Wuchak
In 1968's "The Stalking Moon" Gregory Peck plays a frontier scout who retires from assisting the US Army to his ranch in the mountains of New Mexico where a needy blond (Eva Marie Saint) and her half-Indian boy tag along. Unfortunately the boy's father is on their trail, a silent and ruthless killing machine named Salvaje, meaning "Ghost" in Apache. Robert Forster is on hand as the scout's Native friend.You'll like "The Stalking Movie" if you like low-key, realistic Westerns in the manner of "Will Penny," but without that film's over-the-top (and unbelievable) villains. Like "Penny," it has great actors, spectacular locations & cinematography and a quality score. Unfortunately, the story & characters aren't as interesting and the movie plays out in a dull manner.Before viewing "The Stalking Moon" I saw "Journey to Shiloh," which was released the same year. "Journey" is a low-budget movie with the unmistakable gloss of one of Universal's factory-made television movies at the time. Despite these glaring limitations, the characters and their story pulled me into the movie and kept my interest. "The Stalking Moon," by contrast, offers the express opposite: Cinematic expertise on every level, but a tedious story and bland characters. It's an interesting comparison: What's more important – an involving story with interesting characters or technically excellent filmmaking? I'll take "Journey" with its entertaining yarn over "Stalking" any day.A good example of what I mean by the blandness of the characters can be seen in the humdrum-ness of the scout's relationship with the blond and her boy as depicted in the cabin scenes at the ranch, particularly at the dinner table. Perhaps the filmmakers were making a point of the woman's culture shock at re-entering civilized society but, regardless, the lack of substance or any hint of joie de vivre in their interactions is dreadfully tedious. When Salvaje finally attacks in the last half hour it still wasn't interesting.Nevertheless, if you enjoy ultra-realistic 60s/70s Westerns and are a fan of Peck or Saint, "The Stalking Moon" is a must.The film runs 109 minutes and was shot at Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.GRADE: C+
RanchoTuVu
A tense, fairly realistic, and mature western from 1968, when the genre was on the way to near oblivion, only to be saved now and then by the likes of Peckinpah and Eastwood. Unfortunately, this film is not so well known and has been unfairly characterized as plodding and slow. It definitely has a degree of introspectiveness to it, but their is a gem of a pursuit story. The film does its best not to sugarcoat the west. The locales and people are pretty impressive for their gritty primitiveness and overall authenticity. The central story about a fierce Apache warrior who's waging his own brutal campaign to kill as many whites as he can, chasing the white woman who was his wife and the mother of his son, while an ageing army scout does his best to protect them is framed by some pretty awesome photography of blinding sandstorms, thick vegetation, and lots of rocky cliffs and a fine score.
bkoganbing
From the same folks who brought you To Kill a Mockingbird, a good western thriller The Stalking Moon blends old west action with Alfred Hitchcock type suspense.Gregory Peck is an old army scout who helped rescue captive white woman Eva Marie Saint and her son Noland Clay by one of the Apache chiefs. The father isn't about to give up his son and he pursues Peck all the way to his ranch after he quit the cavalry. The last 40% of the film deals with Peck and his ranch guests being stalked by a clever and dangerous Indian opponent.The film itself touches on themes used in both The Searchers and Two Rode Together by John Ford and the fine Joel McCrea-Barbara Stanwyck western, Trooper Hook. But director Robert J. Mulligan took his style cues from Alfred Hitchcock. We don't ever see the opponent except in long shot right up to the very end. We only know him from what is said about Nathaniel Narciso from what is said and the death and destruction in his wake. The anticipation is all the more terrifying.Western and suspense, The Stalking Moon is a nice blend of film genres and fans of Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint will be pleased.
ragosaal
Gregory Peck is an army scout trying to take back with her people a white woman (Eva Marie Saint) that has been rescued from the Apaches that kidnapped her some years before. The point is that she has become a mother while in captivity and the fierce Indian father of the kid (appropiately called Salvaje) goes after them to recover his son no matter what.The plot is quite simple and yet this is not an ordinary western. It is full of suspense and menace, both very well handled by director Robert Mulligan. Salvaje is never at sight but he is always there as a real and deadly menace. The atmosphere is perfectly achieved and the picture is a thrilling experience all along in spite of a bit of excess in its duration; perhaps a 10 minutes cut might have been better.Mulligan was a skillful director, not very prolific, but with other fine films in his account such as the excellent "To Kill a Mockingbird" (also with Peck), the enjoyable "Summer of '42" and the fine thriller "The Other" unfairly underrated no doubt.With "The Stalking Moon" Mulligan tries his hand at westerns and he gets an interesting one that suits the genre's fans and surely thriller's fans too.
AD
