FILM REVIEW OF ''AMERICAN SNIPER" (2014)

In his gritty, 132 minute, R-rated, combat biography “American Sniper” (**** OUT OF ****) producer & director Clint Eastwood treats the life of real-life protagonist Chris Kyle with unmistakable reverence.  This tragic but heroic account of the deadliest sharpshooter in U.S. military history is compelling as well as propelling from fade-in to fade-out.  Similarly, “A-Team” actor Bradley Cooper delivers a career best performance as the legendary Texas native who racked up 160 confirmed kills as a sniper during four tours of duty in Iraq.  Cooper packed on nearly 40 pounds so he could impersonate the beefy Kyle, and the actor assured “Men’s Health” magazine that the 6000 calories-per-day diet that he shoveled down constituted a challenge in itself.  According to “People” magazine, real-life Navy SEAL sniper Kevin Lacz, who fought alongside Kyle, taught Cooper how to handle the sophisticated sniper weaponry.  This sober but never simple-minded saga about the Iraqi war doesn’t so much ponder the polemical politics that prompted America’s participation in the fighting as much as its use as a historical setting.  Indeed, Kyle was gung-ho about serving his country after suicide bombers had blasted the Marine barracks to rubble in Beirut in 1983.  Meantime, people who have read Kyle’s 2012 memoir may complain about some of the liberties that Eastwood and “Paranoia” scenarist Jason Hall have taken in their adaptation of the New York Times bestseller.  Nevertheless, Eastwood has fashioned a realistic but patriotic film with a wrinkle or two that has mesmerized domestic audiences. For example, Kyle believed in what he was doing in Iraq while his younger brother abhorred not only the war but also the country. Eastwood celebrates the sacrifices that these citizens made without turning “American Sniper” into a rabble-rousing, Rambo fantasy.

“American Sniper” opens in Iraq with Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) sprawled belly down on a Fallujah roof-top checking potential threats to the Marines on the street below as they rattle one door after another in search of hostiles.  Initially, Kyle spots a military-age, Iraqi native on a balcony. Chatting on a cell phone, he is watching the troops approach him.  This suspicious fellow vanishes from Kyle’s sight.  Moments later, a mother dressed like an angel of death in black emerges onto the street with her son.  The mother hands her son a grenade, and they approach a tank with troops following it.  Just as Kyle is scrutinizing these two civilians through his sniper scope, his spotter warns him that he could land in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth for shooting friendly civilians.  This issue arises more than once in “American Sniper.”  Civilians in combat zones without a good reason created a quandary because our guys couldn’t be sure who was either sympathetic or unfriendly.  Anyway, as Kyle caresses the trigger of his sniper rifle, Eastwood flashbacks to Kyle’s life as a Texas teen shooting his first deer.  Eastwood and Hall furnish us with a montage of Kyle’s life along with his God-fearing father’s philosophy.  We see Kyle rush to the rescue of his younger brother Jeff on the playground at their elementary school as an obese bully beats up Jeff.  At the dinner table, Kyle’s stern father Wayne (Ben Reed of “Scanner Cop”) categorizes humans into three types: predatory wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs.  Brandishing his rolled up belt for emphasis, Wayne warns them that they will neither be predators nor sheep, but instead sheepdogs.  Wayne promises to punish them for anything less.  During his military service, Chris behaves like a sheepdog.  Repeatedly, he risks his life to save his fellow Marines.  Occasionally, “American Sniper” lightens up and lets you laugh with Chris about his romantic conquests both good and bad.

