Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A funny, clever film with Burt Lancaster at his very best in this western comedy. Joe Bass (Lancaster) is a trapper/frontiersman who after a winter of gathering furs is forced to "trade" them for a black slave (Ossie Davis).
The film is then centred on Bass' funny and ingenious efforts to reclaim his beaver pelts.
The exchanges between Davis' cultured slave character, Joseph Lee, and the illiterate Bass are witty and sharp
with the final fight sequence being the funniest I have seen.
The film is then centred on Bass' funny and ingenious efforts to reclaim his beaver pelts.
The exchanges between Davis' cultured slave character, Joseph Lee, and the illiterate Bass are witty and sharp
with the final fight sequence being the funniest I have seen.
A fantastic movie.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
It is truly amazing how many different styles and variations there are within what you might consider to be the restricted confines of the Western. But I am constantly finding new films that challenge the traditional concepts of filming in this genre. This film has as simple and loose a script as you are ever likely to come across, but it is a refreshing change for all that.
The date the film is set in is never given, but the mix of mountain man and scalphunters suggests around the 1840s although gun experts might place it later. But really all that is irrelavant anyway. Burt Lancaster at his ebullient best plays the larger than life trapper Sam Bass who is ambushed with his furs by Kiowa Indians. He is reluctantly forced to exchange them for a runaway slave played by Ossie Davis, who they had in turn captured from the Comanche. The two pair up in an uneasy alliance to try and retrieve the furs. They later watch the Indians slaughtered by Scalphunters but Bass undeterred continues to pursue his new adversaries led by the irascible Telly Savalas. We head to an all guns blazing finale.
The film was directed by Sidney Pollack in a rare foray into the Western. The film has been highlighted for being quite groundbreaking in its attitude towards issues of race which was not common at the time. This is true but the film "The Defiant Ones" starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier who were chained together for much of the film, had tackled those same issues ten years before. So lets look at other reasons that this film should be remembered for.
Using scalphunters, who were considered the lowest form of life in the Old West in a comedy Western does not sound like a recipe for success. But work it somehow does. The exchanges between the bigoted Lancaster and the erudite slave are lively and enjoyable. Lancaster seldom gave a bad performance and was still an athletic figure well into his fifties. Telly Savalas also adds to the comedic moments especially in his lively exchanges with the buxom Shelley Winters playing the role of a lady of easy virtue once again. All the action is filmed outdoors and sometimes it all feels pretty aimless which adds to its charm.
I enjoyed this film much more than I should have done. It is not a film you have to engage brain on, you simply sit back and enjoy the rather aimless ride. It happens to be a lot better then many pretentious films. It makes no attempt to be anything more than good genial knockabout fun, and to that end it succeeds very well. Recommended viewing.
The date the film is set in is never given, but the mix of mountain man and scalphunters suggests around the 1840s although gun experts might place it later. But really all that is irrelavant anyway. Burt Lancaster at his ebullient best plays the larger than life trapper Sam Bass who is ambushed with his furs by Kiowa Indians. He is reluctantly forced to exchange them for a runaway slave played by Ossie Davis, who they had in turn captured from the Comanche. The two pair up in an uneasy alliance to try and retrieve the furs. They later watch the Indians slaughtered by Scalphunters but Bass undeterred continues to pursue his new adversaries led by the irascible Telly Savalas. We head to an all guns blazing finale.
The film was directed by Sidney Pollack in a rare foray into the Western. The film has been highlighted for being quite groundbreaking in its attitude towards issues of race which was not common at the time. This is true but the film "The Defiant Ones" starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier who were chained together for much of the film, had tackled those same issues ten years before. So lets look at other reasons that this film should be remembered for.
Using scalphunters, who were considered the lowest form of life in the Old West in a comedy Western does not sound like a recipe for success. But work it somehow does. The exchanges between the bigoted Lancaster and the erudite slave are lively and enjoyable. Lancaster seldom gave a bad performance and was still an athletic figure well into his fifties. Telly Savalas also adds to the comedic moments especially in his lively exchanges with the buxom Shelley Winters playing the role of a lady of easy virtue once again. All the action is filmed outdoors and sometimes it all feels pretty aimless which adds to its charm.
I enjoyed this film much more than I should have done. It is not a film you have to engage brain on, you simply sit back and enjoy the rather aimless ride. It happens to be a lot better then many pretentious films. It makes no attempt to be anything more than good genial knockabout fun, and to that end it succeeds very well. Recommended viewing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
lancaster ,davis and savalas excel in this wity action packed offering .when lancaster's furs gets taken by indians in exchange for a black slave he decides to go after them taking the slave with him ,when he waits to steal them back off the drunken indians the scalphunters strike and kill the indians for their scalps and they take the furs as well , so the chase begins once more . there are loads of laughs along the way from the very wity script plenty of action and a great finish to the film that will keep you smiling .the type of film that will grow on you and probably gets better on further viewings.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
He'll stop at nothing to take back what's his.
Sydney Pollack directs this amiable comic Western in which fur trapper Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) is returning from a successful expedition only to find himself ambushed by a small... Read more
Published 8 days ago by S. F. husseiny
A Watchable Comedy Western
In this early Sydney Pollack film, Burt Lancaster has the leading role as a tough rugged trapper, who battles it out against native Indians and nasty scalphunter Telly Savalas, who... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. Marilyn A. Rice
fathers day pressie
this was a present from my children to their dad on fathers day i picked it because i knew he would enjoy it he likes a lot of films but likes the older films. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mrs. Margaret E. M. Talbot
A masterwork
Sydney POLLACK cut two great western movies among which "Scalp hunters" in 1968, the other one being famous "Jeremiah Johnson" . Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2009 by Casanova Claude
DVD Purchase
Burt Lancaster ! What more is there to say ! A legend !
Forty four years of films with Birdman from Alcatraz topping them all. Read more
Forty four years of films with Birdman from Alcatraz topping them all. Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by Dale Armstrong
the scalphunters dvd 1968
present for my husband, and he loved it. what keeps him happy makes me happy good wee present for next to nothing, for all cowboy lovers
Published on 3 April 2009 by Kathleen Houston
"Scalp hunters. The wickedest, crookedest trade to ever turn a...
Once quietly groundbreaking for its racial politics - OssieDavies' escaped slave is by far smarter than any of the film's white characters, quite a bold move for a mainstream movie... Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2007 by Trevor Willsmer
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
