Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

dougdoepke No need to recap the plot. It's an unusual western for the time, with dark psychological undercurrents and noirish stylings. Mitchum carries the movie without changing expression let alone emoting. Not so, Miss Wright who has a little too much malt shop for my liking. Pairing her with the studly Mitchum is risky, to say the least, but she's a good enough actress to manage. The story's dark with some striking b&w visuals, especially those awesome rock monoliths peering down like silent gods. The story's told in flashback such that we're intrigued by the main thread of what it is that haunts Mitchum's character. And that's despite a lengthy and somewhat turgid screenplay given to sub-thread meanderings. I would have liked it better had Mitchum's haunting gotten more screen time. Anyway, the great Judith Anderson gets a sympathetic role for once that also turns out to have some depth. Given the year 1947, Pursued embodies two emerging fashions of the period—concern with psychological afflictions and couched on a background of noirish stylings. The trends characterize many post-war productions, and here even spread into that most conservative of Hollywood genres, the western.All in all, it's a suspenseful story, well acted, with impressive visuals, even though the screenplay could use some tightening up.

kenjha A man has been pursued all his life but does not know why. The film opens with Mitchum's pursuers closing in on him and Wright coming to his side. He relates the story of his life to her, seen in flashbacks. It is strange that he tells her the story because she has been a part of his life since childhood. This bizarre film is unlike any other Western, and is really not a Western in the traditional sense. Mitchum and Wright are OK but the characters are not well developed and their motivations are unclear. Walsh enlivens the action scenes but can't rise above the disjointed script, not helped by the awkward storytelling structure.

moonspinner55 Moody film noir from director Raoul Walsh has young boy left orphaned by a bloodthirsty band of killers, who dog the boy's trail even after he grows up into Robert Mitchum (seems to me that's the point where they might have given up stalking him). Mitchum smolders, as usual, though his character here is just a thumbnail sketch, and the melodrama inherent in this scenario is far beneath him. Judith Anderson fares a bit better playing the boy's elderly but wise guardian (a clichéd part, but invested with a salty kick by the actress). Lackluster film co-starring Teresa Wright and Dean Jagger just doesn't hold much interest, despite good cinematography by James Wong Howe and an atmospheric score by Max Steiner, top talents all around. *1/2 from ****

jeromec-2 Before tonight, I'd never seen this underrated western. It is a complex morality play as well as being a film noir. The film begins with a young boy (Jeb Rand) being rescued from a house destroyed.He becomes part of the family, sort of headed by Ma Callum (wonderfully maternal by the skilled Judith Anderson). He is well loved by this woman, and should have grown up a normal hard working individual if she'd had her way, much like his stepbrother Adam (John Rodney). To all outward appearances, he did. He universally accepts his fate when he loses a coin toss. As the loser, he goes to a war he has neither interest in or understanding of. He comes back a hero. The ranch has been very profitable and the girl he left behind loves him and wants to marry him.Again, everything seems good.The tranquility is only on the surface, held together by the love of the mother matriarch. The natural son is insanely jealous of the adopted son. We never really find out why, nor does it matter. All the courtesy and soft-spoken talk is all veneer. Everyone has twisted emotions except Jeb (Robert Michum), who has problems, which he never denies, nor does he easily relate his problems.After two very ugly killings, Thor (Teresa Wright) hatches a plot. She consents to being courted and married.There is revenge in her heart. She is not the naive girl who wants the three of them to live together guided her mother's love and powerful moral upbringing. Thor is consumed by a Gothic kind of hatred. The hatred is so deeply ingrained that the mother, herself filled with a disappointed and mourning hatred, cannot stand to watch what the Thor has planned: she wants to kill Michum just as he thinks he has everything.Michum persists, but not stupidly. He confronts her hatred. Incredible as it may seem, he forces her to back away from killing him and to let her love surface in its place, which he knows is there.That is the complex characterization of the first half of the movie. The second part has to do with the Callum gang (headed by Grant – played by an amazingly sinister Dean Jagger) that tries to kill Michum on his wedding night at the old Rand ranch.The rest of the movie is all gun shooting and melodrama, which I won't reveal more about.The photography is astonishing with its shadows and light, which is like choreography. Wright is like a salad with ingredients that don't look they should go together but do. She is an underrated actress who must convey complex emotions, which not only contradict one another, but also are sometimes also false. It is to her credit that she does this easily. She is as Michum says, quite beautiful from a small distance. Close ups reveal how consumed she is in her depravity. If you don't believe this, watch her in the pride the Yankees. Close ups or shots taken from a distance show the same thing: a radiant vibrant woman transparently in love. This movie shows quite different side.I can't quite bring myself to give this a 10, because the plot suffers the same way all morality plays do. Let us say it is an interesting eight with subtleties that make it very engaging.An interesting 8 (out of 10).