Range wars- disputes over grazing or water rights which frequently escalated into violence- were a popular subject for Westerns; well-known examples include George Stevens' "Shane", William Wyler's "The Big Country", Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" and, more recently, Kevin Costner's "Open Range". "Man Without a Star" is another on the same theme. Like Costner's film it deals with the conflict between supporters of the "Law of the Open Range", meaning free access to water and grass for everyone, and the "barbed wire men" who used the new form of enclosure to fence off their land and to deny access to the free-range cattlemen.
As the title song makes clear, a "man without a star" is one without a definite aim in life. The title character is Dempsey Rae, a wandering cowboy and passionate believer in the "Law of the Open Range". Dempsey loathes barbed wire, partly because of the injuries it can inflict on cattle, horses and people, partly because it can lead to conflict and partly because he sees the unfenced range as a symbol of the freedom of the Old West. He has left his native Texas because too much of the land there has been fenced off and moved further north and west in search of the still-open spaces.
Together with a naive greenhorn named Jeff Jimson, Dempsey finds employment working for a ranch owner named Reed Bowman. Despite the masculine-sounding name, Reed turns out to be a beautiful young woman, who shares Dempsey's opinions about barbed wire and the open range. Now at this point you are probably thinking you know how the movie is going to end. Dempsey and Reed will not only team up to see off the villainous "barbed wire men" but will also fall in love and all will end happily in a peal of wedding bells.
Only things don't quite work out as one might expect. The plot line of "Man without a Star" has some similarities with that of "The Big Country" from three years later. In both films the main character (Kirk Douglas here, Gregory Peck in the other film) becomes drawn into a range war between two groups of ranchers. In both films the moral boundaries initially seem clear-cut, but as matters progress those boundaries become blurred, it becomes more and more difficult to decide who are the heroes and who the villains, and the hero must decide where his loyalties lie.
Here it is Reed who, in strict legal terms, has right on her side. The land across which her cattle roam is Government property, and therefore open range which no individual has the right to fence off. In moral terms, things are rather different. Reed is ruthlessly exploiting the open range system by bringing onto the land huge numbers of cattle, more than it can support, with a view to making a quick profit. Her neighbours are therefore compelled to fence off areas of land, even though this is strictly illegal, in order to prevent the grazing from becoming exhausted and to protect their own long-term interests. For all his hatred of wire, Dempsey reluctantly finds himself forced to side with these neighbours, especially when Reed's unscrupulous foreman Steve Miles starts using violence to enforce her claims. (Interestingly, Major Terrill, the equivalent character to Reed in "The Big Country", also employs a foreman named Steve. Was that coincidence or a deliberate reference to the earlier film?)
This is not one of Douglas's great films, certainly not when compared with something like "Champion", or "Lust for Life", "Spartacus" or "Paths of Glory". I was, however, intrigued by the comments of the reviewer who stated that Douglas could "go from zero to 120 in intensity", as this seems to sum up perfectly his performance as Dempsey, the nonchalant, happy-go-lucky wanderer who is capable of passionate intensity where matters of honour or principle are at stake. Jeanne Crain is also good as Reed, looking far more attractive here as a redhead than she was as a brunette in another film from the same year, "Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes". Claire Trevor gets to play yet another "tart with a heart", a role of the sort in which she seemed to specialise after "Stagecoach".
I would not rate "Man without a Star" quite as highly as "The Big Country", a film with a more epic feel, a greater depth of characterisation, some stunning photography and what is probably Peck's greatest performance apart from "To Kill a Mockingbird". It is, however, a very watchable Western and, like many of the best Westerns, an interesting exploration of moral issues. 7/10
As the title song makes clear, a "man without a star" is one without a definite aim in life. The title character is Dempsey Rae, a wandering cowboy and passionate believer in the "Law of the Open Range". Dempsey loathes barbed wire, partly because of the injuries it can inflict on cattle, horses and people, partly because it can lead to conflict and partly because he sees the unfenced range as a symbol of the freedom of the Old West. He has left his native Texas because too much of the land there has been fenced off and moved further north and west in search of the still-open spaces.
Together with a naive greenhorn named Jeff Jimson, Dempsey finds employment working for a ranch owner named Reed Bowman. Despite the masculine-sounding name, Reed turns out to be a beautiful young woman, who shares Dempsey's opinions about barbed wire and the open range. Now at this point you are probably thinking you know how the movie is going to end. Dempsey and Reed will not only team up to see off the villainous "barbed wire men" but will also fall in love and all will end happily in a peal of wedding bells.
Only things don't quite work out as one might expect. The plot line of "Man without a Star" has some similarities with that of "The Big Country" from three years later. In both films the main character (Kirk Douglas here, Gregory Peck in the other film) becomes drawn into a range war between two groups of ranchers. In both films the moral boundaries initially seem clear-cut, but as matters progress those boundaries become blurred, it becomes more and more difficult to decide who are the heroes and who the villains, and the hero must decide where his loyalties lie.
Here it is Reed who, in strict legal terms, has right on her side. The land across which her cattle roam is Government property, and therefore open range which no individual has the right to fence off. In moral terms, things are rather different. Reed is ruthlessly exploiting the open range system by bringing onto the land huge numbers of cattle, more than it can support, with a view to making a quick profit. Her neighbours are therefore compelled to fence off areas of land, even though this is strictly illegal, in order to prevent the grazing from becoming exhausted and to protect their own long-term interests. For all his hatred of wire, Dempsey reluctantly finds himself forced to side with these neighbours, especially when Reed's unscrupulous foreman Steve Miles starts using violence to enforce her claims. (Interestingly, Major Terrill, the equivalent character to Reed in "The Big Country", also employs a foreman named Steve. Was that coincidence or a deliberate reference to the earlier film?)
This is not one of Douglas's great films, certainly not when compared with something like "Champion", or "Lust for Life", "Spartacus" or "Paths of Glory". I was, however, intrigued by the comments of the reviewer who stated that Douglas could "go from zero to 120 in intensity", as this seems to sum up perfectly his performance as Dempsey, the nonchalant, happy-go-lucky wanderer who is capable of passionate intensity where matters of honour or principle are at stake. Jeanne Crain is also good as Reed, looking far more attractive here as a redhead than she was as a brunette in another film from the same year, "Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes". Claire Trevor gets to play yet another "tart with a heart", a role of the sort in which she seemed to specialise after "Stagecoach".
I would not rate "Man without a Star" quite as highly as "The Big Country", a film with a more epic feel, a greater depth of characterisation, some stunning photography and what is probably Peck's greatest performance apart from "To Kill a Mockingbird". It is, however, a very watchable Western and, like many of the best Westerns, an interesting exploration of moral issues. 7/10