Anyway, the interview with Brian Cox was interesting and came with a drop down of some of the movies that he references.  First in the list was “Bad Day at Black Rock”, which he mentioned when asked who were actors he admired – Spencer Tracy being the actor in question.  I vaguely remember watching it but remembered basically nothing about it so I decided to tuck in and give it a go.  I was very happy that I did.  Despite the somewhat melodramatic score, the performances, story and that expanse of land – the landscape of the western – were just a pleasure.  It was also so timely – sadly so.  Fear of strangers, racism, the entitlement to country and the violence of small men.  But, in this tale, the good guys prevail and are won back to their sense of humanity and decency. 

Spencer Tracy never lost that sense of course, being our hero.  He rode into town, unbeknownst to him, to rescue its inhabitants from their moral apathy and cowardice.  Lee Marvin is just great as one of the thugs.  The way he gets up from a chair and strides around in his saggy pants and untucked shirt.  Fabulous physicality and menace.  Spencer Tracy is a master class in control.  Brian Cox mentioned Spencer Tracy for the way he thinks on screen: how we the viewer can follow his thinking so clearly.  I agree and I too admire that in actors who can achieve that, where you can read everything that they are thinking as if they are saying it out loud.  It’s not performed.  They are fully present and in the moment.  Also, a shout out to the director’s composition in the frame – dramatic in all the right ways.