antoniocasaca123
A good Western-Thriller by the great director John Sturges, with a courageous message, especially at the time of the film: the silence and conformism of the people, in a skillful and subtle criticism to the times of "McCarthyism" that lived at the time of the film. There are quite a few similarities to "High Noon", made three years earlier. Spencer Tracy has an excellent performance (nominated for Oscar) as well as the remaining actors in the cast (Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, among others). The only weakness is some movie sequences that are quite unlikely. Still, a movie that delivers great entertainment and a beautiful message.
DKosty123
This film is more than just an excellent cast. It is well directed by John Sturges and has just the right amount of tension. The viewer can not be really sure when it takes place as the film is set in a modern west. The jeep might be newer than the car, and the gasoline pump, but there is no sense getting picky here, it is a tight story.A one armed WW 2 vet arrives in a small town looking for the father of a US Vet from the Italy campaign who died in the service after receiving a silver star. He wants to give the metal to his father because the man gave his life to save him. A twist here is the US soldier was Japanese and so is his dad. When Spencer Tracy is the one armed man and he is hated in the town from the moment he arrives asking for the Japanese-American father. The longer he is there, the more a conspiracy to kill him forms. Lee Marvin plays one of the bad guys. Walter Brennan plays a Doctor/ Funeral Director. Robert Ryan is the guy who is very concerned that the stranger in town is going to expose the murder of the Japanese father he committed. This is a very good one, I enjoyed it.
pavelb-968-44685
The picture has all the necessary characteristics to be really good, but it misses the mark with too many glaring errors. First, the lead is wrong - Tracy is simply too old. Then there's the unnecessary character Anne Francis - not required at all. Robert Ryan never develops into any kind of pithy villain - his lines are shallow and not in keeping with someone who thinks himself "in charge". If Tracy wouldn't have had to do a "Yoda" on the big bad guy (the best character in the picture) Ernie Borgnine, the plot would have been almost believable. As it was presented, the characters weren't real enough in this "town" where everyone just sits around waiting for someone to come along and discover their secret. Dean Jagger was pretty good and even Brennan but they needed to be deeper in their inferiority. Lee Marvin is very good and should have been given a few more scenes. Secondly, the script was written as if it were telling a story 70 years earlier. Perhaps it could have been written as a Spaghetti Western - at least the music would have been memorable. This could have been a much better picture considering it deals with a subject rarely, if ever, discussed... that horrible post-war period when old scores are settled after the conflict is over, rightly or wrongly. This picture begs be remade with a much better script showing the subtle twists and intrigue of 60+ years hindsight. Mortensen as lead?
jimbo-53-186511
Bad Day at Black Rock uses paranoia as its main basis for creating tension. In fairness, this is a fairly effective foundation in the beginning; Spencer Tracey plays John J Macreedy who is a stranger that arrives in a small town in which the locals are suspicious of anyone who's considered an outsider. This aspect is also quite interesting as it does seem to play on the old cliché that everyone in a small town is suspicious of all strangers. The paranoia aspect is also intriguing; Macreedy is met with hostility when he tries to check in to a hotel, all the locals give him a hard time and basically try to drive him out of town. The paranoia is a good foundation to build the film upon, but the problem for me is that it was far too drawn out in this film. It's around about an hour into the film before anything really happens and it did start to become a bit tiresome to be honest. There is enough intrigue to make the film watchable and I wouldn't really describe it as being boring, but the paranoia aspect started to become a bit of a gimmick and for the most part it seemed to be the only thing that was driving the narrative. Let's all be honest, did anything really happen in the first hour?Acting wise, only Tracy and Borgnine stood out as being truly excellent, although the rest of the main cast do put in reasonable performances.Thankfully, the final 20 minutes or so was pretty good and we finally learned why Macreedy had come back to find Kumoko (My thoughts on this aspect of the plot were 'well better late than never' - I would have been even more annoyed if this aspect had been left unexplained). In some ways although the final 20 minutes were pretty good, the change of pace actually came as a shock. I personally felt the ending was somewhat rushed, but then again I may have just felt that way because the first hour of the film was so slow in comparison.Bad Day at Black Rock is a reasonably good film, but my main issue is that the plot was quite thin and it didn't help that the paranoia gimmick was drawn out for far too long. If you're a fan of Westerns then I would still suggest checking it out as it is watchable at the very least.
AD
