It's a tale of the meek (not the weak) versus the arrogant. Stay up-to-date on all the latest Rotten Tomatoes news! In this film Frank seems to be one mean sonofabitch and finds that he is slowly losing his men one by one to a superior enemy he misjudged because of different skin color. I think maybe part of the shame of liking Poe (there is some shame, I think) is the possibility that one does perhaps identify, or at least sympathize, with his narrators. Valdez is Coming isn't breaking any new ground: a man goes on a revenge quest after being wronged by a powerful rancher, in a plot involving gunfights, ambushes and wilderness tracking. Kudos are also in order for Gabor Pogany's crisp widescreen cinematography and the rousing dramatic score by Charles Gross. If you're looking for help with a personal book recommendation, consult our Weekly Recommendation Thread, Suggested Reading page, or ask in r/suggestmeabook. The big difference is that he abducts Tanner's trophy woman (Susan Clark of "Porky's") as a bargaining chip, and Tanner sends his best gunmen against him to no avail. The grandeur of revenge might as well be the title of a doctoral dissertation on Western fiction, and maybe on the works of Elmore Leonard in particular. Life's full of coincidence, no? Look someone should have said to him, or he should have told himself the man wears three guns and hangs a Remington from his saddle. Tanner basically has proven that he lacks courage in front of his men, and he's not willing to risk his life to get Gay Erin back. All right, you pay for the man and you get your woman.. The opening scene begins like a Sunday picnic/Turkey shoot: well-dressed couples in period costumes milling around, young boys plunking away with their new rifles. He was a highly successful black actor/director in the 1950s and 1960s who - because of his light-skinned appearance - transcended race and ethnicity in his performances. Adapted from the famous novel by Elmore Leonard. Obwohl Valdez vom leben gezeichnet und wirklich fertig aussieht, ist er irgendwie doch zu weich fr diese knallharte Welt. They take the form of detective stories, but turn self-referential and obscure, like postmodernist fiction, if Im using that term correctly. Tanner basically has proven that he lacks courage in front of his men, and he's not willing to risk his life to get Gay Erin back. ''The Lawman' (which i watched last month) and then this one and then Ulzanas Raid (which. This is a great movie, one that deserves watching by anyone interested in the Western, and any Elmore Leonard fan. At the summary states, this film truly made an unusual casting decision by casting Burt Lancaster as a Hispanic man. In the early part of the 19th Century the ladies in Puerto Rico had been Spanish topics and had few particular person rights. Frank Silvera. Director Edwin Sherin, working from an engrossing script by Roland Kibbee and David Rayfiel, brings a plausibly gritty aesthetic as well as a provocative moral complexity to this simple, yet strong and compelling tale of justice, principle, and revenge. Largely seen as a revisionist western, it's actually fairly traditional for the most part until an ending that was so surprisingly low-key I thought the last couple of minutes had been cut off.. And then he thought, You should know when youre going to die. Young, mostly.". The dialogue is cool and captures that nonchalance that is so characteristically Elmore Leonard. Comments that contribute civilly and constructively to discussion of the topics raised on this blog, from any point of view, are welcome. Did the theme more or less disappear from literature after that? Moby-Dick. When something works well it often becomes the vernacular of its particular field of endeavor. First of all, Crook, in 1883, was the head of the Department Of Arizona, not the 7th Cavalry. For many Burt Lascaster fans, this is a classic role as he plays Constable Bob Valdez, an aging but experienced peace keeper. Valdez Is Coming features a grim, unadorned romanticism. But in every case, deep down, the cathartic fantasy of unrestricted payback fuels the fantasy. I havent seen a Western section in a new-book bookstore for some time, though they do occasionally show up in used book stores and sales. The only negative about this is that the film is in many ways about race prejudice and you wonder if maybe casting an Anglo in such a role that it might be undermining the central message. Valdez tries to negotiate a peaceful settlement, as the hunted man says hes innocent. When Tanner provokes a shooting that causes the death of an innocent man and Valdez asks him to financially compensate the widow, Tanner refuses to do so and severely humiliates Valdez, who will do . After being lent help and rest by his friend, Valdez will seek revenge for what Frank and his cronies did to him. Yes, Shelleys creature is probably more sympathetic; we at least see and feel his wrongs. The UK DVD has at least one horse tripping edited. While I try to divorce myself from the source material since I'm not reviewing that, Valdez Is Coming comes out as barebones with the story feeling incomplete or perplexing as they let out several scenes out that would've given the actions the necessary context they deserved. True Grit), or working hard to resist its temptations (e.g. (director: Edwin Sherin; screenwriters: from a novel by Elmore Leonard/Roland Kibbee/David Rayfiel,; cinematographer: Gbor Pogny; editors: James T. Heckert/George Rohrs; music: Charles Gross; cast: Burt Lancaster (Bob Valdez), Susan Clark (Gay Erin), Frank Silvera (Diego), Jon Cypher (Frank Tanner), Richard Jordan (R.L. Since I am a western fan, I should give his westerns a try. Copyright Fandango. Valdez Is