Alicia I love this movie so much

Nonureva Really Surprised!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

agaczyk-219-676241 It was not Matthau's line, but Glen Strange's: "Who dast?" That's all I have to say and am only writing on because I have to have a minimum of ten lines. Well, then, I'll say I enjoyed the film, found the choice of Matthau odd until I found that some of his earlier roles were in Westerns(is this a Western, really?), thought the young boy as Little Eli was very good and always enjoy John Carradine. Once I realized that Lancaster directed this film, I started watching it differently, looking for evidence of a novice. Actually, as I watched, I didn't care; I just enjoyed it. If anyone is interested, I would recommend reading some of the Old Southwest humorists like George Washington Harris and Augustus Baldwin Longstreet for insight into the period and types. Enjoy.

James Hitchcock Although "The Kentuckian" is sometimes described as a Western, it is set several decades earlier and a long way further east than most films in the genre. It may seem obvious that first the East and then the Midwest had to be won before Americans could make a start on winning the West, but in fact there are relatively few films about frontier life in the early nineteenth century compared with the thousands set in the West during the second half of that century. The explanation I have heard is that the Hollywood studios had on their doorstep the California deserts which could easily represent Texas, or Nevada, or any one of several other Western states without too many people noticing, but nowhere that could convincingly stand in for the deciduous forests of the eastern USA in the same way.The action can be dated (by references to the Presidency of James Monroe) to the period 1817-25, and takes place in Kentucky. (This does not necessarily follow from the title. "The Virginian", after all, did not take place in Virginia). The main character is Elias "Big Eli" Wakefield, a widowed frontiersman who is considering leaving the state and moving to Texas. His reason for leaving, apparently, is that Kentucky is becoming "too crowded", even though in 1820 the state only had about half a million people spread over its 40,000 square miles. One thing that is never mentioned in the film is that at this period Texas would have been ruled by either Spain or Mexico; perhaps it would have been considered unpatriotic to have stated explicitly that Wakefield is considering emigrating from the USA to a foreign land.Urging Big Eli to leave is his son "Little Eli", who is looking forward to a life of adventure in Texas. Urging him to stay is his elder brother Zack, who hopes that Eli will settle down in Kentucky and join him in his business. A further complication is that two women take a liking to Big Eli, indentured servant Hannah who wants to go to Texas to escape from her villainous master Stan Bodine and schoolteacher Susie who wants to stay in Kentucky.Burt Lancaster, who also directed, also stars as Big Eli, but this is not one of his better performances. Indeed, most of the acting is not very good. Dianne Foster as Hannah and Diana Lynn as Susie are both dull, and Donald MacDonald as Little Eli, with his whiny voice and perpetually sulky expression, must rank as one of the least appealing screen youngsters ever. Probably the best is Walter Matthau (in his first feature film) as Bodine, played as an American version, complete with moustache and bullwhip, of the villainous Squire Jasper from a Victorian melodrama.This film was Burt Lancaster's first experience of directing; indeed, it was the only film on which he acted as sole director. (He was also credited as joint director of "The Midnight Man", made nearly twenty years later). I have often wondered what attracted him to this story. In his later career he was often drawn to complex, socially significant movies, often ones with a message in line with his own left-wing convictions. There is nothing, however, complex or significant about "The Kentuckian", a film with a turgid plot taken from an obscure novel. The gist of the story is Big Eli's indecision about whether he should move house or stay put, and even the most experienced and gifted of directors would have struggled to make that particular plot line interesting. There is very little apart from its setting to distinguish this film from dozens of standard Western B-movies. The one good about the film is that the experience clearly persuaded Lancaster that his future in the film industry lay in the field of acting rather than directing, and as a result we were not deprived of all the wonderful performances he was to give over the next three decades. 4/10

bob_burger I had to see this movie which I thoroughly enjoyed but more so for the scene that would be in there. A very brief scene of what is known locally as sky bridge. It is a natural rock formation of short span (a bridge) not too far from Natural Bridge State Park. At this site you walk beyond the bridge to a trail, take a right to trail two; another right and twenty five yards or so you are under sky bridge. From the first short trail to the second there is a drop of about 4-5 feet. At that point the second trail isn't all that wide and you have to be somewhat careful. Beyond the edge of the trail you see tops of trees. Tall trees. While helping my girlfriend down, I saw this guy approaching wearing sweat pants and sweater, dark sunglasses, and a smile. He had a mop of unruly hair. We continued on toward the bridge and I looked back. He didn't pause at the trail junction, he just jumped. Like a cat. As he approached after that athletic move and with a big grin and square jaw I knew; I just knew. I told my girlfriend who that was following us and as he passed she asked him..."are you Burt Lancaster?" He said "yes I am", and ambled on by. She swooned. He and two other Hollywood types did some thumbs together, form a square, "panning", looking at the sky at times. An interesting day out.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) This film is unusual and interesting, it shows the life in a small town before the time of the westerns we are used to see, when you still had to sock powder into the rifle before shooting. When Lancaster and his son which are used to live in the woods come to town, people make fun of them, it is surprising how cruel they are. During the film both are going to change, the son will grow up and Lancaster will become a wiser man. There are two women, Diane Foster and Diana Lynn, both are charming and it is going to be a hard choice for Lancaster. Walther Matthau is an expert with the whip and his fight with Lancaster is the high point of the film. "The Kentuckian" did not age and Lancaster came out very well as a director. To see the people, their habits, their way of talking, their music, combined with a good story makes this film worth seeing.