The Big Sky is a 1952 film directed by Howard Hawks.
The film is set in 1832. Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) is traveling through Kentucky wilderness when he meets another traveler, young Boone Caudill. Boone is headed for St. Louis in search of his uncle Zeb, and talks Jim into coming along.
They find Jim, who enlists the pair of them in a trading expedition headed up the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. The expedition, headed by a Frenchman named Jourdonnais, seeks to trade for furs with the Blackfeet Indians. The Blackfeet are notoriously hostile to whites, but Jourdonnais has an ace in the hole: he is returning a lovely Blackfeet princess, "Teal Eye", who was captured by the Crow Indians but escaped. The expedition has a second problem in the Missouri Fur Company, which claims trading rights in the upper reaches of the Missouri River and is likely to take violent action against the newcomers.
Tropes:
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: Zeb tells Jim a melancholy story about a guy he knew, a mountain man who traveled upriver, lived with the Blackfeet, and took a Blackfoot wife before abandoning her and returning to the white world. The man later thought better of it and made his way back, only to find out that his wife killed herself. Zeb doesn't say so but it's perfectly obvious he's talking about himself.
- Artistic License – History: When telling his crew about their route up the Missouri, Jourdonnais says "No white man ever go so far, not a one." No one tells him about Lewis and Clark, who followed the Missouri to its source before going all the way to the Pacific.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Boone takes a dislike to Teal Eye, because he dislikes Indians as one killed his brother (this turns out not to be true). Teal Eye for her part is disgusted that Boone carries an Indian scalp as a souvenir. This plays out in a scene where she tries to steal the scalp, he catches her, they brawl on the ground for a while, they kiss—and then she pulls a knife and slashes him.
- Cave Behind the Falls: Jim gets shot in the leg by the Crows. Boone, Teal Eye, and Poordevil wind up carrying him into a cave behind a waterfall, and they hide there for a week until Jim is able to walk.
- Creepy Crows: Circling ravens as a white hunting party marches through the woods set an ominous mood. Boone, Jim, and the gang are then attacked by Crows (the Native Americans, not the bird).
- Fingore: Jim falls in the river and winds up getting his finger completely dislocated when his hand is caught in a downed tree. With nothing else for it, the men decide that they have to cut his finger off. This turns into an absurd comedy scene when they get Jim roaring drunk before slicing his finger off, followed by a still-drunk Jim demanding his finger back and everyone scrambling around in the dirt looking for it.
- Injun Country: The whites are attacked by hostile Crows at more than one point as they venture upriver. Eventually they figure out that the Crows are working with the Missouri Fur Company, which wants to stop Jourdonnais's expedition.
- Lighter and Softer: The source novel by A.B. Guthrie is much darker. Boone's father beats him. The Blackfeet actually attack the boat and kill almost everyone on it except for Boone and Jim. In turn, most of the Blackfeet die of smallpox. Boone kills Jim after Teal Eye delivers a red-haired baby and Boone thinks it's Jim's, only to later find out he was wrong. This film greatly changes the plot and turns the story into an adventure comedy.
- Love Triangle: Jim and Boone both fall in love with Teal Eye. Boone wins.
- Meet Cute: A platonic male version. Jim thinks he hears someone else in the forest. It's Boone—who promptly flings a knife and kills the snake that was about to bite Jim. Then Boone punches Jim in the face because he thinks Jim was following him.
- Mountain Man: Zeb, who has spent years in the Missouri River country, speaks the Blackfeet language, and acts as an interpreter.
- Narrator: The actor who plays Zeb also narrates, in character, telling the story.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last shot is the boat, headed back downriver with its cargo of furs (minus Boone, who has gotten off and is going back upriver to Teal Eye).
- One-Book Author: This was the only film appearance of Elizabeth Threatt, who starred as Teal Eye. Threatt, a professional model who was cast in the part because she was an actual Native American (Cherokee), apparently decided she didn't like Hollywood and acting, and quit the business.
- The Smurfette Principle: Teal Eye, the only woman on the boat. This is a plot point, as Jourdonnais gives strict orders to all the lonely, horny men to keep their mitts off of Teal Eye, and at one point whips a man for trying to grab her when she was bathing in the river.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: The party meets a Blackfoot who laughs in a rather dumb way, is missing most of his teeth, and keeps asking for whiskey. They name him "Poordevil." Teal Eye is disgusted and tells Poordevil that he's a disgrace.
- A Taste of the Lash: One of the men is whipped after trying to grab Teal Eye while she bathed in the river.
- Title Drop: Jim, admiring the beauty of their surroundings, says "Sure is a big country. The only thing bigger is the sky."
