there is a mystery in his past that isn’t revealed until the end. i never felt as though i wasn’t on his side though, and this is why i think he’s still a symbol. we feel from his very first act (standing up for shelley winters’ character) that he’s a good guy, even if there is something lurking in the background. i didn’t see anything fantastic in the direction…the treatment of the rifle was good, but other than that nothing really popped out for me. but i’m admittedly not very good at detecting subtleties of style and such.