Joe Kidd
Reviews
John Chard
Well the deer didn't know where he was, and I wasn't sure either. There's a certain school of thought with Eastwood purists that Joe Kidd is far more meaningful than its reputation would suggest. In fact, that it most certainly is not in the lower tier of Eastwood Westerns that ratings across internet forums say otherwise. Truth is, is that with Eastwood starring, Robert Duval and John Saxon supporting, John Sturges directing and Elmore Leonard writing, well this really should have turned out far better than it did. In short order it has Eastwood as gunslinger/bounty hunter Joe Kidd who somehow finds himself helping a wealthy landowner and his henchmen to track down a Mexican revolutionary leader - it's a land issue we think.... But once on the trail as part of the posse, Kidd comes to find a conflict of interest and soon enough taking sides is just one of the issues to hand. Sadly I myself can't join with the band of loyal fans who put forward this as a misunderstood piece of work. It plods along as it works its way through a muddled screenplay, which really is very thin from a narrative standpoint, and ultimately it doesn't pay off for character crescendo value come the finale. Add in that Duval's character is poorly under written and Saxon is miscast and you got a few problems to be annoyed about. However, the script does have some nifty dialogue, Bruce Surtees' location photography is outstanding, while Eastwood is yet again a magnetic presence that draws you in to stay the course. Action is well enough handled, including a brilliant finale involving a train as a weapon of mass destruction, and there's some weapons of interest to be interested in!. But you feel that there should have been a bit more complexity on show here, and that the running time of just an hour and twenty minutes does suggest, there's half an hour of film that really should have been added here. 6/10
r96sk
<em>'Joe Kidd'</em> is solid. It's not Clint Eastwood's best work but it's still a role that sufficiently entertains. You also have an important role for one Robert Duvall, who did <em>'The Godfather'</em> in the same year interestingly. No-one else really stands out; not even the miscast John Saxon. The plot is a simple one, which thankfully doesn't drag thanks to a short run time of around 90 minutes. There's also an amusing scene involving a choo-choo, so there is also that. Overall, it does enough for me.
Wuchak
**_Eastwood’s “lost” Western with Duvall and Saxon_** In the Southwest in 1902 a land-grabbing tycoon (Robert Duvall) hires an ex-bounty hunter (Clint Eastwood) in order to track down a Mexican leader who objects to injustice (John Saxon) and is hiding out in the high country with his people. Don Stroud is on hand as one of the pompous gringo’s heavies. "Joe Kidd" (1972) is generally viewed as one of Eastwood’s lesser Westerns when it’s more entertaining than Sergio Leone’s overrated trilogy from 1964-1966, at least in my opinion. It has a notable cast, a superb score and great locations, not to mention being directed by John Sturges, known for great (or near-great) films like “The Law and Jake Wade” (1958), “Chino” (1973) and “The Eagle Has Landed” (1977). True, Sturges was reportedly struggling with alcoholism during shooting and the story starts to meander in the high country during the second act, but the flick works as a whole and everything ties-together for the climax. Originally, Saxon’s ‘bandit,’ Chama, was supposed to be more heroic, but this was changed when Clint was hired on and Joe Kidd became the amusingly fearless hero, the intermediary between two opposing forces. Very little is predictable, from the interesting costumes & weaponry to the bizarre plot twists to the amusing ways the protagonist gets himself into and out of trouble, like the ladder/trapdoor sequence, the swinging water jug scene, the sniper vs. sniper sequence and the whacky train ride. Stella Garcia (Helen) and Lynne Marta (Elma) are featured in the feminine department. Anyone who favors Eastwood’s other Westerns will find a lot to like here. The film runs 1 hour, 28 minutes, and was shot at Old Tucson & Sonoran Desert, Arizona, and Alabama Hills & Inyo National Forest, California. GRADE: B+
Movie Recommendation
High Plains Drifter1973-04-19A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the Stranger to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.More...
The Beguiled1971-01-23Offbeat Civil War drama in which a wounded Yankee soldier, after finding refuge in an isolated girls' school in the South towards the end of the war, becomes the object of the young women's sexual fantasies. The soldier manipulates the situation for his own gratification, but when he refuses to completely comply with the girls' wishes, they make it very difficult for him to leave.More...
Coogan's Bluff1968-10-02Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff goes to New York to pick up a prisoner. While escorting the prisoner to the airport, he escapes and Coogan heads into the city to recapture him.More...
Jenny Lamour1947-10-04Paris, France, December 1946. Jenny Lamour, an ambitious cabaret singer, and Maurice, her extremely jealous pianist husband, become involved in the thorough investigation of the murder of a shady businessman, led by Antoine, a peculiar and methodical police inspector.More...
Lightning Jack1994-03-11Lightning Jack Kane is an Australian outlaw in the wild west. During a bungled bank robbery he picks up mute Ben Doyle as a hostage. The two become good friends, with Jack teaching Ben how to rob banks, while they plan Jack's last heist.More...
The Passage1979-03-09During WW 2, a Basque shepherd is approached by the underground, who wants him to lead a scientist and his family across the Pyrenees. While being pursued by a sadistic German.More...
Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance1974-06-15Lady Snowblood is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes. As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries.More...
The Last Queen2023-04-191516, Legend has it that the king of Algiers had a wife named Zaphira. When the pirate Aroudj Barbarossa arrives to liberate the city from the Spaniards, he is determined to conquer Zaphira as well as the kingdom itself. But is Zaphira willing to let him, or is she plotting for herself?More...
Dr. Strange1978-09-06A psychiatrist becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth in order to battle an evil Sorceress from the past.More...
TRIO - The Hunt for the Holy Shrine2017-02-17The curious Nora, Simen and Lars decide to start the hunt for the sacred Olav shrine in or around the medieval church Nidaros Dome, which has been gone for hundred of years. But they are not the only ones interested in finding the treasure.More...
Chemical Wedding2008-05-04A shy, stuttering professor brings satanist Aleister Crowley back to life.More...
Last Match: The Epilogue2022-08-07Performers and colleagues reflect on Ric Flair's last match.More...
The Hill1965-06-11North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objective. It's The Hill, a manmade instrument of torture, a tower of sand seared by a white-hot sun. And the troops' tormentors are not the enemy, but their own comrades-at-arms.More...
Sudden Impact1983-12-08When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.More...
Kelly's Heroes1970-06-22A misfit group of World War II American soldiers goes AWOL to rob a bank behind German lines.More...
Hot Seat2022-07-01An ex-hacker is forced to break into high-level banking institutions, another man must try to penetrate the booby-trapped building to get the young man off the hot seat.More...
Bronco Billy1980-06-11An idealistic, modern-day cowboy struggles to keep his Wild West show afloat in the face of hard luck and waning interest.More...
Play It Again, Sam1972-05-04A neurotic film critic obsessed with the movie Casablanca attempts to get over his wife leaving him by dating again with the help of a married couple and his illusory idol, Humphrey Bogart.More...
Le Cercle Rouge1970-10-19When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.More...
The Enforcer1976-12-16Dirty Harry Callahan returns again, this time saddled with a rookie female partner. Together, they must stop a terrorist group consisting of angry Vietnam veterans.More...
Similar Movies
The Poseidon Adventur...
1972-12-01When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.The Experiment
2001-03-0820 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.The Wild Bunch
1969-06-19An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.Full Metal Jacket
1987-06-26A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.THX 1138
1971-03-11People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.West Side Story
1961-12-13In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, tensions are high as a gang of Polish-Americans compete against a gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, but this doesn't stop two romantics from each gang falling in love.Inland Empire
2006-12-06When actress Nikki Grace gets the lead role in a cursed film, her world becomes more and more surreal, blending realities and ideas of infidelity, reincarnation, and supernatural forces.Elephant
2003-09-20Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.I Stand Alone
1999-02-17After completing jail time for beating up a man who tried to seduce his mentally-handicapped teenage daughter, The Butcher wants to start life anew. He institutionalizes his daughter and moves to the Lille suburbs with his mistress, who promises him a new butcher shop. Learning that she lied, The Butcher returns to Paris to find his daughter.Carne
1991-11-10After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.Rope
1948-02-01Two young men attempt to prove they committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party for the family of a classmate they just strangled to death.Cape Fear
1991-11-13Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.Hitman
2007-11-21A genetically engineered assassin with deadly aim, known only as "Agent 47" eliminates strategic targets for a top-secret organization. But when he's double-crossed, the hunter becomes the prey as 47 finds himself in a life-or-death game of international intrigue.Mississippi Burning
1988-12-08Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his partner, a former sheriff.Will Penny
1967-12-19Will Penny, an aging cowpoke, takes a job on a ranch which requires him to ride the line of the property looking for trespassers or, worse, squatters. He finds that his cabin in the high mountains has been appropriated by a woman whose guide to Oregon has deserted her and her son. Too ashamed to kick mother and child out just as the bitter winter of the mountains sets in, he agrees to share the cabin until the spring thaw. But it isn't just the snow that slowly thaws; the lonely man and woman soon forget their mutual hostility and start developing a deep love for one another.The Death and Life of...
2007-07-23A DEA agent provides former Marine Tim Kearney with a way out of his prison sentence: impersonate Bobby Z, a recently deceased drug dealer, in a hostage switch with a crime lord. When the negotiations go awry, Kearney flees, with Z's son in tow.Nurse Betty
2000-08-30What happens when a person decides that life is merely a state of mind? If you're Betty, a small-town waitress and soap opera fan from Fair Oaks, Kansas, you refuse to believe that you can't be with the love of your life just because he doesn't really exist. After all, life is no excuse for not living. Traumatized by a savage event, Betty enters into a fugue state that allows -- even encourages -- her to keep functioning... in a kind of alternate reality.This Is England
2007-04-27A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends, even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows.Sexy Beast
2001-01-12Ex-safecracker Gal Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job.Trinity Is Still My N...
1971-10-21The two brothers Trinity and Bambino are exchanged by two federal agents and take advantage of the situation to steal a huge booty hidden in a monastery by a gang of outlaws.