Product Details

• Actors: Robert Ryan, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson, Judith Braun, John McIntire
• Directors: Budd Boetticher
• Producers: Horizons West
• Format: Import, PAL
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Koch Media
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001CNBDW8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,683 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Germany released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Booklet, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Set in the years following the Civil War, Horizons West stars Robert Ryan as Dan Hammond, one of three Texans who decide to return home after the cessation of hostilities. While his brother Neal (Rock Hudson) and his friend Tiny (James Arness) decide to become ranchers, Dan opts for a more adventurous life out West. Through means both fair and foul (mostly foul), he builds up a veritable empire, defending his turf with legions of hired gunmen. Eventually, the honest Neal is forced to face down his brother Dan, whose megalomania has reached dictatorial dimensions. Julie Adams, still billed as "Julia," plays a self-reliant widow who sets her cap for Dan, who in an earlier scene had gunned down the woman's husband (Raymond Burr)--a characteristically ironic grace-note from director Budd Boetticher. ...Horizons West

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine transfer...in PAL mode, August 10, 2009

By 

B. Cathey "ParsifalCSA" (Wendell, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Horizons West (DVD)

This edition of Budd Boetticher's earlier classic, HORIZONS WEST, is in the PAL/European format. It's an excellent transfer, and deserves to be rendered into the US format (NTSC). In the meantime, all regions DVD players are available inexpensively, usually online. With all the foreign DVDs around, it's worth it to purchase one. HORIZONS WEST is an excellent film, and well worth the investment. Recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You are leaving Texas at your own peril. You are about to enter Zona Libre., January 23, 2011

By 

Spike Owen "John Rouse Merriott Chard" (Birmingham, England.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Horizons West (VHS Tape)

Horizons West is directed by Budd Boetticher with a story written by Louis Stevens. It stars Robert Ryan, Rock Hudson, Julia Adams, John McIntire, Raymond Burr & Dennis Weaver. It's a Technicolor production with Charles P. Boyle on photography.

It's the end of the Civil War and the Hammond brothers Neal (Hudson) and Dan (Ryan) return to the family ranch in Texas. Neal is happy to graft away on the ranch but Dan wants considerably more. But Dan's plans are altered after an encounter with Cord Hardin (Burr), an encounter that sees Dan switch to the wrong side of the law. A switch that drives a wedge thru the Hammond family, particularly since Neal has decided to don a badge and become a Marshal of Austin.

Interesting and watchable early Western effort from Budd Boetticher. It has some psychological aspects that mark it out as being above average. Themes of greed and family strife are of course nothing new in the grand scheme of the Western movie, but Boetticher and his cast knit them together here with some conviction, notably Ryan who was in the middle of a great run of movies that included On Dangerous Ground, Beware, My Lovely and The Naked Spur. There's no real complexities to the characters, but they are well formed, and the finale has the courage of its convictions. There's also some very neat period costuming from Rosemary Odell, with the quite ravishing Adams benefiting greatly there. The main problematic issues outside of some narrative familiarity come with being asked to believe that Ryan and Hudson (whose limp) are brothers, and that McIntire is Ryan's father (there's only two years between them in reality). Whilst there's sadly a lack of impacting outdoor photography; even if that's off set a touch by the easy on the eye set designs for the town by Russell A. Gausman & Joseph Kish.

A more than adequate time filler for the discerning Western fan. 6/10

4.0 out of 5 stars Effective if minor western courtesy of Budd Boetticher, January 17, 2012

By 

The CinemaScope Cat - See all my reviews

This review is from: Horizons West [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ] (DVD)

At the end of the Civil War, two brothers return to their Texas home. But they take wildly divergent paths. One brother (Rock Hudson) is content to work the family farm and settle down. The other (Robert Ryan) has been disillusioned by the war and becomes determined to become wealthy and build an empire, even if it means breaking the law and hurting his own family. It's a decent effectively made horse opera but it lacks the resonance of the great and layered westerns that the director Budd Boetticher made in collaboration with Randolph Scott. Not unusual perhaps but the good characters are a rather nondescript dull lot while the film's two most interesting characters are the bitter, amoral Ryan who'll let nothing get in his way and Julie Adams as the ambitious belle who married for money but finds herself trapped in an unhappy marriage to a cruel tyrant (Raymond Burr). With Dennis Weaver, James Arness, John McIntire, Frances Bavier, Mae Clarke and Rodolfo Acosta.

The Koch Media DVD from Germany is a solid Technicolor transfer in the appropriated 1.33 aspect ratio. Audio is in both English and German.