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Annie Get Your Gun Movie Review

Annie Get Your Gun is a 1950 western musical film directed by George Sidney and starring Betty Hutton. It’s a flawed, but highly entertaining and endearing flick.

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“I’m a girl.

That’s fine“

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It tells the story of the great sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who rose to fame while dealing with her love and professional rival, Frank Butler. This movie is not quite renowned or remembered well today, but it needs more love for everything that it did right. Sure, it’s racist toward Native Americans and this story of a woman who eventually chooses love over her passion may feel misogynistic to today’s audiences, but watching a 1950 movie you should definitely adjust yourselves culturally and forgive it for those mishandlings.

The second half was inferior to the first one. The ending was problematic in its messaging and I found that section of the movie rather pedestrian and not as energetic as the first half. But the first act is where I had the most fun with the story and the main character. This is where the flick soared as it was both wildly entertaining and infectiously charming.

Betty Hutton was lovely in the main role. Judy Garland was first cast in it, but she was recast and thankfully so as Hutton fitted the part much better in my opinion. She was exceptional in the more redneck version of the character in the first act and she was consistently charming, funny and very charismatic. Howard Keel is a fine love interest, but a bit forgettable. This is all about Hutton’s Annie Oakley and she shined through and through.

Annie Get Your Gun is a light comedy in a way, but because of its setting it’s also a western, though a very silly one. Above all else it’s a musical and a stellar one at that. I really enjoyed most of the musical numbers here with the highlights being the very memorable and catchy Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly, the sumptuous There’s No Business Like Show Business and the unforgettably catchy, endearing You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun. That song was a great character study and a perfect musical sequence all around.

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The movie is colorful and gorgeous to behold. The Technicolor on display is excellent. The sets, costumes and score are all excellent, but better pacing and directing would have elevated the story even further. I really found this movie to be quite underrated in spite of its flaws and it is sadly overly criticized for just being a product of its time.