Film #074 - Joe Kidd (1972)
Viewed March 15, 2006
Joe Kidd stars Clint Eastwood a year after his seminal Dirty Harry, riding high on the cool persona he had cultivated in “Spaghetti Westerns” in the 60s. Although it sees Eastwood playing a part very similar to those he played in films such as The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Hang ‘Em High (1968), Joe Kidd lacks the spirit and style that made those films so memorable.
The basic setup is fine. Eastwood’s Joe Kidd is a troublesome, but mostly harmless, local rancher, who is stirred to action when a local rabble-rouser Luis Chama (John Saxon) raids his land. Kidd is hired by businessman Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) to hunt Chama down so that Harlan can kill him and put an end to claims against his land from area Mexicans. Gradually during the hunt, Kidd comes to feel he may be fighting on the wrong side and he and Harlan must eventually square off.
The problem is that the whole thing seems too sloppy. Eastwood’s Kidd is never established firmly as a true man of integrity. His basic nature is too low and anti-social. Duvall is also not shown to be a viable enough villain to be a proper enemy. When everything kept going his way legally and he seemed to have plenty of people in his pocket, I don’t see why he’d head out on such a risky venture (especially going himself), given that death was a real possibility.
The double-crossing and revelations of dirty-dealing are all carbon copy stuff, with nothing really new or interesting to say (even at the time). There’s never a moment when the whole thing gels and the audience gets a chance to really sense the correctness of what’s going on. Since the screenplay was written by Elmore Leonard (who is still in vogue in Hollywood these days thanks to films based on his novels like Get Shorty (1995) and Jackie Brown (1997)), I had expected something with more of a kick.
Direction from John Sturges is sloppy as well, with many scenes being too drawn out, too simplisticly blocked or just plain confusing. Perhaps Sturges was just running out of steam (he would direct only three more films). Whatever the reason, this is not the best work of the man who directed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963).*
Overall, it’s the enormous waste of talent that most irritates me about Joe Kidd. This should have been a great film that could stand shoulder to shoulder with at least the second-tier Eastwood westerns. But, unfortunately, workmanlike material from all concerned guarantees that it sinks down to the also-rans.
* Of course, he also directed Marooned (1969), which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, so it’s not his worst work, either.