On D List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Duel in the Sun (1946)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
1/22
1/22:
Trash, stupid, long, juvenile, boring, overblown, nonsensical, excessive, and plain silly, Duel in the Sun
is nothing like the movie poster.
The word "half-breed" was thrown around so much that I had to look up the meaning of it. Webster's Dictionary
said: "Offensive: the offspring of parents of different races, especially the offspring of an American Indian
and a white person." So...which one is the offensive half? I'm only asking this because the American Indians
first settled in North America and remained there for hundreds of years before the white people came over and
stole their land.
Gregory Peck hated his performance in Moby Dick when I thought he did a
good job. He should've reserved the same judgment for Duel in the Sun. The only thing on his character's
mind is rape. What Lewt wants, he takes...it's like watching a 5-year-old child. Lee Marvin and Jack Palance are
the better choices. Marlon Brando won't be out of the question in order to make the sex appeal believable. To
be fair, they hadn't yet come to existence as actors. At least, Gregory Peck can ride a horse.
Jennifer Jones. Well, well, well...where to begin? Let's get one positive thing out of the way first: she's
gorgeous, no matter what. Sexy yes, but not in a good way. Jennifer Jones did it much better in
Ruby Gentry. Both are exactly the same kind of film, but the latter was
much shorter by an hour and had a plot.
On to the negatives, and there are plenty of them. They sure spray-tanned Jennifer Jones' face three layers too
many. Her behavior is so ridiculous that it can only be found in silent pictures. There's a lot of back-and-forth
between "I love you" and "no, I don't love you." Pearl is so goddamn stupid that she gives half-breeds a bad
name. At one point, she was going marry Sam Pierce who looked 70 years too old for her. Lewt shan't be excused
for his vacillation, either.
Much of the fault lies with David O. Selznick, the ultimate puppet master. He was trying to top the success of
Gone with the Wind which would never happen. Then, he attempted to
make Jennifer Jones the greatest leading lady of all time when she had no acting chops to begin with. The ending
is laughable although her physical pain wasn't faked.
The truth is Selznick had the most rubbish script imaginable that's replete with a heavy-handed opening
narration by Orson Welles. I didn't know what the plot was for the longest time and still don't. The production
was plagued with many problems, thanks to the speed-addled Selznick's meddlesome interferences that kept delaying
the film release while tripling the budget because he wanted to change a minor line here and there or reshoot a
scene completely.
Back to the Gone with the Wind reference, there are lots of
similarities which are all poorly done in Duel in the Sun. Substituting Spanish Bit for Tara, the
cinematography is ugly although there are several good-looking shots. I'm aware that Butterfly McQueen is black,
but for her to be typecast and carry on the same idiotic thinking is to set her race back by a
hundred of years. To her credit, Butterfly retired afterwards because she got tired of playing stupid characters.
Pearl is Scarlett O'Hara, Lewt is Rhett Butler, and Jesse is Ashley Wilkes. They're badly sketched,
character-wise, with unclear goals. At the end, Jesse is shot and disappears for good like he has done throughout
the picture. Well, what's so damned important about him? Another problem is Joseph Cotten who's an all-time weak,
ordinary actor who might be a closeted homosexual for all I know. He always provides nothing...absolutely nothing
whatsoever!
What else? I didn't realize that Laura Belle was Jackson McCanles' wife when I thought the whole time they were
brother and sister or something to that effect. Regardless, they're poorly played by Lillian Gish and Lionel
Barrymore who's cantankerous beyond belief. She climbing out of the bed to reach for Jackson before dropping
dead while he's rambling on is pure comedy.
All in all, Duel in the Sun is an all-time famous bad film.