In this rare Western film noir, Robert Mitchum—in a role originally meant for John Garfield—gave one of his finest early performances as a man haunted by a past he can neither escape nor comprehend. Veteran genre director Walsh proves that the noir sensibility of the late forties spread way beyond the bounds of the urban crime thriller. Written by screenwriter Niven Busch (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Duel in the Sun) and masterfully photographed by James Wong Howe, Pursued has been described by critic Peter Lloyd as "a horror story of the great outdoors, an extraordinary tale of family rivalry, atavism, and grotesque vengeance." Walsh inaugurated a new subgenre with this film: the psychological western. Here, Mitchum is pursued through near-epic landscapes of the mind by the indistinct demons of childhood trauma.