No need to repeat the plot or echo consensus points after the many other reviews. I must have been eleven or twelve when I first saw this classic in a theatre. The marksmanship contest fascinated me, so being a kid I badgered my dad to buy me a 22-rifle. Too young, he said, but I did get a BB-gun, single-shot. Not exactly what I wanted, but at least I could hit tin cans. Now I'm glad I didn't get it. Lord knows what I would have done with a bullet gun. The movie's pass-around battle over a premier repeating rifle is still fascinating after all these years. The narrative's really shrewdly done. The prize rifle amounts to a plot gimmick passing us along with the Winchester to a succession of interesting characters. It's unusual for any movie of the time which preferred to dwell on a central star. Catch also that we don't know why the bad blood between Lin (Stewart) and Dutch Henry (McNally) until the end, but we do know there'll be a big showdown eventually. Meanwhile we meet an interesting array of characters, including slimy Waco Johnny Dean (the great Dan Duryea), laid-back sheriff Wyatt Earp (Will Geer), and sneaky card fumbler Joe Lamont (McIntyre) who somehow always wins the big poker pots. I like the way the script makes us infer Lamont's skullduggery instead of showing us. Then too, there's the humorous bits of dialog, as when dance hall girl Lola (Winters) kisses the impossibly homely Sgt' Wilkes (Flippen) saying he's too pretty to pass up.In fact, it's this succession of colorful characters that distinguishes the film, even though Stewart remains the anchor. Kudos to movie star Stewart for sharing as much time as he does. Also distinguishing the drama are the great settings. The many Arizona landscapes appear to stretch to infinity and are impressively utilized by director Mann. And what an inspiration that final shootout among the barren rocky spires. It's since become a classic showdown sequence and deservedly so. Then there's that authentic mud-hut town squatting on the desert like an ugly pimple. No Hollywood there. In fact, I couldn't spot a single studio exterior anywhere. Cheap-jack Universal thus deserves credit for popping for all the location filming, even if up-and-coming Rock Hudson makes a dubious Indian, to say the least.Off hand, I don't recall any other oater where the hero has to battle two premier baddies (Duryea & MacNally), one after the other. Now I'll watch anything with the deliciously sneering Duryea and here he doesn't disappoint. Facing off with Duryea's Waco Johnny does, however, distract from the blood feud showdown with Dutch Henry. Maybe that's why the high rock shootout was so carefully staged and filmed. Also, I wonder if there's a backstory to this departure from the conventional western.On the somewhat downside is Winters' squishy Lola, the only woman in the cast. As a whiny character she doesn't really add much to the drama which is already spread across many characters. The actress does well enough in the role, though once again Hollywood of the time can't bear to dirty up a leading lady, no matter how much dust she eats. Thus, the dance hall girl remains squeaky clean despite a grueling trip through the desert. On the same quibbling note—I wish Hollywood would give Indians some credit for good battle tactics. That is, why not have Young Bull's warriors attack from all sides instead of as a mass from in front where the soldiers can concentrate their fire power and mow them down. But then, a massed attack does make for a more spectacular screening. Anyway, I think the movie stands up pretty well, with its number of human interest themes. I especially like that closing shot of the Winchester rifle which has now been passed around full circle. All in all, this amounts to a kind of poetic end note unusual for any western, and a fitting one for this classic.

All Five of the Director Anthony Mann/James Stewart Westerns are Excellent Films and there is no need to point out which one is the Best because that would be a very Personal Opinion. This One was the First and it Started the Quintet and helped Reinvent the Western in both Style and Description. The New Wave of the Westerns were Called "Adult...Psychological...Complex", hardly Terms that Prior could or would be used to Describe this American Film Form.Fact is, that Anthony Mann was Overlooked for Decades and it wasn't until the Film School Generation brought the Director to Light and the Acclaim He Deserved. This is a Great Western that may be a bit Heavy on the "Gun-Culture" Gooeyness and the opening Shooting Contest may be Guilty of unneeded Name Dropping, after Things get Going the Movie is Stunning and Riveting in its Action Scenes like the Visceral Indian Attack and the Shootout at the Homestead. These are Violent and Gripping in a way that No Western had done in Terms of Style and Content.The Script is Crackerjack with the way Cowpokes of the Old West Spoke in Short, Choppy Sentences that were Unschooled, but Profound. There are many Quotables and the Characters are Interesting and Dynamically Portrayed. Shelley Winters is a Stand Out as a "Dance Hall" Girl and is Witty as well as Worldly. Dan Duryea is a Heartbeat away from Overripe Playing a Heartless Psychopath, and Millard Mitchell as a Talky Sidekick is Very Good. The Rest of the Supporting Players are all On Their Game.The Climax doesn't Disappoint and the Ricocheting Bullets are, again, Filmed with a Flare with Audio and Visual Effects that Looked and Sounded New and Different. Overall this one is Essential and Seminal in the Western Pantheon. One of the Best.

