Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

MattyGibbs Yellow Sky is a unusual, moody and magnificent western. I had never heard of it previously and I'm surprised it doesn't have a much higher profile. Six bank robbers on the verge of death after escaping a posse, stumble upon a ghost town inhabited by an old man and his granddaughter. They realise that they may have an opportunity to all make a fortune however group dynamics and greed take over. It makes a change from the usual western plot but this isn't the only thing that makes this film stand well above most of it's peers. The setting is great and the filming is top class with some great cinematography. The acting is excellent from all the cast. I'm not a massive fan of Gregory Peck but he is outstanding in this as the morally ambiguous leader of the gang. There is an early appearance from Richard Widmark and Anne Baxter is captivating as the feisty granddaughter. The brilliant and convincing script sparkles despite there not being an awful lot of gun play. The characters are all interesting and I liked the fact they weren't all clichéd, a failing of many westerns. Considering what has gone before the very ending is maybe a little too twee but this is a minor gripe as the rest of the film is so good. One of the best and most enjoyable westerns I've seen to date and one which is comparable to most of the perceived classic westerns.

Robert J. Maxwell Director William Wellman is a clever and innovative guy. Who else would shoot a scene of hoodlums racing their horses away from a bank robbery with the camera placed only a few feet to the side of one horse's legs, almost at ground level, with the other hoodlums visible through the flashing legs of the nearest galloping horse? That takes a kind of reckless talent. You can't help wondering what the camerman was being paid.On the other hand, the script itself, while suspenseful, is a bit routine and sometimes contradictory. The handful of bank robbers led by Peck, establish their bona fides early. There's the fat drunk, the would-be rapist, the naive homesick boy, the greedy gambler (Widmark), and the disheveled but fundamentally decent leader.The dimensions are doled out piece by piece, the way the gang divides the gold they discover in the ghost town of Yellow Sky. Well, it's not entirely a ghost town since Anne Baxter and her Grandpa live there still, having dug up all that gold. The presence of the hip-swinging woman confuses everybody except the would-be rapist, who knows exactly what he wants, in addition to his share of the stolen loot.Yet, the script is confusing too. Here's Harry Morgan -- Detective Bill Gannon or Colonel Sherman T. Potter, if you like -- "Half Pint" in this movie. The gang is stranded in the middle of a vast blazing salt flat with practically no water. It was shot in Death Valley before the company moved to the more comfortable venue of the Alabama Hills, locally called Movie Flats. The thirsty would-be rapist is angry. He might die and be skeletalized in the middle of nowhere. He points to a lizard and complains that even that lizard (Dipsosaurus dorsalis) will outlive him, so he shoots the lizard. Harry Morgan slouches towards him, ready for a fist fight, and says "that lizard wasn't doing you no harm." In other words Morgan has a kind heart. Yet he turns just as cruel and greedy as the others before, at the very end, giving up his villainous ways for no particular reason.It's a longish movie, strung out, and unnerving in the way it shows us the disintegration of the bank robbing community, although there's never much doubt about which way things will turn. (That naive kid was dead meat the moment he maundered on about his folks back in Ohio and developed a crush on Anne Baxter. A thousand years ago, when last names were being handed out for tax purposes, "Baxter" was the feminine form of "Baker". The voices told me to just throw that in.) Peck and Baxter accidentally bump into each other one night in the barn. They don't exactly wrestle with their passions; they immediately get all hormonal, Bartholin's glands become gushers, even though there has been so set up whatever or the scene.Wellman is no poet but he's a craftsman and has an eye for composition. The script may have kinks in it and enter the doldrums from time to time, but it's hard to criticize Wellman's handling of the material. Look at what he managed to do with "Battlefield," a movie about combat shot almost entirely on a sound stage.

silasmrner Easily overlooked gem with great cast and direction with a Death Valley location. Though they churned them out in the 40's and this was a lo-cost B flick, the kind that played at the neighborhood theaters as part of a double bill, it delivered the whole package. While the role played by Anne Baxter was a bit against type (as a tom-boy grand-daughter of a crusty, ghost town prospector), she filled out a pair of jeans nicely. The others were perfectly cast: Widmark, deliciously venal, and the others in the gang; Peck, as the conflicted 'bad' man. The scenes as the gang stumbles across the desert, slowly succumbing to probably death from thirst, are just as good as Peter O'Toole's trek across the Negev in Lawrence. You see the difference a director like Wellman can make in a formula flick like Yellow Sky.

gazzo-2 *Fine cast-Gregory Peck, Harry Morgan, Richard Widmark, Anne Baxter, etc.*Beautifully filmed, stark Death Valley backdrops, shadows, lines over the sand and rocks. You can tell its a late 40's movie.*Has a bit of a film noire look to it as well, especially during the shootout. Watch how the moonlight filters through the curtains onto Anne Baxter and Peck in one shot especially, almost like they were a part of them...yeah I know, sounds weird. But if you see it you'll know what I mean.*Good to see John Russell in his Leo Gordon/Lee Van Cleef baddie phase. You can't miss those eagle like eyes.*Plot is odd-the hidden stash of gold, the tomboyish gal w/ the gun protecting her grandfather, John Russell out to rape her(yes), Peck going over to their side, Sherman Potter switching sides (twice!), the return of the loot to the bank, etc. It plays well but takes a few turns you don't expect.*Mass cameo of 100 Apaches. They fade out about as fast as the cavalry(!) does at the beginning.*Do see this. Peck and Widmark play off one another well *** outta ****