Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

The great Elmore Leonard wrote two kinds of scripts, great ones and, well, er, the great Elmore Leonard wrote one kind of script, not counting the two genres he wrote: Westerns and darkly funny crime dramas. Known more now for the latter, he was a modern master of the former, populating his hair-trigger milieus with hardbitten men doing deadly deeds. Joe Kidd is a minor classic from that hard core Western canon.

Clint Eastwood plays a morally ambiguous gunfighter in pre-statehood New Mexico. His first line: “You want some,” after using a bowl of stew as a weapon. His last line: “Next time I’ll knock your block off.”

In between, he cuts an idiosyncratic path between a corrupt landowner and rebellious Mexicans fed up with being swindled out of their land. That underlying story makes Joe Kidd as serious as it is entertaining.

In the wake of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Westerns were viable once again, revisionist Westerns anyway. Having the lead character be a deadly gun fighter name of Kidd fit the bill, especially as played by one of the greatest Western stars ever. It still works for Clint, Elmore and revisionist Western fans alike.

Acting - Great 4.0

Clint Eastwood facing off against Robert Duvall elevates Joe Kidd into moviestar nirvana.

Eastwood was said to be under the weather during filming. Perhaps he used that to his advantage in the early scenes, where he was supposed to look like hell, and did. In any case, the onetime man with no name had his laconic charisma turned up to 11 as the eponymic star, a gunfighter both self-serving and heroic.

Duvall played a flat-out badass, as evil a character as perhaps he’s ever inhabited. We’re talking classic Duvall, back when he was relatively young and totally full of vinegar. Sharp as a tack, with a mirthless laugh and a moviestar’s profile, he gives Joe Kidd what every action movie needs: a first rate villain.

The great supporting case included some well known faces.

• John Saxon’s IMDb filmography includes nearly 200 roles over 50 years. The guy could play anything, though it’s more than a bit ironic that an Italian-American actor plays a Mexican in a revisionist Western about Mexicans getting shafted by Americans. Ah, Hollywood.
• Don Stroud was young and striking when he appeared in Joe Kidd as one of Duvall’s henchmen. He’s still a goto Western actor, most recently in Django Unchained.
• James Wainwright is appropriately chilling as another henchman with the terrific name of Mingo. Elmore Leonard sure could write.
• Stella Garcia as a strong Mexican woman. Eastwood movies always have strong women in them.
• Dick Van Patten as an obsequious Hotel Manager. Natch.

Film - Great 4.0

John Sturges was an imposing director, to Eastwood and all. Two of the his four Known Fors are The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, both of which he’d done a decade before. So yeah, he was the man.

In Joe Kidd he took on a revisionist Western from the golden age of such newfangled, morally complicated oaters. Written by the already great Elmore Leonard, he could hardly go wrong. Instead he went Great.

• Sudden death, surprising — a Leonard trademark — is well executed by Sturges.
• Their reluctant hero earns moral authority through brave action, consistent with Western trope.

Edge - Risqué 2.5

Post-modern rooting, tooting, shooting & looting

Reality - Glib 1.5

Cultural imperialism: Commanded by a white guy, the Padre calls all his people out to the street, where they are to be offered up as human sacrifices. Say what Gringo?!!!

An American flag with 45 stars and 13 stripes sets the movie in time. I’ve tagged it late 19th Century.

• Feed
• Movies
• ViewLists
• NewOnDemand