Duel in the Sun (1946)

King Vidor's "Duel in the Sun"

In 1946, David O. Selznik hired King Vidor as the director for his first attempted screenplay written entirely by himself. The screenplay was meant as a vehicle for his then-lover and future wife, Jennifer Jones, to star in. Much like his 1940 film Northwest Passage, Vidor was given technicolor cameras to use to film this expansive western flick. Vidor received directional assistance from many prolific directors, such as Josef von Sternberg, William Dieterle, William Cameron Menzies, Otto Brower, and Sidney Franklin. The film would prove to be a very frustrating experiece for Vidor, specifically Selznik's excessive input over the project as well as his constant rewrites of scenes already filmed. Selznik's constant insistence on changing the film and his demand for reshoots forced Vidor to leave the project, leaving William Dieterle to finish what was left. Selznik's intention for the film was to make something for commercial purposes only, infusing the film with whatever levels of sex and violence he could get past the Hays Code. He even hired Josef von Sternberg exclusively as a lighting expert in order to give Jennifer Jones a more glamorous look. All in all, the film garnished mixed reviews, most leaning towards negative. 

The film centers on Pearl Chavez, who is orphaned after her father kills her mother and her lover. She is then sent to live with her father's cousin, Laura Bell. Upon arrival, Pearl tells Laura that she wants to be a 'good girl' and morph into a lady of high society - just like her and the rest of the McCanles. While there, Pearl receives critizism from the patriarch, Senator Jackson McCanles. He looks down on her for being a 'half-breed.' Senator Jackson and Laura's eldest son, Jesse, is training to becomes a lawyer and appears to be the only respectable male member of the McCanles family. The other brother, Lewton, appears demonizing and unruly. Pearl is caught up in lust between the two of them. She can either choose the path of education and resptecability by choosing Jesse, or embrace the 'wild west' of Lewton. The Senator father seems more akin to Lewton than to Jesse, as he actively tries to work against the law to keep them from building a railroads across their land. Pearl and Lewton get into a sexual fling, leading Jesse to leave for good to study law in Austin. Lewton then becomes possessive over Pearl, killing any man that tries to 'rescue' her from him - he even kills his own brother Jesse after Jesse tries to take her with him back to Austin. However, Lewton will not grant Pearl a marriage because of him and his father's racial societal beliefs. The film ends with Pearl killing Lewton for his animalistic ways, until she crawls to him in the dirt and hold him in her arms as he dies. 

The main point of contention for the film amongst critics and other filmmakers was Selznik's poor script. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who were renowned for their technicolor British masterpieces, were shown a pre-release screening of the film and were thoroughly unimpressed. At the end of the film when Pearl is crawling on the ground towards Lewton as they both are firing at each other, Pressburger turned to Powell and whispered, "What a pity they didn't shoot the screenwriter." Many felt that the film took the works of John Ford to sadistic extremes. John Ford's flagship Western films were the product of post-war anxieties - utilizing questions regarding morality and the arguments of 'society vs the individual.' Duel in the Sun seems to try and emulate these themes, but chooses to focus more on the sensationalism of its characters and the subject matters. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote of the film, "For, despite all his flashy exploitation, Mr. Selznick can't long hide the fact that his multimillion-dollar Western is a spectacularly disappointing job...Those are harsh words about a picture which promises very much and which, even for all its disappointments, has some flashes of brilliance in it. But the ultimate banality of the story and its juvenile slobbering over sex (or should we say "primitive passion," as says a ponderous forward?) compels their use." 

Even with all its criticisms, the one aspect of the film that does seem to garnish praise is that of Vidor's direction. Utilizing the innovative new technicolor processing, Vidor's compositions remain impressive. The visuals of the vast landscapes create a visual space for the characters to choose their fates and freedoms. Because Pearl is forced to choose between society and individualism, Vidor forces her to reconcile with these constructs through his visual tableaus. The society that Pearl craves also comes with the fallouts of oppressive control, made apparent by figures such as Laura's preacher, the Sinkiller - forcing Pearl onto her knees to atone for the sins of her sexual nonchalance. She is also forced to reconcile with the fallouts of individual freedoms, as Vidor uses Lewton as the mechanism for displaying these fallouts, his abrasiveness and disregard for human life, even his own brother's. These questions get muddled by the weak script, but come alive through Vidor's imbued visuals.