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      Forty Guns

      Released Sep 10, 1957 1 hr. 20 min. Western List
      86% 21 Reviews Tomatometer 66% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score An Arizona rancher (Barbara Stanwyck) rules with her cowboy army until a U.S. marshal (Barry Sullivan) and his brothers come to town. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      Alec B A lean, mean noir western. Unsurprisingly, Stanwyck knocks it out of the park here Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/20/24 Full Review Steve D B-western but a good one. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/08/23 Full Review Audience Member You have got to hand it to Barbara Stanwyck, she just has to sit still, unmoving and she still conveys a sense of authority. Her expression and her intensity is nearly unmatched among her contemporaries. "Forty Guns" is wonderful whenever she is on the screen. It is a beautifully filmed western that blurs the lines of hero and villain. It obviously borrows heavily from the Earp's of Tombstone, though that is rarely commented on. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member A lean, mean noir western. Unsurprisingly, Stanwyck knocks it out of the park here. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Campy double entendres crackle throughout, writerly to the core, and all classically Fuller. It's a two-way race for best exchange in Forty Guns, the first being the aftermath of a first kiss between a female gunsmith and her new beau. "Any recoil?," she coyly asks. The other, between Jessica and Griff, climaxes as she's asking to see his gun. "It might go off in your face," he warns. "I'll take a chance,"she replies. And she takes the chance, indeed. The characters make hard-bitten pronouncements, observations gleaned through their palpable years of experience. Griff, desperate to preserve his younger brother's innocence in terms of having never taken human life, tells him, "In my heart I've always asked forgiveness before I kill, just like an Indian asking for forgiveness from an animal before the slaughter. You can't ask after you kill- it's too late then." The arc of this relationship might be the true tragedy of the piece. Fuller's dialogue, like the stories they're masterfully woven into, isn't intended to be "historical". It is, however, rooted firmly in emotional truth- real truths, independent to each picture. Fuller didn't care to recreate reality; he was in the business of spinning what he referred to as "yarns". And he spun ‘em hard and memorable, wherever he went. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member This is not your stereotypical western; I've never seen a western movie that is so effectively and artistically dramatic! Yes, its a black and white movie, but it is filmed in stunning, enhancing cinemascope! Samuel Fuller used the cinematography perfectly in this movie to display a dark and dreary tone. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Know Your Critic: Angelica Jade Bastién, Critic at Vulture/New York Magazine

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      Forty Guns

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      Critics Reviews

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      Richard Brody New Yorker Offers the anticipated measures of doomed love and sudden death but surprises with its dramatic richness. Feb 16, 2015 Full Review Dan Callahan Slant Magazine Stanwyck, by turns imperious and sly, dominates the movie. Rated: 3/4 May 16, 2005 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...a terminally hit-and-miss endeavor that feels like it should be much, much better. Rated: 2/4 May 21, 2023 Full Review Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand This is a western of operatic emotion and pulp style, a true maverick production that leaps out of a culture of classic westerns. Apr 8, 2023 Full Review Yasser Medina Cinefilia Fuller offers plenty of guns, but there are few bullets in his jagged narrative. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 6/10 May 21, 2022 Full Review Jean-Luc Godard Cahiers du Cinéma Each shot of this savage and brutal Western... is so rich in invention -- despite an incomprehensible plot -- and so bursting with daring conceptions that it reminds one of the extravagances of Abel Gance and Stroheim, or purely and simply of Murnau. Sep 1, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis An Arizona rancher (Barbara Stanwyck) rules with her cowboy army until a U.S. marshal (Barry Sullivan) and his brothers come to town.
      Director
      Samuel Fuller
      Screenwriter
      Samuel Fuller
      Distributor
      Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
      Production Co
      Twentieth Century Fox, Globe Enterprises
      Genre
      Western
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Sep 10, 1957, Wide
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Nov 5, 2019