Stalking Moon
by Robert Mulligan
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Eva Marie Saint, Gregory Peck, Noland Clay, Robert Forster, Russell ThorsonDirector: Robert Mulligan
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 108 minutes
Release Date: 1993-08-02
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Stalking Moon
Movie Review: CHASING THE 'GHOST'
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie was based on the 1965 Doubleday DD Western hardcover book by Theodore V. Olsen entitled THE STALKING MOON. By mentioning that Sam's name in the book was 'Vetch', rather than 'Varner' as in the movie, one can correctly surmise there exist differences between the movie and the book. Isn't that how it generally happens, though?
Overall the movie is one of the best western movies I have ever watched, and I continually read western novels and watch western movies. This time period in both Arizona and New Mexico, two states eventually made up from the older New Mexico Territory that came into existence after the Mexican War, were both pivotal to the Apache Wars of the late 19th century. In this case the sites of Lemming and Silverton play their roles as places leading to Sam Varner's ranch in the Soledad River valley. Both the Lemming and Silverton, New, Mexico, sites lead to gruesome killings and death as Salvaje continues to roam and raid the area on the way to kill Sam and Sara.
The Apache Chief Salvaje, known as the Ghost, is running amok killing whites all across the Arizona/New Mexico area. Some killings are indiscriminate while others are quite purposeful, especially where the woman Sara Carver and her Apache child, named Jimmie Joe in the novel but having a different name in the movie, are concerned. In the case of Sara and Sam, it is more a question of honor leading to fatal consequences for several innocent victims, Nic Tana among them. Plain and simple, Salvaje wants Sara and Sam dead, and his son back. If one wonders how Salvaje gains entrance to the Sam's cabin late in the movie, it is because young Jimmie Joe lets him in. The boy is much more a problem in the book than in the movie.
For a western movie to really capture the panorama of a given area this film is quite unique. Never in all my movie watching, other than perhaps YELLOW SKY, have I seen such a grim, grimy, dusty, wind blown movie. Until Sam and Sara escape the lowlands to move into the Soledad River country of New Mexico, wind almost continually blows dust and sand in every scene. Tough on both animals and humans, all the while backed up with the towerning, rugged mountain outcroppings at the Rica crossing and its foothills. Though the movie is portrayed as being in New Mexico, the film was acually shot on location in the Mojave Desert in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada.
Another element in this movie adding both to the enjoyment and suspense is the lonely, eerie soundtrack by Fred Kaplin. It is possibly a musical score that will remain with the watcher for a time long after the movie is over.
Most watchers of this movie who enjoy westerns will have to give this production very high marks. Its magnetic story draws me back again and again whether on DVD or when it shows on Encore westerns as it is doing this month, October, 2008. For a late period western from Hollywood this yet remains one of the best and, for me at least, one of the best screen performances of Eva Marie Saint.
Semper Fi.
Summary of Stalking Moon
A scout in the old Southwest (Gregory Peck) undertakes to protect a white woman (Eva Marie Saint) and her half-breed son from the Apache warrior--the woman's captor-husband of 10 years--who wants them back. The scout is a man of estimable courage and resources (again, Gregory Peck), but the mostly unseen Apache is a veritable monster of determination, cunning, and bloodthirstiness: Peck and his two charges doom entire communities to extermination just by passing through the neighborhood. This fierce amalgam of Western and horror movie was the last of seven collaborations between director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula, of which To Kill a Mockingbird was the peak. The Stalking Moon isn't peak material, but it's a demonically effective palm-sweater, and fascinating as a prelude to Pakula's own breakout as director of the great paranoid trilogy Klute, The Parallax View, and All the President's Men. Robert Forster has an early role as a fellow, part-Indian scout. --Richard T. JamesonWesterns VHS Video
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