Showdown

It may not be an amazing script, but the couple great actors of Martin and Hudson make it well worth the watch. It's a decent western, even if there's no great "action" to speak of. You won't find any memes from it, and it's not even really blog-worthy beyond the hour and a half of relaxing tv watching. Both Martin and Hudson play their parts in an understated way, which makes it more believable.

There's enough chemestry between Rock and Dean that they're comfortable to watch. There is some subtle humor here and there, and the story doesn't offend. Personally I enjoyed it, if you like westerns and buddies on opposite sides you may like it too.

I have always had difficulty watching Rock Hudson getting into physically grittier parts; somehow he just doesn't ever quite convince me - he is just a bit too "clean cut" to be seen in a muddy outfit, or be in a fist-fight... This film sees him as the sheriff ("Chuck") out on the trail of old pal Dean Martin ("Billy") who has - almost playfully - helped a gang of outlaws rob a train. Things start to go south shortly after that and soon Hudson is on his trail and a local posse is on the trail of them both! It's not the most complex storyline you will ever see, and the stars - alongside a rather feisty Susan Clark as Hudson's wife provide a nicely paced western adventure. Apparently the two men were a bit like rutting stags during filming, but it doesn't cross into the production - it's a decent, if largely forgettable, 100 mins.

When I sat down to watch the 1973 Western "Showdown" here in 2022, it was actually the very first time I have ever seen it. In fact, it was my very first time to ever have heard about the movie as well. Then again, I haven't really been harboring much interest for the Western genre before earlier this year.

So I have to say that I didn't have any expectations to writers Theodore Taylor and Hank Fine as I sat down to watch "Showdown". But I figured that since the movie had Rock Hudson and Dean Martin on the cast list, then I would most likely be in for something worthwhile.

And now having seen "Showdown", I will admit that this was actually a rather enjoyable and entertaining movie. Director George Seaton put together a very good narrative from the works of the writers, and the movie was actually good from beginning and right up to the end. So, it was definitely a movie well-worth sitting down to watch.

"Showdown" has a good cast, with Rock Hudson playing Chuck Jarvis and Dean Martin playing Billy Massey. They were really nicely cast for the leading roles. The movie also have some other familiar faces on the cast list, such as Susan Clark, Donald Moffat, John McLiam and Ed Begley Jr.

If you enjoy Western movies, then "Showdown" is without a doubt a movie that is worth watching, and it has that particularly enjoyable Western atmosphere to it. I was genuinely entertained by this movie.

My rating of "Showdown" lands on a six out of ten stars.

I am quite satisfied by this western which looks very like an Andrew Mc Laglen's film from the early seventies; I mean a plot that sounds like a sixties scheme or late fifties but with the seventies melancholia touch. Nothing to do with Monte Hellman nor Sam Peckinpah's style, but it could be an Arnold Laven's film ; such as his ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO - with also Dean Martin as the villain, unlike FIVE CARDS STUD where he was the good guy and Bob Mitchum the bad one. Rock Hudson is better than ever here, totally different from his Douglas Sirk's films characters, not the handsome son in law anymore, but a rough, disillusioned and bitter, poignant man. Yes a good film to close a career, especially from a director for whom western was not the speciality. Donald Moffat in a very interesting supporting character, a villain, former ranch owner for whom we feel some empathy. In the Budd Boetticher - with Randolph Scott - manner...As Richard Boone in TALL T.

"The Western", in the 70's was a New-Breed Formed in the Genre that was In-Flux by the Likes of Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher, in the 50's...

Followed and Substantially Changed by Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone in the 60's, it was a Reboot of the Genre.

That Resulted in a New-Look, New Mind-Set and Landscape. Introducing the Psychological, a Grittier, more "Realistic" Show of Blood-Spurting Violence, with a Grittier Template...more Dirty, more Earthy, a more Lived-In Feel of Frontier-Times and the True Pioneers and Outlaws that were Alive During the Great American Expansion.

A Reflection of the Genre's Maturity and Expansion as an Art-Form Excising the Easier on the Eyes Consumption of "Western-Movies" that Remained Resonant for Movie-Goers Insatiable Desire to "Look" at the Every-Day Life During the Migration to Undiscovered Territory.

A Significant Change with New-Thinking Getting-Around the Traditional, Format, UN-Complicated. White-Hat Black-Hat Mostly "Kiddie-Affairs" that Main-Stayed the Genre Ever Since "The Great Train Robbery" (1903), the 1st Movie to "Tell a Story" was a "Western"

The Result Remaining and Oblivious to "Change", was the History of Westerns that Remained for the Ensuing 50 Years.

"Showdown" was a Movie Marketed for the Establishment that Embraced the "Old-School" and Went Against the Grain of the Trend and Felt Uneasy with the New-Fangled Revisionism that Contained a "Future-Shock", Considered Extreme, Excessive and Not-Entertaining.

The Most Conservative of Genres, "The Western", in 1973, Offered Up as an Alternative to Reform...

2 Conservative Actors that Personified Entertainment in Years-Gone-By, Dean Martin and Rock Hudson that Nobody Pictured Akin to "Bloody Sam" or that "Foreigner" Leone.

They were a Comfortable "Clean-Cut" Duo as Easy as a TV-Dinner, and a Reliably, Absent of Cringe, and were Invited by the Moral-Majority into Their Lives Without Regret.

An Anti-Programmer to the Anti-Establishment Take on 'The Western" that Had Been an Established Entertainment for the Aforementioned 50+ Years.

If You Fall into that Category, this Movie, that was Out-of-the-Corral "Dated", it's...

Worth a Watch.