The Young Land (1959)
In newly American 1848 California, a young sheriff arrests an Anglo gunman for killing a Mexican ranch hand, and the resulting trial becomes a test of whether the territory's new courts will deliver the same justice to the conquered Californio community as to its conquerors.
Shot in Technicolor by veteran cinematographer Winton C. Hoch, The Young Land was the third and final production from C.V. Whitney Pictures and gave John Wayne’s son Patrick, then twenty, his first lead role opposite a young Dennis Hopper as the defendant.
Background
The Young Land is a 1959 Western directed by Ted Tetzlaff and shot in Technicolor. It was the third and final production of C.V. Whitney Pictures. Patrick Wayne, son of John Wayne, plays the young sheriff in a lead role, and Dennis Hopper plays the Anglo gunman on trial. Winton C. Hoch, a veteran cinematographer, photographed the film. Its story is set in newly American California in 1848, after the territory’s transfer to the United States, and its trial plot asks whether the new courts will deliver the same justice to the Californio community as to its conquerors. The film runs about eighty-nine minutes.
What to watch for
Look for the courtroom and town scenes, where the central question is who the law is meant to protect. The trial of the gunman for killing a Mexican ranch hand is the film’s main dramatic engine, and its sympathies lie with the Californio residents the court is supposed to serve. Hopper’s early screen work, as the defendant, shows the intensity that would mark his later career. Hoch’s Technicolor photography gives the California landscapes a warm, saturated look. Modern viewers may note that a 1950s Western giving sympathetic weight to Californio characters was less common than the genre’s usual approach, which makes the film worth a closer look.
