The endless horizon
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The endless horizon |
| Original title | The Sundowners |
| Country of production | UK , Australia |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 141 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Fred Zinnemann |
| script | Isobel Lennart |
| production | Fred Zinnemann |
| music | Dimitri Tiomkin |
| camera | Jack Hildyard |
| cut | Jack Harris |
| occupation | |
| |
The endless horizon (original title: The Sundowners ) is a British - Australian feature film by Fred Zinnemann from 1960. It is based on the 1952 novel The Sundowners by Jon Cleary , originally published by the same name . The drama, which was produced by Warner Bros. , portrays the hard life of an Australian sheep driver family.
action
Every year, Paddy Carmody hitchhikes from place to place across Australia as a restless shearer and shearer . He is accompanied by his long-suffering wife Ida and his son Sean, and their home often consists only of a narrow covered wagon. Ida would love to have her own home, a small farm. Her restless paddy, on the other hand, does not believe in it, it pushes him into space, he seeks freedom. Once again he has accepted an order: 1200 sheep have to be driven over 750 kilometers to the west. They are joined by a man named Venneker, who is also a casual worker and is particularly on the lookout for married women. On the cattle drive , they take a rest with the Batemans, a hospitable farming family. They would later have the opportunity to take over the farm. But Paddy can't be persuaded to make a deposit. On the way again, they narrowly escape a forest fire with their herd .
Finally, after weeks of driving cattle, the goal has been reached, the sheep are handed over. Now the whole family takes on a job on a sheep farm, Ida as cook, Paddy and Sean as sheep shearers . Venneker stays there too, impressed by Mrs. Firth, an attractive widow. But Paddy has, as they say, “no meat”. He wants to leave soon, although his wife and son would rather earn some money for a new home. To distract him, Venneker arranges a sheep shearing competition. Paddy, a picture of a man with a daily record of 248 sheep, competes against a weak-looking man sent by the competition. Everyone believes in an easy game, but the little one has it all, Paddy loses. Shortly afterwards, he has more luck at the game, he wins 200 pounds and a racehorse they call a sundowner. It is a pedigree and Sean knows how to get the most out of it. Paddy can already see the picture in front of him of her trundling from racetrack to racetrack and sundowners churning out prize money. But Ida has other plans with the money and is putting it in a coffee can for the time being.
Then the shaving season is over and the Carmodys return to the starting point of their cattle drive. There Paddy can finally be persuaded to start buying a farm. But he likes to gamble too much, and that same day he lost all that money again. Sundowner is now supposed to make up for the loss, he is registered for the next race. Sean comes first, but the jury sees it differently, he is disqualified. Paddy now wants to make money by selling the horse, but Ida does not want to accept such a sacrifice. Despite her great disappointment, she continues to stand by her husband. And so you can see the Carmodys with their covered wagon again, Venneker is there and Sundowner trots behind.
background
In 1960 Mitchum made two more films with Deborah Kerr, A Warning for House Friends and The Sailor and the Nun . He valued Kerr more than any other female co-star. He even claimed that the affinity between the two of them was so great that he could have played their scenes in Switzerland and he in Maryland and the result would still have been perfect. Deborah Kerr also filmed Damn for All Eternity, directed by Fred Zinnemann .
Dimitri Tiomkin, although from Ukraine, was the western composer before Elmer Bernstein. Its trademark was the accentuated bass rhythm (see Giants , Twelve Noon , Alluring Temptation , Rio Bravo , Alamo , The Cannons of Navarone and 55 Days in Beijing ).
Reviews
“Sheep driver saga with a star cast; Mitchum as the tragic-comic hero in a sheep shearing bet. (Rating: 3 stars very good) "
"An upscale Heimatfilm, pleasing thanks to its documentary recordings, its hearty actors, an unsentimental story and the family-friendly design."
Awards
The film received five nominations at the 1961 Academy Awards , but could not prevail against the competition. The categories:
- Best movie
- Best director: Fred Zinnemann
- Best adapted script: Isobel Lennart
- Best Actress: Deborah Kerr
- Best Supporting Actress: Glynis Johns
DVD release
- The endless horizon . Warner Home Video 2006.
literature
- Jon Cleary : The Sundowners . Introduction and study guide by Robert Morris. Scribner, New York 1969, 412 pp. (So far no German-language edition)
swell
- Illustrated film stage no.5796
- Norbert Stresau : The Oscar, Heyne Filmbibliothek 198
- Tony Thomas : Film music, Heyne film library 222
- Michael Althen: Robert Mitchum, Heyne Filmbibliothek 101
Web links
- The Sundowners in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (expanded new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 194.
- ↑ The endless horizon. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 23, 2017 .