It's said that James Stewart's deal for a profit percentage over Screen Actors Guild salary to perform in Winchester '73 was the only way director Anthony Mann's movie could have been made. Given Stewart's low popularity rating after a stint in the Army and the lack of viewer interest in the Western genre the venture was a long shot at best.That it set a precedence for James Stewart, and the "working actor", something that remains today as stars (actually their agents) negotiate their talent for appearances in features, the deal Stewart struck with director Anthony Mann paved the way for a revival of the Western genre as well as reestablishing the actor as a palpable talent.A shooting contest in Dodge City attracts Lin McAdam (James Stewart) as the prize is a "one of a thousand" Winchester circa 1873, a special edition repeater rifle. When Lin bumps into Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally) an old grudge is rekindled and is aggravated by the two being the finalist in the shooting match for the treasured Winchester rifle. Lin wins, barely, but Dutch steals the rifle and flees across the desert as Lin peruses as the real reason for their hatred of each other emerges. Lin and his partner High-Spade (Millard Mitchell) stop to help Lola Manners (Shelley Winters), and realize that the rifle has slipped into the hands of killer Waco Johnny Dean (Dan Duryea), and back again into the hands of Dutch. Good confronts evil as Lin and Dutch face off in a fiery revenge match with only one man sure to emerge triumphant.Aesthetically Winchester '73 as a revenge tale has a few flaws that limit its accessibility for the average viewer. The plot is couched in a story of mystery that is only revealed obliquely through characters talking to each other with the viewer learning simultaneously why the conflict between Lin and Dutch is so intense. This way of telling the story allows Mann to dwell on the "competitive" nature between the lead characters in the shooting contest for the famed Winchester rifle and allows the gun to serve double duty as a central metaphoric element in the movie.Cinematographer William Daniels shot the film in a high-contrast black and white, and the jagged western terrain serves as a hearty counterpoint to underline the emotions of the characters. Daniels was nominated for an Oscar for a few films including the one in which he photographed Greta Garbo, Flesh and the Devil. He finally won his Oscar in 1949 for his work on Jules Dassin's noir classic The Naked City in 1948. Daniels captures the world of the film in ways that stick with you long after the screen fades.To call Winchester '73 a landmark film is an understatement. The overwhelming success of the revisionist view of the Western initiated four more collaborations from Mann with his alter ego Stewart in the lead, including The Naked Spur in 1953. Robert L. Richards and Borden Chase adapted a story by Stuart N. Lake into a script that allows director Anthony Mann to utilize the exterior camera setups to reflect James Stewart's inner angst as he attempts to avenge a past injustice of Stephen McNally.The ultimate hook in the film is how the prized rifle keeps falling into the hands of first one, then another character with James Stewart's character just missing. It's the kind of thing that keeps us on the edge of our seat- we feel cheated that the gun has been stolen from its rightful owner, and then we feel frustrated as again and again the thing is scooped up by another admirer.The ending may leave you with ambivalence regarding the motivations of those deemed as good in the movie, and the ultimate future of the community they help to found, and this seems as vital to audience today looking at a film from the brink of the Cold War. It's still a rough ride, and thrilling to boot.

This was the first movie in which a major star eschewed any salary, settling instead for a take of the nut. It was also the first collaboration between Jimmy Stewart and Anthony Mann in Westerns, in which Mann was to draw out the rage behind Stewart's amiable presentation of self, of which heretofore there had only been prodromal symptoms.Stewart is Lin McAdam and Stephen McNally is Dutch Henry Brown in the post Civil War West. They are at odds with each other. You can tell long before the final reveal which one is the instigator because Lin McAdam is a "good" name while "Dutch Henry Brown" sounds like the color scheme of some camouflage pattern designed for use in combat that takes place in fertilizer warehouses. In case there's any doubt, McNally is dressed in sloppy clothes that don't look simply dusty but actually black with grease, as if he'd just crawled out from beneath a car. He needs a shave too.Stewart wins a prize Winchester at a shooting match in Dodge City but McNally bops him over the head and takes off with the rifle. The movie consists of watching Stewart pursue McNally's bad guy all over the Southwest, and of watching the rifle change hands multiple times.There is a foiled bank robbery in Tascosa, Texas, which is now a ghost town. (Be sure to visit the ghostly court house.) Actually it was filmed amid the crumbling adobe, the saguaro and ocotillo of Old Tucson, Arizona. The final, inevitable shoot out between Lin and Dutch Henry takes place among high, rocky crags. A ton of lead is exchanged between the two expert rifle shots. You have never seen so many bullets fly between two men. And the misses are extremely close, sometimes only an inch or two. You may wonder how this illusion is achieved. It's done by a man just out of camera range shooting what looks like a child's toy gun, loaded with pellets made of dust.The supporting cast is made up of names and faces that are now easily recognized if they weren't before. Black and white photography can be extremely expressive in the right hands, used for the right movies, but this isn't one of them. William Daniels has done good work elsewhere but this should have been in color.