Customer Reviews

The Stalking Moon

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Note: Finally (!), this film will soon be available in a DVD format.

One of my several diversions is to compile different kinds of lists of films. For example, one is of under appreciated and probably seldom-seen westerns. This one is on the list. Directed by Robert Mulligan (who received an Academy Award for his brilliant directing of To Kill a Mockingbird), The Stalking Moon follows a classic plot line: good guys flee from one or more bad guys who pursue them until the final, inevitable confrontation. (Sound familiar?) In this instance, retired U.S. cavalry scout Sam Varner (Gregory Peck) agrees to assist with the rescue of prisoners from their Apache captors in Arizona Territory. For reasons best revealed during the course of the film, Varner assumes responsibility for Sarah Carver (Eva Marie Saint) and her 9-year son whose natural father is Salvaje (Nathaniel Narcsisco), an Apache warrior chief. They are accompanied by Nick Tana (Robert Forster), another cavalry scout who is half-breed and (in effect) Varner's adopted son. Unseen by us until the final confrontation (Mulligan's use of stealth is brilliant), Salvaje pursues them with rage and precision, killing everyone he encounters along the way. In the role of Varner, Peck demonstrates many of the same qualities we associate with him off screen as well as with his portrayal of Atticus Finch: dignified, intelligent, sensitive, practical, and decent. Of course, after a ten-year association with Salvaje, Sarah Carver fully understands what they are all up against. Meanwhile, their son's loyalty is obviously to his father. The final scenes are set in and near Varner's cabin in New Mexico to which he was in the process of retiring, intending to live his remaining years in peace and tranquility.

Again, I want to comment briefly on the fact that Salvaje is unseen by us until near the end of the film. This strategy increases substantially the progressive sense of terror we feel, as do Varner and his companions (except the boy). On occasion, the power of suggestion is far greater than anything we can visualize. Hence the prevalence of darkness in most horror films as well as the use of sounds (e.g. a child's scream, a gunshot, the release of a trap door on a scaffold during a public hanging), sounds with which we associate rather than actually see a physical object. As we watch The Stalking Moon, we JUST KNOW that Salvaje is nearby. His skills at stealth are even more impressive, given the fact that both Varner and Tana were cavalry scouts with years of experience. Special credit is also due to Charles B. Lang for the cinematography, to Aaron Stell for editing (in collaboration with Mulligan), and to the three art directors. Their talents are seamlessly integrated. For these and other reasons, I obviously think highly of this film. It has modest objectives and fully achieves them. Gregory Peck once confided that this was one of his favorite films. Once having seen it, we understand why.

What would a western directed by Alfred Hitchcock have looked like? Odds are that THE STALKING MOON, starring Gregory Peck, would come close.

Peck plays Sam Varner, a scout in the Southwest working to round up the last vestiges of the fierce Apache tribe. Reluctantly he succumbs to the insistent appeals of a white woman (Eva Marie Saint), whom he has rescued from ten years of captivity among the Apaches, to take her and her half-breed son away from their makeshift camp. The one detail that she withholds is that her husband and the father of the boy is the notorious, bloodthirsty and diabolical Apache warrior Salvaje. And you don't have to be historian to recognize that Salvaje is patterned after the real-life Apache warrior Geronimo.

Without knowing of the carnage that Salvaje is reaping in the wake of his wife and son being taken from him, Varner takes the woman and child with him to New Mexico. It isn't until Nick Tana (Robert Forster), Varner's friend and protégé, shows up and recounts all that has happened that Varner realizes that Salvaje is coming for the child, the woman and for him.

The movie masterfully masks the warrior until the very end, increasing the intensity of its plot and suspense with every discordant strum of the guitars in the soundtrack.

THE STALKING MOON is a must-see western. Gregory Peck is wonderful and defines Varner as only he could. Robert Forster and Eve Marie Saint are also terrific. And now on DVD!

