Good concept, poorly executed.

Absolutely the worst movie.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

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.

Everyone knows Gregory Peck as the very picture of American integrity, but my favorite of his performances is Duel in the Sun. There's no trace of Atticus Finch in this movie; every bit of him is bad, and he never looked so good. In this wildly romantic drama, Jennifer Jones is torn between the kind, stable, respectful Joseph Cotton and the bad, manly, sexy Gregory Peck. Tough decision! After his successful production of Gone with the Wind, it's no wonder David O'Selznick created such a beautiful, exciting love triangle. And while the script was original written for Teresa Wright, Jennifer Jones ended up playing the lead and marrying her producer three years later. You can find lots of trivia about what a headache the film was to make, including a very funny argument between O'Selznick and Dimitri Tiomkin about the musical score, but in my review I'd rather focus on the positives.Jennifer Jones plays a "half-breed" who comes to live with Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore in Texas. Yes, it's terribly politically incorrect, but you've got to get into the dated mindset to appreciate the story. Lionel is grouchy and racist, Jenny desperately wants to cling to her "purity", and marrying a "half-breed" is unthinkable in a respectable family. Despite all that, it's a wonderful romantic drama. Lush, exciting, well-written, well-acted, dramatic, and heart-wrenching, Duel in the Sun earns its place among the greatest classic romances of all time. Jenny gives a wonderfully layered performance, juggling sweet, sultry, innocent, trampy, and passionate. Greg is a delicious bad boy; it's a miracle he didn't get typecast as a villain for the rest of his career. Add in crotchety Lionel, Lillian as an unfair mother, Joseph Cotton as a pre-Atticus Finch, Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford, Walter Huston, and Butterfly McQueen, and you have an unforgettable cast.While this might not be the best first date movie, watch this with your long-time sweetie pie, or with a bunch of your girlfriends. It's pretty heavy, but it's definitely one to watch.

Released in 1946 and directed by King Vidor, "Duel in the Sun" stars Gregory Peck and Joseph Cotton as two rival sons of a ranch baron (Lionel Barrymore) in West Texas in the 1880s. When a striking half-breed (Jennifer Jones) comes to live on the ranch, she inspires love in the mild-mannered, educated son (Cotton) and unpredictable lust in the mocking, wild one (Peck). Lillian Gish plays the mother stuck in the middle while Walter Huston appears as a semi-questionable minister known as The Sinkiller. Charles Bickford is on hand as an older man also interested in the drama mama.While the movie runs 2 hours and 24 minutes, a full 16 minutes is opening and ending music, which makes the runtime of the story itself just over 2 hours. Speaking of the opening "Prelude" and "Overture," the music (by Dimitri Tiomkin) is thoroughly passé and goes on way too long at 12 minutes before the credits, which last another 1:35. If you can get past that, though, this is a great old Western where the producers pulled out all the stops to entertain. Producer, writer and (uncredited) director David O. Selznick's ambition was to top "King Kong" (1933) and, particularly, "Gone with the Wind" (1939), two other pictures he produced.Although critics fittingly dubbed it "Lust in the Dust," the movie WAS popular with the masses, no doubt helped by its controversial sexual content (which is tame today) and Selznick's affair with Jones, which broke up both of their marriages. They got married a few years later and it lasted till his death in 1965. Despite its box office success, "Duel" couldn't top "Gone with the Wind" and, being the most expensive film ever made at that point, it only broke even, although it eventually went on to make a profit with a re-release in 1954, etc.Jones is notable as the heavy-breathing babe, but I personally prefer Joan Tetzel as the fiancé of the older son (Cotton). Also, Peck plays the bad son surprisingly well, considering how he's known for playing more noble protagonists, e.g. "The Big Country" (1958) and "Mackenna's Gold" (1969).Bottom line: "Duel in the Sun" was just too big of a production to lose. Its story, while decidedly melodramatic, is compelling from beginning to end and there are highlights spiced throughout, including some stunning cinematography, amusing moments with horses and a couple of almost shocking sequences and story turns (e.g. the shootout in the saloon and, later, on the town street). To be expected, there are also some lowlights, but the movie always quickly recovers and maintains its footing. Lastly, there's a valuable moral hidden within the Western soap operatic shenanigans. The film was shot in Arizona & California (too many places to list). The script was written by David O. Selznick & Oliver H.P. Garrett (and, uncredited, Ben Hecht) suggested by a novel by Niven Busch. ADDITIONAL CAST: Herbert Marshall, Harry Carey, Scott McKay & Butterfly McQueen.GRADE: A

Watched for first time in 1984 on television now a widescreen DVD. Selznick produced this magnificent western about a love triangle between Jennifer Jones as Bobcat Peck as the bad guy and Cotten the good,settled in 1860 in Texas where the Senator have a large ranch who living in conflict with oldest son Jesse meanwhile prefer the young son Lewt which have your personality and ruthless,When the Wild girl called Pearl arrived in the ranch to live with the cousins after death's father she falling in love for both cousins,but Lewt is more able to get Pearl's heart. This movie is pleasant to watch because all characters are strong enough Gregory Peck in unusual role as bad guy,Jennifer Jones fantastic as wild girl,Cotten quite often as Good Guy and Barrymore as lawless Senator and Lillian Gish as mother who living trying to protect Jesse. The final is marvelous with Lewt and Pearl as the equals!!!Looking forward for DVD restoration!!

This is a rather unusual Western. It has one of the most excruciatingly ignorant main characters I've ever seen in a movie. I know that the idea is that she hasn't had much education but I don't understand how anyone her age could possibly be as stupid as she is, especially given her close relationship with her supposedly well-educated father. The other interesting thing about the film is that it portrays the traditional masculine cowboy in a negative light, instead favoring this character's non-violent intellectual brother.So at first I was annoyed by how stupid Pearl is but eventually I started to understand where they were taking this idea. We're meant to see her develop from a typically weak and powerless female living in a pre-feminist society to an empowered but conflicted heroine. I still think that exaggerating her ignorance to such a degree was a big mistake on the part of the filmmakers and actually even her development feels like what it is, a contrivance of the plot to lead to a climactic showdown.Lewton McCanles fits into the typical hard-riding alpha male archetype that's so familiar from countless other Westerns. Instead of possessing a rough hewn morality, though, he's really a terrible person who seems to delight in causing trouble for others. The real problem with this character is that he has no nuance, he's very predictable and uninspired. His brother also falls into an unsurprising pattern fairly quickly but his role as the one truly admirable character is surprising given his lack of willingness to do whatever it takes to beat the villain. This is where the snubbed heroine's interesting side comes in as she eventually seems to realize that she has to put a stop to the villain's reign of terror before he makes things even worse than they already are.What I really liked about this film was the sense of the inescapability of the past of the characters. Mrs. McCanles's choice of husband pretty much destroys her life and her unresolved feelings for another man sow the destruction of her family both from the conflict within the nuclear family itself and without from her other suitor's daughter. This film is nearly as epic as the oddly long prelude leads you to expect it to be.