Joe Kidd
Joe Kidd. Kind of vaguely may have heard of it. Hold on, Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, Directed by ‘Magnificent Seven’ John Sturges? OK based on a book by a novelist with heavy western film credits, 3:10 to Yuma’s Elmore Leonard, though I never got the Leonard short story inspiration for a classic film. How did I miss this? Spoiler alert: It may have been the critics.
Wealthy New Mexico landowners have driven poor farmers off their ancestral lands. Revolutionary bandito Luis Chama (John Saxon) organizes a peasant revolt for land reform. This is the inspiration for Leonard’s novel The Sinola Courthouse Raid. Chama launches his revolt by raiding the courthouse in the New Mexico town of Sinloa to destroy the land office records.
Landowner Fran Harlan (Duvall) organizes a posse to put down the revolt. Set in 1900, posse men are armed with Springfield rifles with range and power far superior to conventional firearms of the day. Harlan persuades bounty hunter Joe Kidd (Eastwood) to join the posse. They take over a village near the place where Chama is known to be hiding. Townspeople are herded into the church where Harlan announces he will kill five of them until Chama surrenders. Kidd objects. Harlan throws him in with the prisoners, including the lovely Helen, Chama’s woman.
Kidd escapes, captures Chama and notifies Harlan he is going to deliver Chama to the sheriff in Sinloa. As Kidd and his captives head for town, they are pursued by the posse in a running gun battle with the high-powered rifles exacting a toll. Joe and Chama reach Sinloa only to find Harlan and his men intent on killing them all. In another gun battle, Joe commandeers a train and drives it through a saloon to reach the courthouse and the sheriff. Joe kills Harlan, turns Chama over to the sheriff, collects his things and rides off with Helen.
By now all the critiques have mentally left the theater. The train crash finality was added to the script during production after it was initially suggested as a joke. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four. They criticized the pace of the film dragging from one disconnected violent confrontation to the next. Eastwood’s Joe Kidd is a violent man of few words, a role played before his classic character suffered the loss of a name.
Next Week: The Night of the Grizzly
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Wealthy New Mexico landowners have driven poor farmers off their ancestral lands. Revolutionary bandito Luis Chama (John Saxon) organizes a peasant revolt for land reform. This is the inspiration for Leonard’s novel The Sinola Courthouse Raid. Chama launches his revolt by raiding the courthouse in the New Mexico town of Sinloa to destroy the land office records.
Landowner Fran Harlan (Duvall) organizes a posse to put down the revolt. Set in 1900, posse men are armed with Springfield rifles with range and power far superior to conventional firearms of the day. Harlan persuades bounty hunter Joe Kidd (Eastwood) to join the posse. They take over a village near the place where Chama is known to be hiding. Townspeople are herded into the church where Harlan announces he will kill five of them until Chama surrenders. Kidd objects. Harlan throws him in with the prisoners, including the lovely Helen, Chama’s woman.
Kidd escapes, captures Chama and notifies Harlan he is going to deliver Chama to the sheriff in Sinloa. As Kidd and his captives head for town, they are pursued by the posse in a running gun battle with the high-powered rifles exacting a toll. Joe and Chama reach Sinloa only to find Harlan and his men intent on killing them all. In another gun battle, Joe commandeers a train and drives it through a saloon to reach the courthouse and the sheriff. Joe kills Harlan, turns Chama over to the sheriff, collects his things and rides off with Helen.
By now all the critiques have mentally left the theater. The train crash finality was added to the script during production after it was initially suggested as a joke. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four. They criticized the pace of the film dragging from one disconnected violent confrontation to the next. Eastwood’s Joe Kidd is a violent man of few words, a role played before his classic character suffered the loss of a name.
Next Week: The Night of the Grizzly
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
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