Pursued

Martin Scorsese, who paid out of his own pocket, for the print of this film to be restores called it, "the first western noir." Directed by Raoul Walsh and released in 1947 and quickly forgotten, it is one of those deep westerns - having Freudian overtones, it deals with subjects such as incest. It features a style of under-lighting which, rare for a western, was a stable of noir cinema.

Robert Mitchum is these days a cinema icon but whenever he is discussed a few predictable classics are brought up - Night of the Hunter and Out of the Past, but nobody ever mentions, Pursued And yet Mitchum is superb - he plays Jed Rand, a man haunted by the senseless slaughter of his family and facing up to his own future with a fatalism that is heartbreaking. The story is told mostly in flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks, a style that modern day directors such as Tarantino have used to good effect. When this film was made, though the technique really was experimental.

Hardly your usual western, Pursued is more of a dark character drama set in a western landscape. It's a gripping film and I must confess that until I caught it on TNT late last year, I was unaware of it. That's been rectified now, though - the currently available DVD is a region 1 import, with little in the way of extra features but it is a crisp digital transfer which ensures that the film is seen at its best.

Well worth getting hold of.