ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

JLRVancouver Glen Ford and Edward G. Robinson square off to decide the fate of the valley: one big cattle outfit or a bunch of small ranches and farmers. Pretty standard stuff, with Robinson giving the usual 'I built this valley with my own two hands' speech, nevertheless, "The Violent Men" manages to breath some new life into the old tropes. Ford is good as Parrish, the ex-officer forced to fight a range-war that he had been avoiding, as is Robinson, as Parrish's nemesis Wilkison, a rancher crippled in an earlier fight who needs to prove that he is still the alpha-bull in the herd. Kicking the hive is Wilkison's cold-hearted, conniving wife (Barbera Stanwyck at her 'bitch best')) and his murderous brother Cole (Brian Keith), who have their own agenda. The cinematography is excellent, with expansive mountain scenery and wide-angle action shots of riders, cattle, etc (albeit some lifted from earlier films). For a '50s western, the film has a surprisingly hard, brutal edge as Robinson's hired killers face off with Parrish's army of ranch-hands and sodbusters. It is refreshing to see a little more realism in the gun-play than is usual for the genre: the first 'gun-fight' is at very close range and in the final showdown Parrish actually sights down the barrel his Colt before pulling the trigger. All in all, an above-average '50's Western.

michaelryerson10 I'm in the minority here. Reading these other reviews, I can't believe we've seen the same movie. Let's see, the good: The Tetons, Anchor Ranch exteriors, uh...Glenn Ford riding a horse (although even this gets a bit tiresome), Edward G. Robinson doing pretty much anything. Now the bad: everything else. The women flounce, b**ch and moan, the men spill testosterone all over the place, the dialogue borders on parody. Stanwyck's character is such a cliché as to be distracting, someone apparently told Brian Keith to play Cole 'like a snake' and he couldn't have taken it to a greater extreme if he'd gotten down on the floor and slithered out the door. Glenn Ford is supported by stalwart former soldiers, the Anchor gang is exclusively faceless cowhand/gunslingers, the women (other than Stanwyck) are of little consequence, they deliver their lines and exit stage right (or left) reappearing to again deliver a predictable line or two, or maybe to shoot the fleeing (on foot!) evil Stanwyck as a favor to the director who apparently couldn't think of a plausible endgame. The characters are consistently unironic, unself-aware and little bothered by nuance. I gave it a four mostly because of the mountains. (I checked 'contains spoiler' because I didn't want to end up on some evil list but, frankly, spoiling this film for you would be a favor)

edwagreen Much better than your average western of the 1950s. Barbara Stanwyck landed one of her best roles in years as a selfish, conniving,brutal woman who will do nothing to stop her desire to control the land even meaning a range war and attempting to get rid of husband, Edward G. Robinson, so that she can wed his brother, Brian Keith.This excellent story has just about everything you would want in a film. There is treachery and there is Glenn Ford, a civil war veteran ready to head east only to be drawn into the conflict. When he sees the brutality of the Robinson Family, he turns to the same violence and begins to wreak havoc on the tormentors themselves. Stanwyck sees this escalating opportunity to further her own ruthless plans.Dianne Foster co-stars as the daughter who knows what has been going on between the Stanwyck character, her mother, and Keith, her uncle.Very well done film, action packed, engrossing and a pleasure seeing.

ravinggimp This is the classic western. The good, Glenn Ford, the dashing hero, the ex-soldier, the man who would not hold a gun again. He eventually has to stand up the the evil land baron, Edward G. Robinson, who owns most of the valley and wants it all. Then,there's Barbara Stanwyck, the real ruler of the roost. Edward G. Robinson's wife, who will allow no one to get in her way, even making Edward G. Robinson look weak. She is so evil that everyone else pales next to her blind ambition and ruthlessness to rule the valley and everyone in it. The gleam in her eye as she sees people face death for her is unnerving. It is worth waiting for.Throw in a young Brian Keith and a few others and you have a drama that stands on its own. With the requisite stampedes, shoot-outs, ambushes and close-ups of hard riding cowboys and you have a heck of a western.Without giving anything away, there are enough twists and turns within to make this not just a standard cowboy shoot-em-up.