As Good As It Gets

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

The film begins with a group of townsfolk dragging John Cord (Joel McCrea) from a rope tied to a man's horse. Yes, their plan is to drag him to death. Apparently five years earlier, Cord and his gang of cowboys entered the town and tore the place apart and spread a lot of misery. Inexplicably, he's back as one of the leading citizens in the town has hired him to take the town's cattle to market. How could this be?! After all, he was convicted of standing by and doing nothing to stop his men from an orgy of destruction. And, why is Cord so angry?! After all, the dragging seems more than justified when year hear about all the hellish things his men did to the town! And, why does Cord agree to take the job?! None of this makes any sense....and that's okay. Just keep watching!! It will make sense by the end.This is a very good western...which isn't a surprise considering it stars Joel McCrea. Even the most ordinary of westerns were made better by his solid acting...and this is a decent film to boot. Well worth seeing...mostly because it is unique...and that's very rare with westerns.

***Spoilers Ahead, Maybe*** I mainly watched this movie because I was flipping through the movie channels looking for something to watch & I was lucky enough to catch it right when it started.The only time anything really happens in Cattle Drive is when what really happened when John Cord & his men shot up the town is revealed & the foiled ambush/shootout at the end.Those were the most exciting things to happen in the movie.Oh yeah, and when John Cord is dragged through town at the beginning.Nothing really happens in Cattle Drive except a...... cattle drive.Cattle Drive was boring at times but it's not a bad enough movie that I'd turn it off before it ended.It's definitely not a movie I'd recommend somebody go see even if you're a Western fan like I am.There are better Westerns or even better movies out there you could be watching

Few guys can be considered as bad as McCrea at the beginning of this film. He blinded one man, made another lose his arm and was a disgrace to the town. Will he turn out to be good at the end? Talented writers like Daniel B. Ullman and Endre Bohem and a great actor like Joel McCrea., can makes us believe in whatever choice they make. McCrea was quite unsympathetic in Fort Massacre (1958), a western made in the same year. This film could go the same way, and part of the fun of seeing it is wandering how it will come out. In the fifties westerns were trying desperately to bring different stories due to the competition from TV. And when you saw a standard good guy like McCrea being so bad in the trailer, you would go running to the movie theater! Cattle Empire is directed by Charles Marquis Warren who has to his credit "Hellgate", "Seven Angry Men", "Tension at Table Rock", "Arrowhead" and "Little Big Horn", all remarkable westerns.

Joel McCrea stars as a trail boss falsely imprisoned for his men's misdemeanours. Released and suffering at the hands of an unforgiving and irate town, he's hired by a blind Don Haggerty to drive his herd - but Haggerty has his own agenda's on this trip.A routine Western that is chiefly saved from the bottom rung by the presence of Joel McCrea. McCrea was a real life cowboy type who owned and worked out of a ranch in California, thus he gives this standard Oater a naturalistic core from which to tell the story. If only they could have given him some decent actors to work with, and, or, a bolder script, then this might have turned out better than it did.Directed by Charles Marquis Warren (more famed for TV work like Gunsmoke and his writing than movie directing), the piece is scripted by Daniel B. Ullman, a prolific "B" western script specialist of the 1950s. This, however, is far from being a good effort from his pen. Shot in CinemaScope with colour by DeLuxe, it thankfully at least proves to be most pleasing on the eye. Brydon Baker proving to be yet another cinematographer seemingly inspired by the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, locations.Away from the turgid story there's a classical big Western shoot-out to enjoy, while a Mano-Mano shoot out set among the Alabama rocks towards the end is nicely handled. But the good technical aspects are bogged down by the roll call of by the numbers gruff cowboy characters, and worse still is a two-fold romantic strand that is so weak it beggars belief. All of which is acted in keeping with such an unimaginatively put together series of sub-plots masquerading as a revenge thriller. For McCrea this film is worth a watch - as it is for its beauty (the print is excellent), but in spite of the old fashioned appeal, and a couple of action high points, it remains borderline dull. McCrea and the audience deserve far better. 5/10