The Far Country. 1954. USA. Directed by Anthony Mann. Screenplay by Borden Chase. With James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet, Walter Brennan, John McIntire, Jay C. Flippen. DCP. 97 min.
The fourth of the five Anthony Mann–James Stewart Westerns produced at Universal-International is the one that pushes furthest from the genre’s usual geography: The story takes place not in the open Southwest but in the Yukon and Klondike region during the 1896 Gold Rush, a setting that gave cinematographer William Daniels extraordinary material to work with in Technicolor. Snow, ice, timber, and mountain passes replace the arid landscapes of Winchester ’73 and Bend of the River, and the effect is to make Stewart’s isolation both physical and psychological. He plays Jeff Webster, a cattleman driving a herd north into Dawson, self-sufficient to the point of sociopathy—someone who will not be responsible for anyone else, until he has no choice.
Borden Chase’s script, the third he wrote for Mann, lays the moral trap with characteristic efficiency. A corrupt judge played by John McIntire establishes a tyranny over the gold fields that gradually implicates everyone in the territory, including Webster, whose refusal to take sides finally costs more than engagement would have. Walter Brennan, as Webster’s garrulous partner, Ben, supplies warmth and functions as the film’s conscience. His death is the pivot around which the whole drama turns, the moment when Stewart’s character finally stops proclaiming his self-sufficiency and has to live with what it has cost.