Aside from a protracted flashback sequence early into the action, “American Sniper” adheres to a conventional, straightforward storyline, chronicling the high points of Kyle’s experiences under fire.  Comparatively, director Peter Berg’s “Lone Survivor” (2013), starring Mark Wahlberg, could serve as a companion piece to “American Sniper.”  The big difference is Bradley Cooper’s SEAL team hero displays no compunctions about shooting kids, whereas Mark Wahlberg’s real-life SEAL team hero Marcus Luttrell couldn’t bring himself to kill an innocent goat herder’s son.  Meanwhile, “American Sniper” alternates between our hero’s harrowing battlefield exploits and his home front activities with his wife and family.  Eastwood doesn’t immortalize Chris Kyle as an invincible, larger-than-life, titan. Actually, we watch in horror as Kyle unravels with each tour until he can no longer tolerate the traumatic pressure of combat.  In this respect, “American Sniper” doesn’t pull any punches about the caliber of warfare that our guys had to contend with in Iraq.  Mind you, it isn’t gripping in the same slam-bang sense that “Black Hawk Down” was, but “American Sniper” still qualifies as a tour-de-force, first-rate, action yarn.  I don’t think Bradley Cooper will clinch the Best Actor Oscar, but you will know that Cooper takes his craft seriously.  Aside from Cooper, the only other three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood character is Kyle’s long-suffering wife, Taya (British actress Sienna Miller of “Foxcatcher”), who goes toe-to-toe with him.

Primarily, Eastwood filters everything through Kyle’s perspective, and you don’t witness any of those standard-issue scenes with natty politicians and high-ranking officers arguing about strategy at headquarters.  Eastwood rarely shifts the focus away from either Kyle with his family or Kyle with his buddies.  Of course, Kyle and his buddies form a tightly knit group from their rigorous beachfront SEAL team training to the devastating combat in Iraq. Predictably, warfare dwindles their numbers.  Particularly shattering is Kyle’s loss of his buddy Biggles (Jake McDorman of “Aquamarine”) who survives long enough to die in surgery. The camaraderie between Kyle and Biggles is sometimes hilarious as well as distressing.  Kyle’s younger brother Jeff (Keir O'Donnell of “Wedding Crashers”) drifts into and out of the action.  Jeff accompanies Kyle on the rodeo circuit in Texas and later follows him to the battlefield in Iraq.  Altogether, “American Sniper” ranks as a memorable military actioneer with some salty dialogue.

FILM REVIEW OF "HANG'EM HIGH" (1968)

Director Ted Post's "Hang ‘em High" (*** OUT OF ****) qualifies as Clint Eastwood's least appealing western.  This United Artists release served as the first Eastwood epic after Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."  Composer Dominic Frontiere's powerful orchestral score ranks as its best asset and enhances the formulaic Leonard Freeman & Mel Goldberg screenplay about western justice, circa 1889. Frontiere composed the scores for television shows such as "The Invaders" and "The Rat Patrol."  His score for the Lee Van Cleef western "Barquero" sounds like variations on his "Hang ‘em High" theme.  Mind you, Eastwood looks cool as a glacier in his dark blue outfit and flat-brimmed hat, and he kills bad guys who deserve to die without a qualm.  Nevertheless, "Hang ‘em High" resembles a tautly made television drama. The surroundings, even the sandy desert scenes, lack the majestic sprawl of his inspired Italian westerns and his later sagebrushers such as "The Outlaw Josey Wales," "The Pale Rider," and "Unforgiven."  Clearly, since he hadn't made a strong enough impression on Hollywood, Eastwood had to play it safe with a low-budget.  In retrospect, the wily Eastwood surrounded himself with an incredible cast of supporting actors that assumes far greater significant now than back in 1968 when “Hang ‘em High” swung into theaters.

