Diagonaldi Very well executed

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

thinker1691 The western Novel written by author Ric Hardman, is the bases for this film called " Gunman's Walk. " But the title is deceptive. It should have been called, ' The violent seed, ' . Directed by Phil Karlson, it tells the story of a brooding, malcontented young man (Tab Hunter) who was raised by his father (Van Heflin) to be rough, tough, and hard drinking. What little discipline the father offered was misplace and shoddy. Anything which could torn from the land was acceptable, if not it could always be bought, traded for, or stolen. The law, as seen by the Hacketts' is seen as a hindrance and as a last resort. The Hackett name was a powerful brand which produced fear and often as not, the father saw to it no one stood in his way. James Darren, who plays Davy Hackett, is the other son which the father disliked, is believed to be a half breed and the weaker of the two boys. The movie is fast paced but shallow and tab Hunter is seen as caring the entire weight of the film on his wild shoulders. Still, for a 1950's a western, it marks a turning point for the country and for later sagas. ****

DKosty123 I was surprised when this was shown on TCM for the first time the impact this film has. This is one of Van Heflin's better performances. Tab Hunter is cast well as one of his sons. James Darren is another one though his role is more secondary than Hunter.Ed Platt (Chief of Control on Get Smart) has a very good role as a lawyer. This movie seems stocked with good character actors. The script has Heflin as the aged gunfighter with two sons who now owns a big spread outside of town. He teaches his sons the benefits of using guns. This teaching back fires on him in an interesting way. The surprise here is the strength of the ending.Heflin is not the hero of the old Westerns here. His character is deeper and he does things that hero's don't do. This is a really well done film.

Marlburian The plot seemed quite fresh (even after my second viewing), though on analysis it includes familiar themes: tension between brothers, conflict between son and father leading to tragedy. A lot of this is down to the way it portrays the steady - not to say rapid - deterioration of the elder son so that he becomes a murderer; Tab Hunter deserves a lot of credit for this; at first he seems to be just a bit of a tearaway, but at the end he looks really vicious.I like Van Heflin. He was great as the tortured Athos in "The Three Musketeers" and the decent homesteaders in "Shane" and "3.10 to Yuma", but I'm not sure that he carries off being the tough patriarch who won the country from the Indians.Viewing the film in the political correctness of 2007, I blinked at the verbal racial abuse inflicted on the native Americans; two days later, I'm still trying to think of another 1950s Western where it was so overt. (I'm talking of verbal abuse, rather than cowboys killing lots of Indians.) The film proceeds at a pleasing rate, except for the somewhat overlong shooting-at-bottles scene very early on.I don't know if "I'm a Runaway" was ever a "proper" song, but it was quite catching, even when sung by Hunter, and for once I didn't object to a musical interlude in an action film.

RanchoTuVu Another western about a son's (Tab Hunter) blind ambition to be the equal of his pioneering father (Van Heflin) in an increasingly civilized west. Saved by director Phil Karlson's talent to move the story along and punctuate it with many exciting scenes, the highlight being a bizarre horserace along the edge of a dangerous gorge, and fine lesser roles by Ray Teal as a lying horsetrader and Mickey Shaughnessy as a deputy whose main job is to keep an eye on Hunter's increasingly unlawful behavior. The familial tension between Hunter, Heflin, and younger brother played by James Darren swings from mildly ridiculous to downright absurd. An at times beautiful film to look at, it comes off well in the end as Hunter gets more and more out of control, drinking, singing, and whoring around on a crazy night, and reaches a fairly stunning conclusion when Heflin is forced to hunt him down.