“The traditional western breathed one of its last sighs under the surprisingly sensitive guidance of Wild Bunch director Sam Peckinpah. Ride the High Country was the last film for both stars, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott. As Time's reviewer prophesized, “The western has always been a stance as well as a story, and when actors with the unforced dignity of McCrea and Scott go, the old breed of western will go with them.” As over-the-hill gunslingers Steve Judd and Gil Westrum, McCrea and Scott tussle over issues of morality and honor within a changing western iconography as they guard a paltry gold shipment on its way to a small-town bank. Their personal struggle to grow old gracefully and their last attempt to get ahead is interrupted by a bunch of uncouth, rapacious mining brothers (Warren Oates, James Drury, and John Anderson) trying to steal back runaway bride Mariette Hartley (in her superlative debut). Peckinpah and cinematographer Lucien Ballard's masterful use of ‘scope retains personal intimacy without diminishing the grandeur of Inyo National Park where the film was shot.” Sally Syberg