Winchester '73 is a reasonable western, with superb secondary characters.
The main story of the film's rather lackluster. We don't find out that Dutch is Lin's brother and that he killed their father and why he killed him, till later in the film. That's not even the biggest problem though, the biggest problem's not showing us and giving us a reason to care. I found many of the minor roles and stories in the film to be the most interesting. Waco Johnny Dean's the most lively character and provides much needed entertainment. Steve Miller cowardly leaving Lola to die and then seeing there's help near by and then having to deal with the shame of his actions. Then there's Joe LaMont, cheating Dutch at cards to obtain the much wanted rifle only to be burned by the Indians. Shelly Winters playing a damsel doesn't work for me, she's better suited to the role of the loud mouth drunk. The two scenes of Lin and Dutch were poor. The one at the marksmanship contest was silly, they're not robots, they cannot shoot bullseye every time and hit the center of a moving coin every time. The other being the final shootout at the rocks, nothing interesting or clever about it at all, Dutch just decides to stand in the open and get shot.
The main story of the film's rather lackluster. We don't find out that Dutch is Lin's brother and that he killed their father and why he killed him, till later in the film. That's not even the biggest problem though, the biggest problem's not showing us and giving us a reason to care. I found many of the minor roles and stories in the film to be the most interesting. Waco Johnny Dean's the most lively character and provides much needed entertainment. Steve Miller cowardly leaving Lola to die and then seeing there's help near by and then having to deal with the shame of his actions. Then there's Joe LaMont, cheating Dutch at cards to obtain the much wanted rifle only to be burned by the Indians. Shelly Winters playing a damsel doesn't work for me, she's better suited to the role of the loud mouth drunk. The two scenes of Lin and Dutch were poor. The one at the marksmanship contest was silly, they're not robots, they cannot shoot bullseye every time and hit the center of a moving coin every time. The other being the final shootout at the rocks, nothing interesting or clever about it at all, Dutch just decides to stand in the open and get shot.