The Hi-Lo Country (1998)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writers (WGA):

Max Evans (novel)
Walon Green (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 January 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Tagline:

A woman like Mona can drive men to extremes.

Plot:

An intimate story of the enduring bond of friendship between two hard-living men, set against a sweeping backdrop: the American West...

Plot Keywords:

Cowboy | Friendship | Brother | Love Triangle | Cattle

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Billy Crudup	...	Pete Calder
Woody Harrelson	...	Big Boy Matson
Cole Hauser	...	Little Boy Matson
Enrique Castillo	...	Levi Gomez
Darren E. Burrows	...	Billy Harte (as Darren Burrows)
Jacob Vargas	...	Delfino Mondragon
Robert Knott	...	Jack Couffer
Sam Elliott	...	Jim Ed Love
Sandy Baron	...	Henchman
Patricia Arquette	...	Mona Birk
John Diehl	...	Les Birk
Craig Carter	...	Art Logan
Penélope Cruz	...	Josepha O'Neil
Walter C. Hall	...	Auctioneer
James Gammon	...	Hoover Young

Also Known As:

Hi-Lo Country - Im Land der letzten Cowboys (Germany) (TV title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexuality, a scene of violence, and for brief language.

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA | UK | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bernal, New Mexico, USA

Company:

De Fina-Cappa

Trivia:

Director Sam Peckinpah tried to get this movie produced for years, but unfortunately he died before he had the chance.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A Coke vending machine is clearly labeled ten cents. In this part of the country in the late 1940s it would have been five cents. Around 1960 vending machines went to six cents, quite a novelty at the time, requiring two coins to get a Coke. It was later in the 1960s when vending machines finally went to ten cents.

Quotes:

Pete Calder: People still drive cattle to rail heads.
Jim Ed Love: Only in the movies.

Crudup's face and the sunsets redeem a mediocre western.

Enough has been said by other reviewers on this site that this is a less than memorable film. Overlong and "almost" predictable in its plotting, it seemed at first that Frears was filming an original Cormac McCarthy screenplay - it's that close to McCarthy's plotting and narrative devices. Best cowboy friends in the late forties, rival baron ranchers forcing the little guy out, both friends in love with the same girl but one not being able to show it (sort of a cross between THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED, OKLAHOMA! and GIANT). Crudup plays Pete with a quiet sensitivity and we're allowed many many close-ups of his beautiful face (reminiscent of a young Eric Andersen)- that and the sunsets give us breaks of pulchritude in the boring and overlong narrative. Although we "think" we know where the story is going, we are surprised by a few twists at the end, but since they are neither mind-boggling nor interesting, we're less impressed than we might have been. Harrelson was well-cast as Big Boy, but since I've never liked the actor, I was not moved.

An okay but basically mediocre western.