Broken Lance (1954)

Broken Lance

Spencer Tracey and Robert Wagner give outstanding performances in this Western with a difference.When they find their water supply has been polluted by the neighbouring mine owners battle begins. The ensuing trial brings a surprise outcome.
Great viewing - highly recommended. September 1, 2008

Broken Lance

This Classic is done very well, The Actors were very good. The time period this movie is set in is very accurate. Those of us who grow up in the cattle country have been told by family that were there. About the real Problems of clean water,the Wire,the Rustling, & the Eastern Big Business Practices this movie protrays.
Jerry October 10, 2007

CINEMASCOPE AT ITS BEST !!!!

This is the way movies used to be photographed in Cinemascope ! Unfortunately all too often todays films seem to forget they are made for the wide screen and seem to be shot for the square tv screen with everything happening in the middle. This film has broad scope and wonderful scenery! Spencer tracey is great as usual and Robert Wagner looks like he does now except for a few wrinkles , some gray hair and a few more pounds! I enjoyed this movie and its grand spectacle greatly!!! May 18, 2007

Excellent All-Star Western

Broken Lance is a magnificently performed and directed Western that is truly King Lear on the prairie, but also has well-developed characters, excellent writing, excellent acting, and first rate location filming.

Spencer Tracy is the head of the Devereaux clan, a family that includes a Native American wife (played by Katy Jurado), a half-breed son with Jurado (played by Robert Wagner), and three sons from Tracy's first marriage (Richard Widmark, Hugh O'Brian, and Earl Holliman). Devereaux is very hard on the first three sons, but dotes on his other son and his wife. When a copper mine is found to be contaminating Devereaux's water supply, things come to a head.

The interaction between the family members seems genuine and rings true, unlike many other films. Tracy gives him usual brillant performance, and everyone else is great. Edward Dmytryk's direction sets the proper tone and mood for every scene. This is an extraordinarily good film, and one that's worth watching many, many times. November 14, 2006

A first-rate adult Western...

Tracy is a believable cowboy, nicely balanced for handling a bull whip, riding dangerously the hills...

Tracy plays a despot, absolute ruler cattle baron "making the wrong move with the wrong people," using his force to restrain the pollution of his cattle's stream: "The river is on my land. You are on my land. You close this operation down."

His first three sons (Widmark, O'Brien and Holliman) were unanimously disappointing to him... He considered them cattle thieves, treating them harshly, without mercy... Only the fourth son and the youngest one (Robert Wagner) by his present wife, a Comanche woman played by the clever, quick-witted Katy Jurado has his affection and care... The other sons looks only forward to his demise so they may take control over his cattle empire...

Tracy -- irritated and frustrated as a father -- expends excessive reasons that arouses the sensation of hate provoking avaricious rebellion, and nearly destroys his younger kid Joe...

It was interesting to follow Dmytryk's study of racial prejudice against the Indian wife of a domineering white father... Interesting to compare the rough resilience of Tracy with his character--isolated by mortal danger in "Bad Day at Black Rock," a character enlightened with real feelings specially in guessing the conclusion... Somehow this is missing in Dmytryk's "Broken Lance" where the autocratic father seems so artificial, an unfavorable comment that can be aimed against the movie itself...

Widmark offers a fine performance as the unlikable eldest son, while Robert Wagner and Jean Peters manage the romantic interlude...

The screenplay, based on 1949s "Home of Strangers" wins an Oscar and the fiery-eyed Mexican star Katy Jurado was nominated for best supporting actress...

Filmed in CinemaScope and Technicolor and with great sceneries of the state of Arizona, "Broken Lance" remains a first-rate adult Western...

November 9, 2006

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