Review of Joe Kidd (1972) by Tim F — 18 Aug 2010

John Sturges directs this standard Eastwood western with a certain flair for Anthony Mann-esque use of landscape, but nothing else suggests the deep psychological territory of a Mann western; this is pretty cut-and-dry revenge stuff.

Clint plays an ex-bounty hunter, and sometime town drunk, who hires out to a land baron (Robert Duvall, giving good villain) to find a Mexican national terrorizing the countryside, adamant that an ancient treaty entitles him to the dirt.

Eastwood plays both sides, ala "A Fistful of Dollars", but neither has a convincing argument, and of course it'll be settled with a shoot-out anyway, it's just how we get there that's part of the fun, and with our man driving a locomotive through a saloon, in a sort of weird Buster Keaton homage, the film has its moments.