Joe Kidd
An ex-bounty hunter (Clint Eastwood) reluctantly gets roped into a posse led by Robert Duvall, on the hunt for the leader of a Mexican peasant uprising.
Way back in the day I watched every single Clint Eastwood film, and if I’m honest I couldn’t remember this one at all.
On paper it does have a lot going for it: a star with a proven track record in scowling at the camera, Robert Duvall who always plays a great villain, a director who made The Magnificent Seven, a Lalo Schifrin score, and a screenplay by Elmore Leonard (of Rum Punch1 and Out of Sight2 fame).
So why does it not quite land? It’s a super bare-bones story that moves at a fairly slow pace, but it’s only 90 minutes long. It’s just a bit under-cooked and needed some more meat on its bones to really give the ending some emotional weight. It’s a revisionist Western for sure but it doesn’t get time to really explore what it wants to say.
We’re here in part to talk about Robert Duvall, who passed away this year aged 95. He plays the head of the posse in search of the Mexican outlaw, but fairly early on reveals himself to be a ruthless murderer not to be trusted. It’s a great performance, villainous enough to be hateful but more nuanced that what we got in the 50s.
A competent but unremarkable revisionist Western that doesn’t do justice to the talent of its two lead performers.
