1967 - HOMBRE, a fairly good western

Paul Newman is the title character Hombre a white man raised by native Americans who prefers their company over his own Caucasian race.  New York actor Martin Balsam plays a Hispanic character called what else Mendez.  Australian actor Diane Cilento is a woman running a boarding house.  Richard Boone is the bad guy and Cameron Mitchell is the corrupt sheriff.  All the character cliches are in order for this western.

Anyway,  everyone leaves on a stagecoach which is held up by outlaws.  The white guy hating white guys, Hombre played by Newman has to step up and save the lives of the other passengers.  The film was directed by good Hollywood liberal Martin Ritt and actually he does a good job moving the story along.  Paul Newman another good Hollywood liberal gives a very minimal performance in this film if he spoke over two hundred words in this film I would be surprised to learn that.  Newman wears a ridiculous wig as he is supposed to be channeling his inner Native American.  However no wig in the world is going to fool anyone that it's still famous actor Paul Newman.  Diane Cilento gives the best performance in the film even if she is stuck as the voice of compassion and reason in the film.

 

The film's plot is supposedly partially about the plight of the Native American, but there is hardly a Native American in it.  However it has great photography courtesy of legendary cameraman James Wong Howe.  Hombre isn't a bad film it's just such an obvious one.  It's the kind of film that well meaning Hollywood do-gooders turn out that in the end really isn't all that courageous or very relevant to the plight of Native Americans.

 

The film was written by a couple of writers who had worked with Martin Ritt in the past Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. another couple of good Hollywood liberals.  The running time is 111 minutes.