![]() Trane is taciturn and dignified, only wanting to make some cash so he can restore his plantation burned down by the Yankees, while Erin is a self-confessed pig who always wants more, more, more. After being chased down by royal lancers and having a scuffle, the two men decide to throw in together.īoth are excellent marksmen with the fancy new Winchester repeating rifles, along with the ubiquitous quick-draw six-shooters. Erin sells Trane another horse for a hard $100 in gold, not bothering to tell him it’s not actually his to sell. He meets up with Ben Trane (Cooper), a former Confederate colonel from New Orleans, when the latter’s horse turns up lame at a tiny outpost. He has a leering smile that he usually turns on right about the time he’s about to plug somebody - followed by a fancy twirl and re-holstering of his shootin’ iron. He seems to have a perpetually dirty face and tousled hair the entire movie, a man who guzzles wine and gnaws on a turkey leg, taking pride in his slovenly ways. Lancaster plays Joe Erin, a notorious black hat leading a group of other criminals south. Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson turn up in early roles before they became stars, playing especially brutish members of the American gang named Donnegan and Pittsburgh, respectively. “Vera Cruz” was also notable for featuring a number of distinct character actors like Jack Elam, George Macready and Jack Lambert. ![]() (Lamentable, but ‘twas the practice at the time…) Īldrich and Lancaster had just made another film together, “Apache,” in which he played a Native American warrior who spurns resettlement to stake his own piece of land. Webb (“How the West Was Won”), story by Borden Chase (“Red River”), is out now in a terrific Blu-ray reissue from Kino Lorber. The movie, directed by journeyman Robert Aldrich (“The Dirty Dozen”) from a script by Roland Kibbee and James R. But it was highly influential on a number of later movies, especially “The Wild Bunch” as well as “The Magnificent Seven.” Even the 1986 comedy “Three Amigos” - a personal favorite - is seen as a spoof. The film has seen its place recede in the public consciousness to the point it’s nearly a forgotten film. When someone asks Coop’s character if they really would have murdered innocent children, he sort of shrugs it off and acknowledges it as a distinct possibility had things not gone their way. There are a couple of attempted rapes, men gunned down for failing to knuckle under, physical abuse of women, and at one point the Americans take some Mexican children hostage and threaten to kill them unless their revolutionary antagonists back off. It’s about American gunmen who go south after the Civil War as hired mercenaries looking to make a buck during the Juarista uprising in Mexico against the French-Austrian occupation. This 1954 Western starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster startled audiences of its day for its hard-bitten approach to violence and sneering take on the iconography of the cowboy. ![]() “Vera Cruz” stands out for scraping bottom.
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