The sky of size

Another movie that I had sitting on my DVR until it very nearly expired was The Big Sky. So I made the point of watching it before it did in fact expire so that I could get this post on it written and scheduled for some future time.

The movie opens in Kentucky in the early 1830s, although the movie isn't going to stay there for long. Kirk Douglas stars as Jim Deakins who is transporting a body to Louisville. In the woods along the cart path he hears a bird, and when he goes to investigate he finds it's not a bird but a man good at bird calls, Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin), who for whatever reason first gives the name of his uncle, Zeb Calloway. Boone and Jim get into a fight at first, but become fast friends by the time they get to Louisville.

Boone's intended destination is St. Louis, where he plans to look for Uncle Zeb. Zeb (Arthur Hunnicutt) is a trapper who returns to St. Louis with his wares once a year since that's basically the end of civilization in 1830. Trapping in the upper Missouri River valley and the Rockies is difficult not just because of the mountainous terrain and bad climate, and not just because of the violent Indian tribes who for obvious reasons don't like having the white man impeding on their territory. No; there's also the fur company which lays claim to the fruits of the land, having set up several forts along the Missouri to trade with the Indians. They don't like having anyone else trying to trap or hunt in their perceived territory without them getting a cut, and that is apparently just what Zeb's been doing. Zeb's in jail for stealing whiskey from the fur company, and when Jim and Boone get sent to jail on a drunk and disorderly, they get put in the same holding cell as Zeb.

Zeb's plan is to go west again, up the Missouri on a boat captained by a holdover from the days this area was part of the French Louisiana teritory, Frenchy Jourdonnais (Steven Geray). They can always use extra crew, so Boone and Jim are allowed to hire on. The boat is also taking a Blackfoot woman up the river, Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt). She had been kidnapped by the rival Crow tribe but escaped some years back. Zeb, having found her and speaking a Blackfoot language better than anybody else in the crew, knows that returning her to her people is going to go a long way toward getting trading rights for them and not for the Missouri Fur Company.

But the Missouri Fur Company isn't going to go without a fight. They have their forts along the river, and send a man named Streak (Jim Davis) to try to sabotage Frenchy's boat. It leads to a series of adventures as the boat goes up the river and the men have to fight both the Crow and Streak's men along the way. Teal Eye and another Blackfoot named Poordevil know the lay of the land and are able to help. Things get more complicated, however, as Jim and Boone both fall in love with Teal Eye. Will they ever make it Blackfoot territory? Will they be able to make it home?

The story in The Big Sky is one of those rousing adventure yarns that boys of a certain age will probably like. I don't know how much historical accuracy there is in this movie however. Meanwhile, the print TCM ran wasn't very good. In fact, it felt like it came from two different prints, with some sections not being so bad while others looked like they were from a bad 16mm TV print. That might have something to do with the fact that the movie was edited down for original release from 140 minutes to 122. The TCM print was back up to 140 minutes. I don't know if the movie would have been better edited down to 122, but I think it certainly would have been better if it had been written to run only two hours if that. It's also a movie that screams for a Technicolor treatment instead of the black and white we have here.

So The Big Sky isn't exactly bad, but it could have been a lot better.