The Hi-Lo Country *** (1998, Billy Crudup, Woody Harrelson, Patricia Arquette) – Classic Movie Review 3397

Woody Harrelson and Billy Crudup give impressive performances in British director Stephen Frears’s brave, gritty, 1998 Western, set in the mid-20th century.

They play World War Two veterans, Big Boy Matson and Pete Calder, who return to New Mexico to resume their lives as cowboys. However, they find that the big corporations run the herds and ranches, and that their time has passed in the twilight of the American West.

Patricia Arquette also impresses as Mona Birk, the woman they both fall for, in time-honoured fashion, putting their friendship to the ultimate test, in Walon Green’s screenplay form the novel by Max Evans.

With strong ensemble acting, conscientious direction by Frears, lovely camerawork by Oliver Stapleton, a fine score by Carter Burwell and a meticulous, handsome production, it is a very good film, but still somehow not very exciting or at all popular.

Also in the cast are Cole Hauser, Enrique Castillo, Darren E Burrows, Jacob Vargas, Robert Nott, Sam Elliott, Sandy Barron, John Diehl, Craig Carter, Penélope Cruz, James Gammon, Lane Smith, Walter C Hall and Katy Jurado (in her last American film appearance).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3397

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Katy Jurado (1924 – 2002). She played saloon owner Helen Ramirez, in High Noon (1952) and was Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actress as Spencer Tracy’s Indian wife in Broken Lance (1954).