The Sea of Grass (1947)

Directed by Elia Kazan. With Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Robert Walker, Melvyn Douglas.

The Sea of Grass is a 1936 novel by Conrad Richter. It is set in New Mexico in the late 19th century, and concerns the clash between rich ranchers, whose cattle run freely on government-owned land, a prairie "sea of grass," and the homesteaders or "nesters," who build fences and try to cultivate the soil for subsistence farming. It is an epic portrayal of the end of the cowboy era in the American Southwest on the Great Plains.

Against this background is set the triangle of cattle rancher Jim Brewton, his wife Lutie Cameron from St. Louis, and Brice Chamberlain, an ambitious local federal judge. Richter casts the story in Homeric terms, with the children caught up in the conflicts of their parents. The novel is narrated through the eyes of Hal, Colonel Brewton's nephew. 

Usually associated with erudite, urbane comedies, the legendary screen team of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy goes intensely dramatic in the expensive western Sea of Grass. Tracy plays cattle baron Colonel James Brewton, who staunchly opposes opening the western frontier to homesteaders. Standing steadfastly beside Brewton-at least at the beginning--is his headstrong wife Lutie (Hepburn). Eventually disillusioned by the stern implacability of her husband, Lutie leaves Brewton and goes off to Denver, where she falls in love with liberal attorney Brice Chamberlain (Melvyn Douglas), the champion of the homesteaders' cause. 

Supplied in a paper sleeve. No DVD case.

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