Valdez Is Coming

1971 "Honor is always worth fighting for"
6.7| 1h31m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 09 April 1971 Released
Producted By: Norlan Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Old Mexican-American sheriff Bob Valdez has always been a haven of sanity in a land of madmen when it came to defending law and order. But the weapon smuggler Frank Tanner is greedy and impulsive. 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.

Genre

Western

Watch Online

Valdez Is Coming (1971) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Edwin Sherin

Production Companies

Norlan Productions

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial
Watch Now
Valdez Is Coming Videos and Images
View All
  • Top Credited Cast
  • |
  • Crew

Valdez Is Coming Audience Reviews

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Clevercell Very disappointing...
BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
tieman64 Today, Elmore Leonard is primarily known for his crime fiction. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, though, he spawned a number of Westerns, most notably "3:10 to Yuma", "Joe Kidd", "Valdez is Coming" and Martin Ritt's "Hombre", the best of the bunch.Directed by Edwin Sherin, and set in post-Civil War Arizona, "Valdez is Coming" stars Burt Lancaster as Bob Valdez, a Mexican-American constable. When Valdez is manipulated into killing a black, ex slave, he rightfully holds cattle baron Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher) responsible. Valdez orders Tanner to pay the deceased man's wife one hundred dollars compensation. Tanner refuses."Valdez is Coming's" middle section unfolds like a conventional revenge-western. Tanner repeatedly beats and humiliates Valdez, who subsequently fights back. The film then climaxes with a brilliant sequence in which Tanner and Valdez face-off in the desert. "Pay the hundred dollars," Valdez reiterates simply, the line encapsulating the absurdity of both the film's plot and the sheer stubbornness of Tanner, a man whose pettiness, selfishness and cruelty Valdez's lofty principles have exposed. The "last act gunfight" has long been a cliché in Westerns. In "Valdez is Coming", though, director Edwin Sherin abruptly ends his film before the requisite showdown begins. It's an effective move; Valdez's final monetary request is the showdown's first bullet, the look on Tanner's face makes it clear that Valdez's principles have hit their target, and Sherin's abrupt conclusion forces we the audience to contemplate the pettiness of frontier justice, vengeful gratification, pride and even human egos.Unsurprisingly for a western released in the 1970s, "Valdez is Coming" is preoccupied with abuses directed against minorities. Women, Apaches, blacks, Mexicans and "half-breeds" are all the victims of cruel, white, land-owners, and Tanner's refusal to pay is always linked to his covert bigotry; Mexicans, Natives and Blacks simply don't matter. Valdez wants to make them matter.Lancaster made a number of covertly political films in the 1960s and 70s. "Valdez is Coming" isn't as good as these. It's too conventional, aesthetically plain and Lancaster looks a bit ridiculous in brown face paint. Still, it opens and closes with a pair of powerful sequences and Lancaster imbues his character with an infectious mixture of grime and grace.What really elevates the film, though, is Elmore Leonard's prose. Spare, direct and pulpy, Leonard skewers the tropes upon which "Wild West" mythology once hinged. Instead of a celebration of white masculinity, individualism and The Law, Leonard posits a brown man as the hero. More than this, Valdez becomes an almost divine figure. Granted a Christ-like resurrection (in one of the film's more hokey scenes), he becomes nothing less than a leader of the downtrodden.7/10 – See "Hombre" and "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean".
james1844 Probably a very low budget film but a great script and a good job of acting by many of the cast. I came away with a deep appreciation for this film.Burt delivers a surprising well covered Mexican character portrayal as do many of the cast. This is a story about power and ego. The plot centers around justice in a wild west and who has the power can be quite corrupt. The story deals with a last stand by Valdez to make right a wrong. A bit of David and Goliath with Valdez proving that he still has his finally tuned talents from his years of Indian Scouting. I truly liked this movie because it was believable and honest about the pride of a man determined to make things right.Perhaps somebody in Hollywood has the good sense to try a remake, since that seems to be common play these days. I'd like to see what modern movie industry could do.
zardoz-13 Burt Lancaster plays an old Mexican/American stagecoach shotgun rider who finds himself forced to kill an African American during a stand-off with him while a lot of other people are watching. Indeed, the African-American had been trapped in a small cabin at the foot of a rise, and several rifleman had kept him pinned down in the structure. Afterward, Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster of "Lawman") goes around trying to take up a collection for the African-American's widow. The chief culprit, a wealthy land owner named Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher) refuses to ante up a cent. 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. Frank Tanner is the perfect villain, and Jon Cypher resembles those old villain with his turfy eyebrows and mustache. He isn't a nice villain. After he survives a jaunt through the desert, the old Valdez digs into his trunk and dresses up like the sage cavalry scout that he once was and comes to collect. The big difference is that he abducts Tanner's trophy woman (Susan Clark of "Porky's") as a bargaining chip, and Tanner sends his best gunmen against him to no avail. Elmore Leonard's crackerjack western novel "Valdez Is Coming" served as the inspiration for this lively western lensed on location in scenic Spain with Lancaster in top agile form for a 58-year old guy. The conclusion amounts to something of a letdown, but everything up till then is pretty good. "Valdez" was actor Jon Cyper"s big-screen debut. Similarly, in their respective big-screen debuts, Hector Elizondo is good as Tanner's second-in-command, and Richard Jordan of "Raise the Titanic" has a supporting role. Mind you, this is also very formulaic, but some of the action is unforgettable, particularly when the villains make fun of Bob Valdez and tie a cross to his back and force him to walk through the desert at high noon. The dialogue is cool and captures that nonchalance that is so characteristically Elmore Leonard. If you are a Burt Lancaster fan, this is one of his last kick ass westerns.
Claudio Carvalho While traveling protecting a stagecoach back to his town, the middle-aged Mexican-American Constable Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster) witnesses a group of locals shooting on a cabin where a black man is trapped with his Indian pregnant wife, accused by the powerful Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher) of being the killer of the local Jim Erin. Valdez decides to talk to the man, and when he opens the door, the henchman R.L. Davis (Richard Jordan) shoots; the man believes it is a setup and shoots on Valdez, forcing the peace officer to kill him. Sooner they find that the victim was innocent and Valdez asks for one hundred dollars to Tanner to give to the widow. However, he is humiliated and nailed to a cross by Tanner's henchmen and sent back to the desert. He is miraculous saved by his Mexican friend Luis Diego (Frank Silvera) but recovers his health. Valdez retrieves his outfits and weapons from the time he was a professional shooter killing Apaches for the U.S. Cavalry and rides to Tanner's land. He hits one of his henchmen (Hector Elizondo) and sends him back to Tanner's farm with the advice that "Valdez is coming"."Valdez Is Coming" is an overrated western, with a good story of guilt and revenge, supported by magnificent performances. Unfortunately the last fifteen minutes and the open conclusion are absolutely disappointing, specially considering that R.L. Davis and El Segundo have burnt Luis Diego's house and hands and abused of his daughter. The make-up of American actors with blue eyes to become a cliché of Mexican people is quite ridiculous. The disrespect with the Catholic religion is quite out of the context of the plot. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Retorno de Valdez" ("The Return of Valdez")