No, "Hang ‘em High" was NOT a Spaghetti western like the Sergio Leone trilogy that preceded them.  Lensed entirely in Southern California, this thoroughly routine oater springs its one and only surprise when our hero gets his neck stretched in the first scene. The sly ploy resembles Hitchcock's "Psycho" in this respect.  The last thing that you’d expect is that the star would be hanged at the outset.  Jed Cooper is a former St. Louis lawman-turned-cattleman wrongly hanged for rustling who survives the near fatal ordeal.  "Hang ‘em High" focuses primarily on the theme of revenge that figured prominently in most Italian westerns.  The lynch mob found our innocent hero after he had bought cattle from a murdered sixty-something rancher.  No matter what Jed says, Captain Wilson and his nine conspirators refuse to believe him.  He provides a fairly detailed description of the man who sold him the cattle, but this doesn’t dissuade the Captain from his decision. As it turns out, the dastard who killed the rancher gave Jed (Clint Eastwood) a forged bill of sale. This is what prompts the villains to see Jed swing dramatically during the opening credits as the title “Hang ‘em High” slams into the foreground in blood red letters.  Cooper finds himself briefly imprisoned after a tough-as-nails lawman, Marshal David Bliss (Ben Johnson of "Chism") cuts him down and takes him back stand trial at Fort Grant before the stern Judge Adam Fenton.

Judge Fenton (Pat Hinlge of "The Gauntlet")is a quasi-Judge Roy Bean. He has the last word on justice, and Hingle delivers a commanding performance. The villains led by Captain Wilson (an elderly Ed Begley of "Boots Malone") are an ineffectual lot. They botch hanging Jed Cooper, and he comes after them with warrants issued by Fenton. As much as Fenton warns Cooper that he better bring the hanging party in,  Cooper winds up killing several of them. The town where all the action occurs has another character, Rachel Warren (Inger Stevens of "Five Card Stud"), who has Fenton's permission to look at all new prisoners.  She is searching for the fiends that wronged her.  The romance between Jed and Rachel is as contrived as most of this weak western. Meanwhile, Jed realizes that Fenton may be a bigger bastard than he is with his iron-fisted rules about legality. In his spaghetti westerns, Clint Eastwood bowed to nobody, but his lawman character here takes orders, something that clashes against the Eastwood characters in

"Two Mules for Sister Sara" and "Joe Kidd."

One of the casting decisions defies logic, specifically Alan Hale Jr. as one of Wilson's riders who hangs Cooper. The portly Hale had played the beloved Skipper from "Gilligan's Island," but he had played less lovable roles before "Hang'em High." Nonetheless, it is jarring to see Hale in such a role.  One of the best casting decisions was veteran B-movie cowboy star Bob Steele.  Bob Steele grew up as the son of the same B-movie director who helmed numerous John Wayne westerns during the 1930s.  Indeed, Steele himself was a B-movie cowboy who starred in his share of low-budget oaters in the 1930s and afterward.  Meanwhile, Bruce Dern makes an excellent villain. "Hawaii 5-0" actor James MacArthur has a memorable cameo as the gallows Preacher.  Dennis Hooper as well as a line-up of familiar faces, including L.Q. Jones of "Battle Cry" and Ned Romero of "Dan August," flesh out "Hang ‘em High."  Not surprisingly, Hooper plays an insane prisoner called 'The Prophet.'  There are no spectacular looking shoot-outs because Ted Post shoots everything like one of his "Gunsmoke" or "Rawhide" episodes.  The scene where Jed is riddled with bullets and Rachel has to take care of him adds a tearjerker text to the story.  Happily, Eastwood would go on to make "Two Mules for Sister Sara" and redeem himself for this lackluster effort. The neatest touch occurs when they hang a number of men and one of them loses a boot as they plunge through the trap doors.

Happily, Post's next outing with Eastwood would come with the highly superior "Dirty Harry" sequel "Magnum Force." If you're looking for a better lynch law western, watch "The Ox-Bow Incident" with Henry Fonda that was made back during World War II.

