Duel dans la poussière

Old friends and partners Rock Hudson and Dean Martin unwillingly collide when Martin is wanted for train robbery and Hudson is the sheriff who has to catch him, which he does when his wife, Susan Clark, stands between the two men.

George Seaton's first western and last movie is an oddly paced affair. Both men seem to be uncomfortable at all time, and Miss Clark very relaxed. I attribute this to the idea that it seems a more more calculated to show off Ernest Laszlo's stunning cinematography than a story film. True, westerns, the most conservative of movie genres, was always more about the camerawork and vistas of the old western than stories; western writer Frank Gruber said there were only seven plots for westerns, so what else was a western movie supposed to be about other than the pictures? Yet even the great color westerns of the 1950s always had an artificial look to them. Laszlo's camerawork is seemingly more casual and gorgeous for that.

The print and transfer I saw were both carefully done. That always helps.

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.

The plot for Showdown is so ordinary that you might just find yourself asking why you picked this up in the video rental place. But there's enough star power on the first through third tiers that this 1973 oater can't be a complete waste of time.

I remember seeing the movie on NBC some thirty years or more ago. I'd never heard of it, it had interesting people, and how badly could it be butchered for television? It was only PG back then.

Showdown is one of those movies you should see just so you can say something like, "Hey, I saw this old western with Rock Hudson and Dean Martin, and it wasn't too bad." Of course, if your time is just too valuable, then skip it.

But it's a decent excuse to eat some popcorn.

Though it breezes along at an amiable pace, there's really nothing special about this particular western. It has a lot of stuff that ends up being irrelevant, such as with the character of the sheriff's wife, and the multiple flashbacks. Though the technical side is professional, it resembles a made-for-TV movie of the time. Still, there is some interest here. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Hong Kong director John Woo saw this, because there are elements and themes here that can be found in his movies.

"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.