Where Was Pillars Of The Sky Filmed

At the time, reports said it may have been due to the plight of the film’s “Na’vi” people hitting too close to home. In the movie, the Na’vi are forced from their land to make way for economic growth. There was concern that locals might connect this with their own issues of displacement due to government expansion and take action. A Hollywood Reporter news item refers to “Frontier Fury” as a magazine story, but as far as can be determined, Henry did not publish a novel or short story with this title.

Veteran director George Marshall does what he can with a weak script, but there’s a feeling that no one’s heart is in tune with the sentiments expressed. A strong supporting cast headed by Ward Bond and Lee Marvin lends some much-needed western grit. Makes it unanimous , with its 2½-star description of the production as “a relatively satisfying cowboys and Indians film starring Chandler as a cavalry scout who is literally a voice in the wilderness…” and, in conclusion, adds, “ood cast. The outdoor location shooting was done in Oregon”. Lee Marvin has a substantial secondary role as a hard-drinking, no-nonsense sergeant aligned with Bell.

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Pillars of the Sky was filmed on location in the Pacific Northwest and the photography is first rate. At one stage it was announced the film was going to be directed by John Ford and star John Wayne. 95 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$1.5 million Pillars of the Sky is a 1956 American CinemaScope Western film directed by George Marshall and starring Jeff Chandler and Dorothy Malone.

A HR news item refers to “Frontier Fury” as a magazine story, but as far as can be determined, Henry did not publish a novel or short story with this title. The picture was filmed in Eastern Oregon, including in LeGrande and the Wallowa Lake region. News items in DV noted that Patrick Ford, the son of director John Ford, and Borden Chase were assigned at various times to write the script, but the extent of their contributions to the final film is undetermined. In 2010, it was one of just 20 Hollywood films the government allowed to play in cinemas. Two weeks after opening, it was already setting records in China when it was pulled from 1,600 screens by the government.

Plot is familiar for Pillars of the Sky, but the even handed portrayal of the Indians and a pro-Christian bent in the narrative, lifts it out of the ordinary. Picture is further boosted by some excellent action sequences that are skilfully crafted by director Marshall (Destry Rides Again/How the West Was Won). Indian attacks, via horseback or flaming arrows assault, considerably raise the pulse, while the sight of the army desperately trying to conquer the rocky terrain while under attack is a bona fide piece of Oater grit. With the exteriors actually filmed on location in Oregon at Joseph & La Grande, the backdrop is gorgeous, expertly brought to life in Technicolor “Scope” by Lipstein (No Name on the Bullet/Von Ryan’s Express). While Gershenson (Horizons West/The Man from the Alamo) scores it with genre compliant riffs on Cavalry marches and Indian flavouring. Pillars of the Sky’s earnest attempt to paint a balanced portrait of race relations within the western made it stand out from the herd.

Universal then went to George Marshall to helm the film with Jeff Chandler as the lead; Marshall had been directing westerns for the studio since 1916 and was an ideal choice. There are several familiar faces playing various roles in the story. First there are whiskey swilling Sergeants Carracart and Dutch Williams , Chief Indian Scout Timothy , Kamiakin’s son Malachi who remains with the settlement, Walter Coy as Major Donahue and Paul Smith Martin Milner and Robert Ellis as raw recruits. Richard Hale and Frank DeKova play two of the Indian Chiefs who have been converted to Christianity.

Cast

I’m a romance whore, so I was left a little wanting at the end of this. It gives you all the stunning shots you’d expect from a technicolor western and the fighting that stains it. The scope of the battles, or at least their intensity, in the film’s best moments position Pillars of the Sky as a Zulu Dawn for 1868. Perhaps more is expected of such an idea enanched with a poetic Technicolor, but surely the cast is very tasty . A Western with unconventional bases that sees a community of Indians trying to integrated into the white people through conversion to Christianity. This involves mutual trust but, for the Indians, also a sort of dependence from whites as regards food and medicine .