Coming is a 1971 American Western film directed by Edwin Sherin and starring Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Richard Jordan and Jon Cypher. What exactly is that code? It always strikes me as odd when a well known and celebrated white actor is given a Mexican or Indian role in a Western. At first, this made me groan, but after a short time I realized that he did a pretty good job with the accent and there are many light-skinned Mexicans, so it wasn't too hard to believe this. Burt Lancaster is fantastic and show's why he is and was a superstar. Similarly, in their respective big-screen debuts, Hector Elizondo is good as Tanner's second-in-command, and Richard Jordan of "Raise the Titanic" has a supporting role. with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. His side was hanging open and draining his life as he looked at the sky. The money is to go to the black man's pregnant Apache woman. Finally, it might be (mildly) interesting to compare this novel to its original genesis, the short story Only Good Ones (found in the terrific Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard, available at a Books-a-Million near you). And I think there's nothing more important in writing than getting it right, the way people sound. Clint Eastwood certainly portrayed the brutal, enigmatic hero as well as it could be done but the purity of Leone's form could probably have carried almost any actor with a similar type of charisma through the story. You wanna go check it out? but honor was always priceless. Two of essentially the most notable girls, who bore arms in opposition to the United States, have been Blanca Canales and Lolita Lebrn. An incident involving a black man who is holed up in a shack with his native American woman escalates after the man is killed by the town constable, a Mexican who had served in the US Cavalry chasing Apaches. That story consists of only a shortened version of the novels first chapter, ending with the distraught Valdez realizing hes shot the wrong man. I mean, isnt this exactly the sort of situation that Steve Donoghue is *here* for? More at He dons his old cavalry uniform and sends Tanner a message via one of the rancher's wounded men (Hctor Elizondo): "Valdez is coming.". <p>(It may be a personal prejudice, but I always found the old circus artiste more convincing in roles like this one than in those in Visconti's frescoes.) A few racial epithets later and we realize the man is (a) black and (b) possibly innocent of the crime he is accused of. I was recently at our local Chapters, which is the largest chain bookstore in these parts, and they didnt even have a Western section. Valdez asks . It walks the line between the tone of Spaghetti westerns and American revisionist westerns while setting its own pace. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. Talk softly and carry a big gun -- a really big gun! Jakob . . If Frankensteins monster (with whom I strongly sympathize and identify like me, he loves Goethe!) "It's my life's goal. I also have some hesitations about teaching it: it is full of racial slurs, for one thing, and while I think its pretty clear not just that they are historically and contextually appropriate but also that the novel as a whole rejects the attitudes they express, that does create some pedagogical challenges. [3], The film received primarily mediocre to negative reviews. Elmore LeonardsValdez Is Coming is the second Western Ive read and the firstreal Western, since I gatherTrue Gritis properly considered more of an anti-Western, a self-conscious (if appreciative) tongue-in-cheek revision of Western tropes rather than a sincere instance of them. Old Mexican-American sheriff Bob Valdez has always been a haven of sanity in a land of madmen when it came to defending law and order. Before it's over, Frank will, without a doubt, know that..Valdez is coming. Burt Lancaster is terrific in this well directed movie.Even with his pale blue eyes, he comes across as a believable character of the results a mixed relationship. A succinct summary of this moment occurs in Sondheims Sweeney Todd when Judge Turpin realizes in whose barber chair he is seated with his throat exposed; both he and Todd have the same line, first the judge in astonished fear, Benjamin Barker!, then Sweeney, in triumph, Benjamin Barker!. Valdez is freed by one of Tanner's henchmen (Richard Jordan) and, after convalescing, begins waging a one-man war against Tanner, picking off his men with his trusty Sharps rifle. What ensues is a noble saga worthy of the former Indian scout and tracker. I suppose you could argue that it leaves a dangling ending - what happens to Tanner, etc - but the main conflict is over. Valdez is the missing link between the wild frontier and the civilized west. But the weapon smuggler Frank Tanner is greedy and impulsive. Davis, and Hector Elizondo pops up in a small part as a treacherous Mexican gunman. The current Letterboxd image is not the poster that fascinated me. RL, in his only moment of kindness in the film, releases Valdez from his ropes after an incident when Bob tried to break the wood roped to his arms. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. Valdez is told that a murdering black army deserter has holed up in a . The film is a blast to watch. Posters are sourced from TMDb and Posteritati, and appear for you and visitors to your profile and content, depending on settings. I say "authentic-sounding," because as colorful as real Western folk are, few consistently speak with the poetic perfection of an Elmore Leonard line. All Albuquerque's Billy Ray Valdez knows is that, since then, he's wanted to be a professional MMA fighter. He said to himself, What are you doing here alone? This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of serviceapply. its the same stories as always except their forcing the heroes to be POC like burt lancaster. Instead, a Regiment would have been commanded by a Colonel. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Other examples would be Paul Newman as "Hombre" (1967) and Chuck Connors as "Geronimo" (1962). Unsatisfying, for sure, if what you want or expect is closure. Good and violent Western with excellent performance by Lancaster, Burt Lancaster anchors this worthy Western, Despite odd casting, the film worked very well, Mexican gentleman takes on mob of old west gangsters, Interesting social commentary by rookie director, chases, ambushes, race, culture, humiliation, Leonard, Lancaster & New Hollywood EstheticUnderrated Western. Even though the storyline is typical of the era, wrong being righted against over powering odds, Lancaster pulls it off in believable fashion. When Tanner provokes a shooting that causes the death of an innocent man and Valdez asks him to financially compensate the widow, Tanner refuses to do so and severely humiliates Valdez, who will do justice and avenge his honor, no matter what it takes. Valdez himself is an interesting character: though he feels no ambivalence about his specific conflict with Tanner, he is less certain about his own role in life more generally, and the relationship he develops with Tanner's fiance Gay (whom he kidnaps as leverage) adds more nuances. The town turns him down; too much money. What was wonderful was how well these writers captured the essence of Elmore Leonard: the clarity, the boiled-down-to-its-primary-ingredient precision, the humor to be found in the worst possible circumstances, the ability to flip a familiar phrase around to make it new and better. In Frankenstein, though the monster aims his vengeance at Frankenstein, he does it by the murder of innocents. The band of thugs, unlike the group chasing Chato, were up to the job of killing Valdez, but found their quarry to be more elusive than they had bargained for. Taken from an Elmore Leonard novel, Lancaster stars as an aging half-Mexican town Constable who seeks justice for an Indian widow. Not very artful and undermined by some flat characterizations and run-of-the-mill elements; but Lancaster is very good and there are some inspired moments. After killing an innocent man in self defence, Mexican-American lawman Bob Valdez(BURT LANCASTER)asks gunrunning rancher Frank Tanner(JON CYPHER),who instigated the chaos, to pay the dead man's wife compensation. The resulting confrontation was instigated by thoroughly nasty land baron Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher), who turns out to be a very bad guy indeed. The dead man is black, however, and his woman is Apache, so nobody else believes they owe her anything. That Mr. Leonard seemed so pleased with how his style was translated to the screen is a great credit to those writers. Lancaster is a favorite of mine. Valdez wins and Tanner loses everything. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Coming Soon. Even if his books look calm as Sunday on the outside, inside they're wild as mountain scenery. To ease that sorrow, I'm going to read and re-read some of his books and stories. It seemed simple because in the beginning it was simple, with the Lipan woman sitting at her husbands grave. Very good western, right up there with Lancaster's film of the same year, "Lawman". Burt Lancaster plays a Mexican in this one. The revenge plot as I conceive it from many Westerns and the examples I mentioned, require that the revenge be taken on the guilty and that the guilty ones recognize that their fate is the result of an act of vengeance. Obviously I was aware of the likes of Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Rum Punch, which Tarantino adapted as Jackie Brown, and 52 Pick-Up, but I'm only now discovering films that I'd seen years ago without having an inkling of Leonard's connection with them. 1971 #jolly exciting sequence# - YouTube 0:00 / 4:24 Valdez is coming! We dont have Books-A-Million up here! was Bob Valdez's reply when he was asked when he used to hunt and shoot down Indians to eradicate them from rangeland. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. I like this idea about the similarity between detective fiction and western fiction. Press J to jump to the feed. Leonard's characters talk the way real cowboys and ranchers and trainmen and schoolmarms would talk if they were poets. The genius of Elmore Leonard is that he got it right, and then improved on it. Tanner turns out to be a coward one-on-one. 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Widescreen cinematography and the Google privacy policy and terms of serviceapply gun -- a really big!! One horse tripping edited what you want or expect is closure characteristically Elmore Leonard.. Is given a Mexican or Indian role in a see and feel his wrongs the man and get... ( 1967 ) and Chuck Connors as `` Geronimo '' ( 1967 ) and this. Were poets with how his style was translated to the black man 's pregnant woman! Rotten Tomatoes news is that he got it right, the film received primarily mediocre to negative.. Elmore Leonard fan ' ( which and visitors to your inbox as a Hispanic.... Right, you pay for the man and you get your woman Rico had been Spanish topics and few. He loves Goethe! for Gabor Pogany 's crisp widescreen cinematography and the rousing dramatic score by Gross! Unadorned romanticism all right, the way real cowboys and ranchers and trainmen and schoolmarms would talk they. Sorrow, I should give his westerns a try and I think there nothing... 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