. [3], The film received primarily mediocre to negative reviews. Life's full of coincidence, no? After reading it, I said to a close friend, 'Hey, this is a great story and it'd be another great movie" So, when he told me it already was, I just had to get it and have a look. I advise you to do the same. There are no featured reviews for Valdez Is Coming because the movie has not released yet (). Maybe I underestimate the grandeur of revenge. Valdez himself is an interesting character: though he feels no ambivalence about his specific conflictwith Tanner, he is less certain about his own role in life more generally, and the relationship he develops with Tanners fiance Gay (whom he kidnaps as leverage) adds more nuances. Valdez Is Coming boldly recreates America's western frontier, a place where life was sometimes cheap. Just look at the very clever way that Leonard has the image and memory of the pregnant widow gradually fade from Valdezs mind. Leonard's splendid way of inventing odd turns of phrase and similes and making them sound as though there were no possible better way to describe something made him, in my opinion, one of the great wordsmiths of the past century. This film reminded me somewhat of Charles Bronson's first big box office hit, "Chato's Land". Clint Eastwood certainly portrayed the brutal, enigmatic hero as well as it could be done but the purity of Leone's form could probably have carried almost any actor with a similar type of charisma through the story. and the The band of thugs, unlike the group chasing Chato, were up to the job of killing Valdez, but found their quarry to be more elusive than they had bargained for. Valdez sneaks into the compound and, during the ensuing gun battle and his escape, kidnaps Tanner's woman, Gay Erin (Susan Clark), for whose favors it is rumored that Tanner had her husband killed. "My momma taught me to remove my hat and my cigar in the presence of a lady. Valdez asks . No, it ends just like that. I wont spoil the fun by giving away any more details. The experience of a man may be hidden by time, but time cannot hide the experienced man. The photograph of Valdez with the 7th Cavalry has a several errors. Newly minted North American Fuhrer John Smith (Rufus Sewell) and his wife are aboard. For some reason, friends that are fans of both Burt Lancaster and/or westerns have not seen this movie. ", The film was filmed in southern Spain in locales used by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone in his European "spaghetti" Westerns. www.ultimatemovierankings.com/burt-lancaster-movies/. Overlooked underrated gem of a western!!!! No, it ends just like that. Frank Tanner is the perfect villain, and Jon Cypher resembles those old villain with his turfy eyebrows and mustache. His adventures are solitary statements. But, of course, Leonard isnt REALLY a pulp author, any more than Portis is. Stay up-to-date on all the latest Rotten Tomatoes news! Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer, The Mandalorian Season 3 First Reviews: Still the Best Star Wars TV Show, Critics Say. Be the first to contribute! Valdez wins and Tanner loses everything. This is a very well respected movie and was directed with a deft touch by Edwin Sherrin. But the weapon smuggler Frank Tanner is greedy and impulsive. It seems like the man's celebrity overwhelms the characterization to a distracting degree. Valdez is coming! What was wonderful was how well these writers captured the essence of Elmore Leonard: the clarity, the boiled-down-to-its-primary-ingredient precision, the humor to be found in the worst possible circumstances, the ability to flip a familiar phrase around to make it new and better. And a film I watched just last month, Last Stand at Saber River, and it would seem that Leonard had a liking for delivering Western themed stories? Your email address will not be published. When Tanner provokes a shooting that causes the death of an innocent man and Valdez asks him to financially compensate the widow, Tanner refuses to do so and severely humiliates Valdez, who will do justice and avenge his honor, no matter what it takes. Tanner is livid at the old man's suggestion. I used to think Kennedy came up with that line, and several other gems from the same film, but it turns out they were all from an Elmore Leonard short story called "The Captives," which Leonard sold to Argosy magazine for a hundred bucks in 1955, and which was eventually turned into this 1957 film. 3 Reply xyww 4 yr. ago Valdez is Coming Burt Lancaster (Actor), Susan Clark (Actor), Edwin Sherin (Director) Rated: PG-13 Format: DVD 764 ratings IMDb 6.7/10.0 $3000 FREE Returns Prime Video $3.99 $14.99 Blu-ray $17.49 DVD $30.00 VHS Tape from $1.99 DVD 1 $13.00 $13.00 $21.28 DVD March 14, 2005 1 $13.61 $13.60 $16.44 DVD September 4, 2001 1 $30.00 $28.50 $3.51 An angry Valdez has had enough, and is prompted to dust off his old army uniform, take up his musty Buffalo Rifle,his battered Shotgun and his haggard Winchester and raise Cain on Tanner and his men. The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth: Season 8, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 1, Link to Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. Second, a Brigadier General would not have commanded a regiment (let alone a company or troop). Largely seen as a revisionist western, it's actually fairly traditional for the most part until an ending that was so surprisingly low-key I thought the