THE FILMS

The DefinitiveS
An ongoing series of in-depth essays and appreciations on the very best of cinema

The Naked Spur (1953)
by Brian Eggert

Click here for the full articleAnthony Mann’s greatest Westerns involve dark heroes who conceal deep wounds. Subject to the cruelty of the world, his heroes are extreme men at the mercy of an unseen and often irrational emotional force inside themselves. This internal hero, whose inner conflicts are distended by the natural and unforgiving landscape, pursues a villain who echoes the very worst parts of himself. Mann’s heroes appear simple and straightforward at first, their complexities revealed and gradually built upon, while their closeness to the villain blurs the lines between good and evil. His heroes are reluctant but, in due course, they distance themselves from their initial moral ambiguity. At the same time, his villains reveal themselves to be entirely unhinged representations of what the hero might become if he does not change his ways. Over time, Mann’s heroes and villains differentiate themselves exclusively through action, and yet the director’s almost expressionist style rarely dispenses action. Mann simmers tensions until the conflict boils over into bursts of sudden, violent intensity, from which the hero survives with a measure of self-understanding. One of the few auteurs of the Western genre, Mann’s thematic and narrative structures were never more masterfully outlined in these ways than in The Naked Spur, released in 1953 at the height of the director’s expressiveness... Read the full article

Coming Soon

  • Johnny Guitar (1954)

  • The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
  • Seconds (1966)