The Big Sky

THE BIG SKY was Howard Hawks’ second Western after his iconic RED RIVER, but this second stab at the genre is today largely forgotten.
“From the beginning, Hawks is interested not so much in telling any particular story as evoking a time and a place and a type of man: the film harks back to the frontier spirit of early American history, when large swaths of unexplored land were waiting for intrepid men to discover their mysteries. It’s surely no coincidence that one of these men, the aging adventurer and Indian trader Zeb Calloway, calls the beautiful Blackfoot lands ‘wild and pretty like a virgin woman.’ Hawks has nothing but admiration for these men who are tied down to nothing and go running off caring only about the taste of adventure. There’s a reason that the only period films Hawks was ever comfortable making were Westerns. This frontier spirit – the taming of wild country with sheer ingenuity, toughness and determined group effort – is perfectly suited to Hawks’ cinematic sensibility.” (Ed Howard)

With V’02-TRAILER: SB by Stan Brakhage