Diagonaldi Very well executed

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

LeonLouisRicci There were Early Attempts in Post-War Hollywood to Revise the Portrayal of "Indians"(Native Americans) in Movies with a more "Sympathetic" or "Realistic" Account. "Broken Arrow" and "Devil's Doorway", both from 1950, are Two Outstanding Examples.This 1967 Film is one that Deserves some Credit for Continuing the Noble Trend. Director Martin Ritt (a well known Liberal) made this with Paul Newman in the Lead as a White Man Raised by the Apaches.The Film Opens with Newman, in full Native Garb, along with other Tribe Members, Symbolically Corralling a Herd of Wild Stallions Reflecting Their Own Doomed Future. Its Poetic and Beautifully Shot by James Wong Howe. "Hombre", the Newman Character is told that He has Inherited, from His White Father, a Boarding House and We are Taken in another Direction. With His Long Hair Cut and sporting White Man's Duds, He's off to the Other Side of the Tracks.What He finds there is not to His Liking and Things become a Clash of Cultures aboard a Stagecoach where Elmore Leonard's Story can Offer Up some Dialog that can "Cut It" like a Knife.As the Production Code was Cracking, there can be Found some Edgy Sexual Innuendos along with Banter about Racism and Respect. It has Now Become More than Your Standard John Ford Western. It's a Clash of Civilizations about what is Civilized and What is Not."If you're hungry enough, you'll eat a dog and fight for the bones." Says "Hombre" to a Female Passenger who shows Disgust at "Reservation Residents". The Scathing Exchanges continue the Philosophizing until the Predictable Conclusion.Diane Cilento is Extremely Effective, Charming and takes Acting Honors as a Worldly Woman. Richard Boone, Martin Balsam, Frederic March, and Frank Silvera also add Gravitas to the Proceedings. Newman, in a Thankfully Restrained Performance is Fine.But the Strength of the Film is the Script and Story that uses the Civil Rights Movement (blazing at the time) for a Window to Widen the Scope of Discussion and takes the High Road and Looks Down on the Injustices both Past and Present.

lavatch "Hombre" is a motion picture combining the talents of two veterans of the famed Actors Studio in New York: director Martin Ritt and actor Paul Newman. The final movie in their multiple film collaborations, "Hombre" tells a good story with a nuanced message about the treatment of Native Americans.Newman plays the character named John Russell, whose background is that of a native of the Cherokee nation. Raised in the Cherokee culture as a boy, Russell now is starting out to make his way in the world of the men who destroyed his native culture.The action of the film is a lengthy story of survival where Russell is part of an entourage in a stagecoach that is robbed. The large stash of money was originally stolen by a doctor employed by the government to oversee the Cherokee reservation. Now, some desperadoes, led by Richard Boone in a star turn as the villain, attempt to rob the doctor. The money really belongs to the Russell's tribe, yet he is now in forced to choose whether or not to assist the bystanders in the stagecoach in a long march across the desert.SPOILER ALERT: The drama has some enormous plot holes, including the unexplained moment when the stagecoach is robbed, yet the thieves do not remember to take the money! Then, in the climax, Newman's character plans to kill the robbers, yet he too does not take the money bag that is to be offered for the exchange of the doctor's wife.Beyond the muddled narrative, the scenery of the Southwest is gorgeous, and Newman turns in an exemplary performance, especially in his understated reading of some excellent lines of dialogue.

Zettelhead No need to tell that the cast is fantastic and the camera impressive.What impressed me the most were the use of time and the dialogues. The movie is extremely slow but never looses its tension. This is done in a way that seems to be forgotten in cinematography nowadays. Still the whole movie looks astonishingly modern.And the dialogues are just perfect. Deep, multi-layered, minimalistic. Probably the best written western ever - next to Garden of Evil (Frank Fenton) and Terror in a Texas Town (Dalton Trumbo).Same for the story: there is a clear similarity to stagecoach, but this time the evil guys are the white man. The only reasonable human, the white man raised by apaches, representing not a race but just a culture, wastes his life in that awkward moment, when he is dragged into the dubious moral concepts of the white.Wow!

wsherrett-677-936271 Just a few observations on the source and themes of this classic film that I haven't seen mentioned here. The source novel, or novella, really, at 99 pages, differs from the film in its collection and details of characters. Elmore Leonard's John Russell is about twenty- one years old. Newman was forty-one at the time - this required some changes to the plot and characters. The passengers in Leonard's story feature an eighteen-year-old white girl who has recently been freed from the Apaches after being held for a few weeks. She had to be changed into Diane Cilento's character. Russell's attraction in the novel doesn't become obvious until the climax. The novel is narrated by the kid, who is unmarried and leaving on the stage to seek his fortune in the world. Thus the screenwriters set the stage for a new thread of dialog during the trip around the nature of civilized relations between the sexes vs. that of the Indians. This not only replaces the brief discussion of the young girl's experience but provides padding for the longer form of the movie. It does seem out of place in this story, however, as a distraction from the buildup of suspense. But it is almost a requirement for Westerns from this period. The bad guys in the novel featured both cowboys from Delgado's bar, including the one who got his nose broke. The film, for some reason, substitutes Cameron Mitchell's bad sheriff for one of them, and this only reduces the suspense of whether Russell will be recognized, the irony of which is a central point to the plot. So, if Ford's 1939 movie makes the point that Ringo Kids are sometimes necessary in times of war, Elmore Leonard offers a more nuanced take on whether the good guys are all that good, and where virtue might be found.