ma-cortes
Studio-slick story with talky screenplay, it starts when Confederate soldier named Matt Weaver (George Segal) goes back to his village after the Civil War, he encounters that his house has been sold by landowner Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle). Brewster hires enigmatic gunfighter Jules Gaspard d'Estaing (Yul Brynner) to deal with Weaver and charged with taking him out but d'Estaing's independent approach settles the issues in a very unorthodox manner . When Jules is assigned for cleaning up the troubled community , he suddenly shifts loyalties and turning the balance of power. Meanwhile , there takes place a lovely triangle among the main characters (Brynner, Segal and Janice Rule).This is a tremendously exciting story of a gunfighter-for-hire who had only one more killing to go. It begins as a slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark characters and solid plot ; resulting to be a striking piece. Long on dialog but contains an exciting final with surprising duel . The tale is almost grim , a killer comes to a town just in time to make sure its citizenry but later the events get worse . Short on action Western with Brynner as rare gunslinger who is hired as professional murderous to kill outcast Confederate George Segal. The highlights are the violent destruction of the town and the climatic showdown at the ending. Phenomenal and great role for Yul Brynner as avenger angel and bitter gunfighter, he's the whole show at the height of his iconic game . Vivid and lively musical score by David Raksin. Atmospheric cinematography in glimmer color by Joseph McDonald. The motion picture is professionally realized by Richard Wilson (Al Capone , Three in Attic). Wilson was a previous associate of Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre days and made another good Western as ¨Man with a gun¨, starring Robert Mitchum and ¨Zane Grey¨ episodes. Watchable results for this offbeat Western.
ejr-4
Found this to be a pleasant surprise. Talky but interesting psychological western, much more intelligent than typical gunfighter fare. Also, I would venture to say that "High Plains Drifter" might have taken a bit of inspiration from this film, which predates it by many years.Light on the action but the characters are more than one dimensional stereotypes and all good performances.Totally misrepresented by the one line summary, "Town hires a gunslinger to kill an outcast then hires the outcast to kill the gunslinger," as 95% of the movie is about the first half of that sentence.Check it out!
alexandre michel liberman (tmwest)
Richard Wilson worked closely with Orson Welles as an assistant in "Magnificent Ambersons" and "Citizen Kane" also as an actor in "The Lady from "Shanghai". Considering he directed this film and wrote the screenplay with his wife, you certainly could expect a superior western like this one. Yul Brynner comes to a town dominated by a corrupt town boss and where there is also plenty of racism against the Mexicans. Even though the town fought for the Union most of the people behave as if they had opposite ideals. The irony is that George Segal who was the only Confederate is the most moral and open minded of them all. Brynner is paid to kill Segal, but he starts revolting against the corruption,and immorality of those who hired him.
StormBrn
Brynner's trademark feline grace and air of disdainful superiority are used to full advantage in this tale of a small town hiring a gunfighter to deal with a hometown boy gone bad. The performances of the other actors and solid direction provide a sharp portrait of a dusty, narrowminded, small-town society. They've created one monster of their own, and invited another monster in to deal with him--now, how do they deal with the new menace? Particularly memorable is the scene in which D'estaing gives instruction in the proper pronunciation of his name.
AD
