DbcultAccessing Vault...
6.5/10
Archivist John
Senior Editor
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Showdown remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have an hour and a half to kill and you don't mind the visual equivalent of being covered in damp soot, The Showdown is worth a look. It’s for anyone who enjoys watching George Bancroft be a charmingly arrogant jerk, which, let’s be honest, is most people who like silent films. If you’re looking for a sweeping romance or a clean-cut adventure, you’re going to hate this. It’s mostly just men in dirty shirts arguing in a hut.
The first thing that hits you is the atmosphere. It’s not 'beautifully shot' in the way people usually mean; it’s just thick. You can almost smell the stagnant water and the cheap tobacco. The setting is supposed to be Latin America, but it’s that specific Hollywood version where everything is made of bamboo and desperation. George Bancroft plays 'Lucky' Cardan with this heavy-lidded, smug energy that makes you want to see someone punch him, even though he’s the most interesting person on screen.
Then Sibyl (Evelyn Brent) shows up. Her entrance is peak silent-era glamour. She looks completely absurd in this environment. She’s wearing clothes that would be more at home in The Dancer of Paris than an oil field. There’s this one shot where she’s standing by a doorway, and the lighting is so deliberate it feels like the movie stopped for a second to make sure we noticed how expensive her face looks. It’s a bit much.
The whole plot hinges on this bet—or 'vow'—about her virtue. Cardan is convinced the heat and the isolation will break her, and she’s determined to prove him wrong. It’s a very 1928 conflict. To a modern audience, it feels a little thin. You’re sitting there thinking, 'Just leave the town, Sibyl,' but of course, she can’t. The tension isn't really about her soul; it’s about the way the men in the camp start looking at her. Fred Kohler is especially good at looking like a guy you wouldn't want to leave your drink around.
There’s a scene in the canteen that goes on way too long. It’s supposed to establish the tension between the different prospectors, but the editing is a little sluggish. You get a shot of a guy looking angry, then a shot of another guy drinking, then back to the first guy. We get it. They’re all miserable. It lacks the punchy rhythm you see in something like The Young Lady and the Hooligan.
I noticed this weird detail in the background of one of the camp scenes: there’s a guy just leaning against a post who stays perfectly still for what feels like three minutes. I don’t know if he was an extra who was told not to move or if he just fell asleep standing up, but once you see him, it’s hard to look at the main actors. It’s those little moments that make these old silents feel real—the stuff that wasn't supposed to be the focus.
Evelyn Brent is a great actress, but she’s given some really stiff title cards here. Some of her dialogue—well, her captions—feel like they were lifted from a bad Sunday school lesson. It’s a sharp contrast to her performance in The Stain, where she felt much more grounded. Here, she’s a symbol first and a person second. When she’s actually allowed to just react to Bancroft, though, the chemistry is there. They have this prickly, antagonistic vibe that almost saves the slower middle section of the film.
The oil field itself feels weirdly empty at times. For a place everyone is fighting over, you only ever see about six people. It makes the 'showdown' of the title feel a bit small, like a neighborhood dispute rather than a high-stakes battle for fortune. And the mud. I can't get over the mud. Every time someone walks into a room, they look like they’ve just been pulled out of a swamp, but their hats are always perfectly blocked. It’s a strange costume choice that kept pulling me out of the scene.
Is it a masterpiece? No. It’s a bit too repetitive for that. But there’s a sequence toward the end where the weather breaks and the lighting gets really moody and dark, and for a few minutes, the movie actually feels dangerous. It stops being a moral play and starts being a noir, decades before that was a thing. If the whole movie had that energy, it would be a classic. As it is, it’s a solid B-movie from an era that didn't really have a name for B-movies yet.
If you've seen The Little Church Around the Corner, you’ll recognize the same kind of 'temptation' tropes, but The Showdown is much meaner, which makes it better. It doesn't have a lot of hope for anyone involved. Even the 'happy' ending feels a little bit like a compromise. It’s worth a watch just to see Bancroft and Brent trade glares in the dirt.
IMDb 5.4
1921
Community
Log in to comment.
