HotToastyRag
The same year Kirk Douglas made the classic masterpiece The Bad and the Beautiful, he also made the low-budget, forgotten movie The Big Trees. He took no salary for the film as a way to get out of his Warner Brothers contract, and since he also admitted that it wasn't a good movie, I don't feel bad for criticizing it. You know I'm a Kirk Douglas fan, so if there are a handful of his movies I don't care for, I'm sure you-and he-will forgive me.Kirk plays a lumberman who's trying to get his hands on some potentially lucrative California redwoods. The Northern Californian town wants him to leave their trees alone, but he values money over heritage and nature-until he gets interested in Eve Miller, one of the vocal local girls. Since he's already involved with Patrice Wymore, he's got more than just a fight for the trees on his hands!The Big Trees reminded me of Tulsa, a movie starring Susan Hayward that pins greed against nature. Both films aren't very good quality and have pretty predictable stories, with little disasters thrown in to keep audiences interested, or awake. But, unless you're die-hard fans of the stars and insist on seeing every single one of their movies, there's no reason to sit through them. They typify the "old movies" people who don't like old movies make fun of. At least in The Big Trees, you get to see Kirk Douglas doing some cool stunts, as he's been known to do. Still, you're better off with Lonely Are the Brave.
dbdumonteil
The scene when the people from the forest "read" history on a redwood may have inspired Hitchcock and his screenwriters for a famous moment in "Vertigo" when Kim Novak and James Stewart walk through the trees(it is not in the original French novel)Deforestation has become one of the main concerns of our time,which gives "the big trees" a contemporary ecological feel.Kirk Douglas portrays a greedy man one of his rare parts of a disagreeable man (however there were three of these nasty persons in his 1952 work "ace in the hole' aka "the big carnival" "detective story" and this movie).In " the big trees" ,it will take tragedies and the love and faith of a woman to take him back on the right track.The forest landscapes are splendid and make the viewer feel how much people need the protection of these big trees.
lyonefein
This is a story about a young opportunist and slick-talker (Kirk Douglas as Fallon) who leaves his floundering lumber operation in Wisconsin in order to exploit a piece of Federal Lands Claims legislation that went into effect in 1900. Hoping to make a quick fortune, he heads for northern California and the vast tracks of Redwoods and Sequoias there. The plot's central conflict is developed when Fallon/Douglas encounters a community of nature-loving religious pacifists who have been living for years on the land that he hopes to harvest. Much attention is paid, in this film, to the simple arguments presented by these people who consider the giant trees to be sacred reminders of God's greatness. The forest is their church, and they strive to convince would-be (de)foresters such as Fallon that the trees are more valuable left standing than being cut down and used for lumber.Douglas' performance is nuanced and convincing, as he portrays the deep internal transformations that his character goes through. In addition, there is a truly remarkable action sequence--clearly the great grand-daddy of all of Tom Cruise's (et al.) exploits--in which Douglas leaps aboard a runaway train.In a silent "wink" to savvy audience members, the mock-Spanish name of the California county where all this takes place is written on a sign over the door of the courthouse: San Hedrin.
alexandre michel liberman (tmwest)
Kirk Douglas works with wood and wants to make money quick by grabbing land in California and cutting the giant and very old trees. He ends up getting involved with religious people who live there and only want him to cut the newer and smaller trees. Patrice Wymore is the woman who is in love with him but he starts falling for the religious Eve Miller. The unusual and interesting scenery makes this western worth seeing. Also Douglas here is at his best. It is a shame that the colors in the DVD, were very inferior to what I remember from the film when it was first released in 1952.
AD