This Western is a secret treasure. I'm so happy to find it on amazon. Gregory Peck plays a scout who has been working for the US cavalry. It's pretty much a mop up operation now toward the end of the Indian Wars. He's been involved with the cavalry's escort of women and children and elderly people to a reservation and now he's done and looking forward to retiring to his cabin in the foothills of the rockies. A white squaw played by Eve Marie Saint approaches him and asks for further escort for herself and her half-breed son. Reluctantly, Peck acquiesces. Well, it turns out that the boy's father is just about the baddest renegade chief ever and he starts coming on like the Terminator to get his son back. Peck, who's hatched a hankerin' for Saint (who can blame him!) resolves to stop him. Hold on to your saddle horn, pardner, 'cause man, it gets intense. You never see the Stalking Moon coming but you always know where he's been. Just count the bodies. Great movie!

In trying to write a review of The Stalking Moon I am struck by the fact that there are so many people who have not seen this little gem of a Western or have any knowledge of it at all.
Taken from the book by T.V.Olsen,author of Soldier Blue,The Stalking Moon starts with Gregory Peck,a retiring U,S. Army scout,rescuing a kidnapped white woman,Eva Marie Saint,and her Apache son.Unknown to Peck,she is the wife of a fearsome Apache warrior,Salvaje,and the boy is his son.Following the trio from Arizona to New Mexico,Salvaje leaves a trail of destruction and dead bodies along the way to the inevitable showdown with Peck.
If you can think of a thriller/love story/western then you will love The Stalking Moon.Peck and Saint give very laid back performances portraying mature characters, and a special word for an excellent supporting performance from a young Robert Forster as an Apache scout and friend of Peck,s character.
This film was one of Gregory Peck,s personal favourites and i can understand why.
Excellent Western that, like many,many others,should be made available on DVD,Widescreen as well.
Davy,Westernnut from Scotland.

Taut and genuinely suspenseful, this brooding Gregory Peck western nonetheless is largely overlooked by audiences and broadcasters alike. (On a related note, please, will someone wake the people up at TCM and AMC and ask that they stop showing the same dozen movies over and over again? There are many gems like this one just waiting to be seen.) The story is a precursor to "The Terminator," as a retiring cavalry scout (Peck) unwittingly incurs the wrath of an implaccable Apache warrior after agreeing to escort to safety the white woman who escaped his clutches. What follows is a bloody, cross-country battle of wills pitting the scout's experience against the warrior's sheer determination to reclaim what he believes is his. A young Robert Forster does a fine turn as Peck's bi-racial sidekick and all-but son. Filmed in a straightforward manner and with a soundtrack that is both menacing and heroic, "The Stalking Moon" deserves a wider audience, as well as release in widescreen on DVD!

"The Stalking Moon" is one of the finest westerns I have ever seen. In fact it is just a great film. The suspense is magnetic as the plot unfolds. Gregory Peck plays a retiring army scout who tries to help a woman and her Indian son. The woman, played stoically and well by Eva Marie Saint, has just been rescued from years of enforced captivity and life with her kidnappers. As she and Peck leave they are stalked by the Indian father of her son.

The ending could be considered a bit predictable but you are captivated anyway incident after incident. Who will hear who?
Who will live? Who will die? We do care.

I don't think any western since "The Searchers" havs pleased me this much. I ordered my used video just recently. Sure it's an older film when Peck and St. Marie were then less than young, but, indeed, a keeper.

Finally! One of my favorite westerns is being released (in August 2008) on dvd! But ... it is being released in 1.33:1 format instead of widescreen, and that is very disappointing! I already have the movie in vhs, and have waited for years for the widescreen version on disc. Very poor marketing decision for such a great classic western.

Taut and exciting western. Film builds scene upon scene to give characters depth and to create an atmosphere of unknown dread. The music soundtrack greatly enhances this sense of dread. Film uses the concept that what cannot be seen is sometimes more frightening than what can be seen. Peck, Saint and Forster give outstanding performances and create characters that one can truly care about. I found this movie truly captivating and consider it one of the best westerns made.

Wonderful movie! I loved the way the silence brooding over the Southwest landscape is reflected in the film: in Varner's strong, stoic character; in the taciturn scowl of the Indian boy; in the silent menace of Salvaje (correct spelling?)Two things, though, about the DVD. First, if you've seen the movie on TV, the first and last parts are usually shown in widescreen, but the majority of the movie is shown full-screen. Not here! The whole movie is shown in widescreen--making for a sharp, luscious picture. That's the good news (the very good news!). The bad news is . . . there's no scene selection option on the DVD menu! (Why did they leave that out? I do not know.) So,great movie--good (but not great) DVD.

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 actually 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.