MARTIN RITT

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBB. 

USA, 1967.  Hombre Productions.  Screenplay by Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank Jr..  Cinematography by James Wong Howe.  Produced by Irving Ravetch, Martin Ritt.  Music by David Rose.  Production Design by Jack Martin Smith, Robert Emmet Smith.  Costume Design by Donfeld.  Film Editing by Frank Bracht.  

Paul Newman continues his collection of anti-heroes with this excellent western, adapted from the novel by Elmore Leonard.  He plays a white man raised by Apaches who suffers the racism that is dealt towards all Natives of frontier America. His background becomes an asset, however, when a stagecoach is held up and he’s in the prime spot to be of some use to both the victims and their assailants. Diane Cilento has a terrific supporting role as one of our hero’s loving women, and the whole supporting cast shines. This is one of the best westerns to be made in the sixties, a perfect warm-up for Sam Peckinpah’s brilliant The Wild Bunch.