Seuls sont les indomptés

Revisited this film recently. It is about a man, John Burns, (Douglas), who purposely puts himself into prison to escape with his old pal. John Burns is a nonconformist, a maverick who doesn't carry any id n who doesn't believe in borders n fences. Someone rightly said in the review section that this film is the original Rambo-First Blood. The prison escape scene is too lousy one though but the dialogues before the escape during the barricade cutting scene was hilarious. Hey, u boys sharpening ur toenails? Brushing our teeth. U sure got bony teeth. I was laughing out loud. Also when George Kennedy, the prison warden tells Douglas that he has a phone call in the middle of the nite n the college boy references were lol. Karl Swenson as the Reverend was hilarious.

This is certainly Kirk Douglas' best movie and that is saying a lot! The loss of individuality and the valuesof the West, if anything, are more pronounced today than when the film was made. Kirk's performance is perfectly understated as fits the character he portrays. No false heroics, gore, or sensationalism which all too often ruin today's movies . One reviewer commented that there was not a satisfactory conclusion... no last words by Douglas, uncertainty about his fate, and the ambivalent response of the sheriff, Walter Matthau. This is no simple movie with clear cut heroes and villains. There are only people who contend with the compromises one accepts or, in the rare instance of Kirk's character, one attempts to overcome. The affinity between Kirk and his horse are central to the theme and end of this fine film. Everyone connected in the making of this classic. I rate it a 10.

I pity those who cannot, even in a small way, identify with Douglas' character, Jack Burns in this ageless work of art. This is a self described 'lonely man,' of no use to his true love( who has married his old friend) because he cannot share his life with anyone. He acknowledges that he is of no use to anyone. Rather he is a constant threat to whatever social order he encounters. The one time he makes a commitment, to his horse no less, he loses his edge. And probably his freedom. What a wonderful movie this is.It steeps itself in the fading of the West. While much of it is seemingly allegorical, there is also a truthfulness, and a tenderness in Burns search for escape over the mountains. Someone else has commented on the similarities between Burns and Bogart's rendition of Roy Earle in HIGH SIERRA. Surely any thoughtful movie goer has experienced that rush to the mountains, that sense that time has passed you by and you are not of this place.