Losing no time, Malone as Calla Gaxton, wife of Cavalry Captain Tom Gaxton, played by Keith Andes, is intent on re-igniting her passionate affair with First Sergeant Emmett Bell, Jeff Chandler. Malone’s character is a distraction to both viewers and soldiers throughout; she emotes, recites purple prose, and demands attention, while the soldiers are faced with death, injury, and worse. Chandler begins with very adversarial relationships with the elderly Stedlow and his subordinate officer captain Gaxton. These relationships morphed into mostly mutual respects during and after the big battle. Gaxton and Bell were at odds over Caxton’s estranged wife Calla, who shows up as a survivor of an Indian attack on a wagon. This fickle woman claims she never loved Gaxton and has long loved the hard-drinking Bell.

Jeff Chandler is 1st Sgt. Emmett Bell, commander of a group of Nez Perce military police; Ward Bond is Dr. Joseph Holden, who has converted many of the Indians to Christianity. Together, they’ve helped keep peace among the tribes of the northwest. AFI champions progress in visual storytelling to empower storytellers, inspire story lovers and further the limitless power of the moving image.

Pillars of the Sky is a western filmed on the Palouse and directed by George Marshall in 1956. After forced resettlement on the reservation, Native Americans move to battle when the cavalry build a bridge and intend to open a road across the reservation. Several reviewers complain that the big action scene comes too late to maintain interest in the film to that point.

The oldest is the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, established in 1973 and run by the Northwest Film Center at the Portland Art Museum. From 1969 to 1981, the Northwest Film Center benefited from the energy and groundwork provided by the Center for the Moving Image at Portland State University. Other film festivals in the state include the Ashland Independent Film Festival , the Bend Independent Film Festival , the Salem Film Festival , the Eugene International Film Festival , and the Eastern Oregon Film Festival . Beyond the marquee names are the marquees themselves, from the Gem Theatre in Athena, to the Bagdad and Oriental Theatres in Portland, the Holly Theatre in Medford, the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay, and the Liberty Theatre in La Grande. Some were built specifically as “movie palaces” in exotic revival architectural styles, while others were converted from vaudeville and stage venues to movie theaters.

Then, during and after the big battle, she changes her mind, admitting that it was mostly her fault that she and Gaston didn’t get along well in the past. That it isn’t better known or thought of higher comes down to a so so set of acting performances and a pointless love triangle that pads the picture out with boorish periods of chat. Malone, looking beautiful as per usual in colour, is basically a token character, who serves only to be a romantic interest that causes friction between Chandler and Andes. Marvin has only a small role, and he offers up a quite poor Irish accent as well, while Andes fails to convince. Chandler does cut a decent rugged figure, portraying First Sergeant Emmett Bell as a man you would fight alongside, but it’s a performance that lacks charisma, something that Duke Wayne no doubt would have brought to the role. It’s left to Bond to take the acting honours, where in an unusually restrained role for him as strongly Christian Dr. Joseph Holden, he gives good value for money as he plays it out with stoic nobility.

But it comes too late to alter the slow pacing of most of the story which is either Marshall’s or the scriptwriter’s fault. Complicating matters is the fact that the Indians have two white women as hostages; one is Calla Gaxton , who’s traveled west for a reunion with Bell, the man she loves, even though she’s married to an officer serving under Stedlow (Keith Andes as Capt. Tom Gaxton). The columns were created by natural erosion and one in particular—the Southern Sky Column—reaches 3,544 feet high. It’s this stone pillar that park officials say inspired James Cameron and his production designers. And in order to play offAvatar‘s popularity, they renamed the rock Avatar Hallelujah Mountain. Around 30 million people flock to the area to take in the breathtaking scenery and quartz-sandstone pillars, so officials were hoping to incentivize even more people to visit due to the film’s popularity.

The extras on this Blu-ray disc are a commentary track by Toby Roan; the trailer; and two additional trailers for other Jeff Chandler films available from Kino Lorber. The large supporting cast includes familiar faces such as Lee Marvin, Martin Milner, Olive Carey, Sydney Chaplin, Charles Horvath, Alberto Morin, and Walter Coy. Col. Stedlow , who commands the Oregon outpost where Bell serves, has orders to build a road across an Indian reservation, which breaks the spirit, if not precisely the letter, of a treaty. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.