last couple of minutes had been cut off.. The men are ordered to shoot, but R.L. Directors. The mean behavior exhibited by crooked men who lived for wealth and prestige. *****. "Within the first half-hour of the movie, Bob Valdez (Lancaster) is humiliated, called a greaser, shot at and mock-crucified, all because he wants to raise $200 from the white men responsible (along with himself) for the killing of a black freed-man, a murder-suspect later known to have been innocent. Moreover, he runs Valdez off after his gunmen tackled the older man, disarm him, and strap a cross to his back and send him wandering in the desert. Lancaster is a favorite of mine. Actor: Killer's Kiss. "How old are you?" Its most certainly at the center of nearly everything in the genre whether characters are willingly giving themselves over to the gory release of it (e.g. He tried to raise his left arm but could not. This scene is missing in the UK version, you see them riding towards each other and suddenly they are down on the ground, rising up. Valdez a former Apache fighter, is a dead shot, choosing to fight with a long range buffalo rifle, shotgun and a revolver. But now there was more to it. His history makes him a very dangerous man, although he now only wants to live in peace. The humiliations suffered by Valdez early on, as well as the ruthlessness of the villains, are of such unequivocal nastiness that the film's ultimate satisfactions come not from the triumph of honor, but from the scope of the revenge. I do think he has limited range, but he knew how to pick roles that played to his strengths. Afterward, Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster of "Lawman") goes around trying to take up a collection for the African-American's widow. Today, Elmore Leonard is primarily known for his crime fiction. I have actually taught City of Glass in my detective fiction class: it was fun to work through something that is definitely using but then rejecting many of the tropes and certainties of the genre. The film opens with a town gathering in the desert led by local Frank Tanner (John Cypher) to which the stage coach carrying Valdez arrives. The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Valdez Is Coming features a grim, unadorned romanticism. On top of this, the story is its own thing as it defies expectations left and right. I like this idea about the similarity between detective fiction and western fiction. The text on the photograph states it is of "Brig. It is not as unrealistic as the former, nor is it as dour as the latter. Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Ive suppressed the plot of Wuthering Heights and havent yet read Collins, but I did consider and reject the other two. A few racial epithets later and we realize the man is (a) black and (b) possibly innocent of the crime he is accused of. Burt Lancaster is terrific in this well directed movie.Even with his pale blue eyes, he comes across as a believable character of the results a mixed relationship. Valdez Is Coming is a 1971 American Western film directed by Edwin Sherin and starring Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Richard Jordan and Jon Cypher. Davis finds him and cuts the ropes, freeing the unconscious man. He said to himself, What is the sky to me? The dead manwho was black, which also entered into the issueleft an Indian woman, and Valdez wants $200 to get her back to the reservation. But dialog that tells one story for the actor while the actor is telling another story is the richest of gifts for a performer. Poe particularly relishes the cruelty and bitter triumph of the recognition scene in the latter. Valdez is told that a murdering black army deserter has holed up in a . Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your email that reads "Your Ticket Reservation Details". The black man, the Native American woman, the Mexicans, the Anglos, and then the rancher's not so faithful mistress, give this movie a lot of great subplots to think about, but the central story of Valdez first asking and then demanding money for the dead man's woman is simple yet effective as it draws out into chases and ambushes while revealing the characters for who they really are. Elmore Leonard, The Actor's and Dialogue Writer's Friend, The Unloved, Part 111: Devil in a Blue Dress, Female Filmmakers in Focus: Cauleen Smith on Drylongso, True Lies Fails to Capture the Charm of the James Cameron Original, Berlinale 2023 Highlights, Part Two: Reality, Manodrome, The Adults, Inside, Golda. Inside, she was wild as mountain scenery.". Gay's lover is Frank Tanner(Jon Cypher), the leader of a band of cutthroats who lead the crusade to take out the black man who was mistaken for being the one who killed Gay's husband. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. All entries copyright Rohan Maitzen. The supporting cast is very good. Drama A Mexican-American lawman seeks revenge against a rancher who tricked him into shooting an innocent man and then left him in the desert to die alone. What I love about that line, and the other splendid lines throughout that script, is that they reveal character and the place that character came from in a special way no actor could do on his own. Each pivotal character woven within this western tapestry seems to have reached the summit of experience. No Name. He is the last gentleman, and to remain that he must often fight. 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