The Big Sky

The Big Sky (1952) is Howard Hawks' classic western, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Starring a young Kirk Douglas, the film carries you back to the 1830s, when traders pushed keelboats out of St. Louis and up the Missouri, betting their lives on a deal for furs with the Blackfoot.

Two stubborn Kentucky mountaineers throw in with one such expedition and learn fast that the river forgives nothing. Ahead lie rapids, hunger, rival traders, and a long haul through country where no one is waiting for them. A young Native woman travels with the crew, and a quiet thread of friendship and rivalry forms around her. Russell Harlan's black-and-white cinematography earned an Oscar nomination.

Hawks tells the adventure at an unhurried, plainspoken pace, more interested in character and the long road than in gunplay. It's one for fans of old Hollywood and of the western as a story about taming a wild river rather than just trading shots at high noon. Stream The Big Sky (1952) online on iFILM.