Very fine, relationship driven western

Author: Joseph Harder from warren michigan
30 July 2000

Anthony Mann's magnificent pyschological westerns, beginning with Winchester 76 and ending with Man of The West,were among the glories of American film in the fifties.Tin Star is unique in this series of films for two reasons. First, it is slightly "lighter' and more optimistic in tone that the other, darker, films.Secondly, while the other films center around a single, obsessed,( if not POSSESSED)antagonist, usually played by Jimmy Stewart) Tin star is builtaround a relationship between TWO protagonists, superbly played by Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins. In any other Mann western, Fonda, disillusioned Sheriff-turned cynical bounty hunter would be the near-pyschotic tragic hero.Here, instead,he is the teacher- in fact, the spiritual instructor- of Perkins' naive, stubborn, but brave and idealistic sheriff. The film ends, not with Fondas character trudging off to "walk the earth", like Ethan Edwards, but rather with him ready to begin a new life with son and a family,. At the way, Perkins has become a man capable of leadership in the community. This is, in short, a remarkably rich, thought-provoking film.