Good movie but grossly overrated

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An American gunslinger kills a Mexican man in California immediately after the Mexican-American war. The killer is arrested and put on trial for murder with the Hispanic population waiting to learn of American justice.Sounds like Miami today.Heavy handed directing. No so good acting, even though Dennis Hopper is the main character.I never thought he was such a great actor. He prove it here.If anything, this movie serves to prove even in 1959 the left was churning out propaganda.

Usually a film held up in release is a sign that nothing good will come of it eventually being inflicted on the movie-going public. But in the case of The Young Land this is not a bad little western about an incident from the early days of California after we acquired it from Mexico. As it was a forcible acquisition the native Mexican population was anxious to see how they would do under American law and jurisprudence.The issue comes to a head when a murderous young punk played by Dennis Hopper uses his fast draw to gun down a Mexican vaquero who works for Roberto DeLa Madrid. Sheriff Patrick Wayne whose job usually is to jail drunks disarms Hopper and arrests him. Now the job is to try him and for that Wayne sends for a federal judge played by Dan O'Herlihy who is a model of judicial decorum.O'Herlihy is not terribly impressed with Wayne as a sheriff, but gradually they develop a certain respect for each other. And Wayne also grows some in the estimation of Yvonne Lime, daughter of Robert DeLa Madrid.The Young Land is a simple straightforward tale told thusly for the audience. It's got some thoughtful and sincere performances by its cast. Hopper stands out in his role. And it even got an Oscar nomination for the song Strange Are The Ways Of Love which lost to the far better known High Hopes.The story has worn well and The Young Land is as fresh as it was when it was sadly held up in release.

Patrick Wayne had his first starring role in this handsomely produced film - a B western with many A western trappings, including a remarkable sound track - and, though only about eighteen years old when he did the movie, comports himself well. What's most impressive is the willingness of everyone involved to tackle a then controversial theme, for this is one of those mid to late 1950s westerns that dealt with racial prejudice during an era that saw the birth of the modern civil rights movement. Of course, civil rights dates back in our history, and so the incident in the film serves as an effective metaphor for what was going on at the time when this movie was made. A wild-eyed Billy the Kid type (Dennis Hopper, doing his umpteenth version of James Dean by way of Nick Adams, the rebel without a cause as a whining weakling) shoots down a Mexican citizen in the newly formed state of California. It's up to a very young lawman (Wayne) to hold him for trial. The Mexicans in town want proof that they are equal to Anglos now that California is American, and so want to see the prisoner hung - legally. Anglos, on the other hand, want the killer to go free. Though he's dating a beautiful Spanish girl (Yvonne Craig, with delightfully revealing décolletage), he's fair-minded and refuses to take sides - holding the prisoner for the judge who will decide. That character is played by the great Dan O'Herlihy, who brings this eccentric (and ultimately pivotal) character to vivid life. The result is something exceptional, and it's a shame this film is not better known.

This is a restored version of this interesting feature, actually completed in 1957 by Buena Vista (Disney) but canned for two years until Columbia rescued and released it, supposedly based upon an historic incident, and there is a good deal to appreciate here, in particular excellent camerawork under the aegis of director Ted Tetzlaff, known essentially as a cinematographer. The scenario places the action in the newborn state of California in 1848, relating of a homicide trial with the defendant, played by Dennis Hopper, accused of murdering a local Mexican/Californian during an observed gun duel, after which he is arrested by the local unofficially appointed and unarmed sheriff, portrayed by 18 year Patrick Wayne. One of the better of a blessedly rare genre, The Didactic Western, YOUNG LAND's primary motif becomes a question as to whether the United States system of justice will serve up fair verdicts for non-English speaking citizens, with the efforts of an imported State judge (Dan O'Herlihy) to organize a proper trial inside a sheep barn being particularly engrossing as the judge is not accustomed to such rude courtroom surroundings. Thanks to a rather large budget, art director Jack Okey creates a Mexican village including a plaza, cantina, jail, and other buildings, and Tetzlaff, favouring long shots shows the players in full along with the location settings, all used to good advantage in glorious Technicolor through strong performances by Hopper, O'Herlihy, Ben Stroud, and Ken Curtis as a fugitive converted into a deputy.