Review of Hombre (1967) by Zack M — 16 Jan 2011
Paul Newman made some great films but I loved him most in this Martin Ritt, 1967 film from an Elmore Leonard story. He plays John Russell, a 'hard bark' raised amongst Apache. (A closing still is the photo of 'Santiago' McKinn a white boy with GeronimoâÃ,Ã,(TM)s native Americans amongst whom, he had become assimilated .
) One early scene has the taciturn Russell smash a rifle butt in the mouth of Lamar Dean a thug who is abusing an Apache friend and says quietly to Dean (now with a rifle barrel in his gut) "enough 'uh? Before you leave put the money for a mescal on the bar".
Over the course of the film Russell adds other qualities to this masculinity becoming truly the âÃ,Ã,~HombreâÃ,Ã,(TM) and, unmistakably, âÃ,Ã,~Ecce HomoâÃ,Ã,(TM). In the 50s Ritt had been blacklisted as a communist.
Like many from that tradition I think he saw the radical in the story of Christ.
This review of Hombre (1967) was written by Zack M on 16 Jan 2011.
Hombre has generally received very positive reviews.
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