Sinola

Clint was already a veteran of many westerns by the time he made "Joe Kidd" and, though many don't find it among his best, it shows Clint as the Joe of the title doing what he does best.

As a ne'er-do-well who ends up siding with Luis Chama (Saxon), a wanted Mexican bandito, Kidd does battle with a group of bounty hunters (led by a suitably villainous Duvall) out for Chama's blood.

"Joe Kidd" is leisurely but not uninteresting; after all, any film written by Elmore Leonard has interesting points (just look at his later work). And when I saw Clint eye that train, I knew something was going to happen (you'll have to see that one yourself).

Overall, "Joe Kidd" may not be as big as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" or as profound as "Unforgiven", but it's a good film nonetheless and bears watching. If just for that classic Eastwood squint.

Eight stars. And for future reference, never upset a man holding a pot of stew.

Excellent and certainly underrated Clint Eastwood western, this time directed by John Sturges and designed very much to cash in on the Spaghetti Westerns Eastwood made with Sergio Leone; you only have to look at the credits to see the wealth of talent involved including a screenplay by none other than Elmore Leonard. Clint is the titular "Joe Kidd" who finds himself in the middle of a war between cold-blooded landowner Robert Duvall and a group of Mexicans lead by John Saxon. There's nothing very original about the plot but it gallops through its less than niney minutes running time and makes for a very entertaining Saturday Afternoon Matinee movie. It's also well cast throughout and boasts some beautiful location photography by the great Bruce Surtees.

Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood) is a former gunman and bounty hunter, hired by the landlord Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) to chase Luis Chama (John Saxon), a Mexican-American fighting for land reform. Along the hunting, Joe realizes that Frank's men are cold blood killers, and decides to help Luis Chama. He convinces him to fight for his rights in the court of justice. In the way back to the city, Frank's men try to kill Luis Chama. Clint Eastwood has another great performance, having a great duel with Robert Duvall. The story has some flaws, but anyway, maybe the greatest problem is the expectation generated by the name of John Sturges: we always expect another masterpiece from him, and maybe this is the reason why there are some underrated comments about this above average Western movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Joe Kidd

Clint Eastwood plays the title role in Joe Kidd a former bounty hunter and tracker hired by big rancher Robert Duvall to bring in John Saxon. Saxon's a local hero among the Mexican population in this southwestern based film for standing up to the Anglo ranchers like Robert Duvall who've robbed them of their lands both gunfighters and with bought justice in the courts.

It doesn't take Clint long to decide he's made a big mistake as Duvall's hired bully boys intimidate the local Chicano population. The last straw is when Duvall and company ride into a pueblo, have the local priest Pepe Hern summon all the villagers, where he announces the next morning he'll shoot five people if they don't surrender Saxon or give him information where Saxon is. The sort of stuff the Nazis did in their occupied countries. Duvall anticipates Clint's change of mind by taking his gun and locking him up as well. But of course there's no way that's going to stop Clint Eastwood.

Not that Saxon is anything to write home about. He's a bit of a lout himself, especially in the way he treats his girl friend Stella Garcia. As he so eloquently puts it, all he wants her for is something to keep warm with on those cold nights on the prairie and he's not interested in her opinion. Talk about your alpha male on the prairie. Still he's one of the good guys for better or worse.

I don't think Joe Kidd measures up to Clint Eastwood westerns like The Unforgiven or Pale Rider or The Outlaw Josey Wales. But it's one of the most entertaining he ever did. I'm not bored by one second of it and I do love that climax where Eastwood makes use of that locomotive in a creative fashion. Joe Kidd is definitely an Eastwood film for the ages.

This may not be one of the best western to feature Clint Eastwood, but it's still a decent western. Yeah, the plot maybe a bit standard but still the movie does have it's moments few times. The triumphant soundtrack is also a plus. on the negative side the story is pretty standard and the movie just isn't all that character driven either. It just lacked certain elements that made some of Clint's other western films great. The part that I liked was how it's difficult to choose a side for a while. Sometimes the movie seemed to try a bit too hard to show how short tempered and badass the main protagonist is while also having some moral ethics. Although it can sometimes be cool to see the effects of his short temper. Some aspects of this film just seemed a bit forced and although it's a decent western not much really stood out. In fact it seemed more like a western TV show episode than a actual movie. Besides the fact that this movie has two great actors, Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall.

6.4/10