Review of Joe Kidd (1972) by Aaron R — 14 Dec 2007

One of Clint's less-than-stellar Westerns, mostly due to an illogical plot that makes no sense. Why did Saxon come off the mountain when his character had the advantage? Somewhat to the film's credit, though, Clint's character is a lot more human in this film, however, than in something like "The Outlaw Josey Wales", where his body counts give him a nearly Terminator-like status.

Check out the number of times he misses Duvall's men with that newfangled automatic pistol. Saxon especially was under-utilized and could have served a much larger role than tough guy window-dressing.

He's really a great actor. Overall, just kind of a short, weak, slow-paced movie that started strong but began to unravel around the church scene. It could have ended much better had Saxon, Duvall, and Eastwood's characters all come together in a less predictable (and morally ambiguous) climax.