 

FILM REVIEW OF "TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA" (1970)

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" director Don Siegel and blacklisted Hollywood scenarist Albert Maltz appropriated an unproduced Budd Boetticher script and turned it into a lively little western shoot'em up called "Two Mules for Sister Sara." Earlier, Eastwood and Siegel had collaborated as star and director on "Coogan's Bluff," and this Universal Studios film release, set against the French Revolution in Mexico, marked their second collaboration.  Later, the two would make the iconic "Dirty Harry" and conclude their work together on the Paramount Pictures' release of "Escape from Alcatraz." "Two Mules for Sister Sara" (*** out of ****) isn't their best outing together, but it has several wonderful scenes.  Wearing a stylist leather hat, Clint appears as tough and unshaven as he did in his Sergio Leone Spaghetti oaters. Now, however, he plays a swift-shooting, soldier-of-fortune named Hogan. This blood-splattered but amusing western comedy/drama teams Eastwood's gimlet-eyed adventurer up with an impious Catholic nun, Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine of "Sweet Charity"), in Mexico during the late 1860s when the Mexicans were ridding themselves of the yoke of French oppression. In the original Boetticher script, the setting was the Mexican Revolution rather than the French Revolution, Boetticher's nun character was entirely different. Incidentally, sources say Boetticher hated the "Two Mules." Indeed, "Two Mules" contains a surprise ending, and the constant bickering between Hogan and Sara makes for many hilarious moments. Eastwood and MacLaine are charismatic throughout. The film is visually splendid to gaze at thanks to Oscar nominee Gabriel Figueroa's gorgeous cinematography. Consider the way he skewers his set-ups sometimes for a cool effect. The encounter with the Indians boasts some interesting camera angles, especially when Clint topples from the saddle.

"Two Mules for Sister Sara" unfolds with Hogan (Clint Eastwood of "Hang'em High") is riding one horse and leading another loaded with supplies though the dangerous Mexican wilderness. The leisurely title sequence features a variety of critters starting with a hoot owl, followed by a fish gliding through a stream, a cougar poised and panting on a rock ledge, a snake slithering across the sand, and concludes with Hogan's horse crushing a tarantula under its shod horn. Our protagonist is minding his own business when he stumbles accidentally onto three drunken guys and a naked woman in the middle of nowhere. The gunmen offer to share the lady, but then treacherously try to kill our hero over her. Hogan guns two of them down with relative ease, while the third seizes the woman and uses her as a shield. Hogan ignites a stick of TNT and slings it at them. The third man fires at Hogan and flees in desperation to avoid getting blown to bites. Hogan drops him with three shots in the back. He descends the slope, snuffs out the burning fuse on the stick of dynamite, and suggests that the naked lady put on her clothes unless she wants to be sunburnt to hell and gone.  Afterward, Hogan discovers the naked lady is in reality a Catholic nun! He helps her bury them and then blows his cool when he sees Sara sprinkling his canteen on their graves. He snatches his canteen and suggests that she bless them without water since they are in the middle of an arid region. Things turn even weirder when a column of French cavalry show up and Sara goes berserk. She cannot let the French capture her, she explains rapidly to Hogan, because she is working in league with the revolutionaries. Hogan unearths the dead killers and sends them off at a gallop on the backs of their ponies for the French to pursue. Hogan and Sara slip away.

Hogan has come to Mexico to help destroy a French prison on Bastille Day, and he winds up escorting Sara to the prison town. Before he reaches the prison, Hogan gets really drunk after the Yaquis shoot an arrow into his shoulder. Sister Sara uses the reflection off her cross to drive the superstitious Indians away. The scene where she has to remove the arrow from Hogan's shoulder is pretty gritty stuff. Hogan gets himself lickered up to tolerate the pain while Sara digs around the shaft of the arrow and carves a groove in it so he can put gunpowder on it, fire it up, and push it out the back of his shoulder. This scene can be rough on the squeamish. Anyway, since he is tanked enough up to withstand the pain of the arrow removal, Hogan has a difficult time with a train that he is supposed to destroy. He cannot climb the trestle to lash sticks of TNT to the pylons so he convinces Sara--who has a fear of heights--to climb up it and attach the explosives. It is ironic that a nun would hate to ascend and this plays into the big revelation at fade-out. Here comes the train and Hogan misses every shot until Sara hauls off and decks him. He recovers and nails one stick of dynamite and the entire structure collapses under the train.

The big finale finds Hogan and Sara along with some revolutionaries staging an attack on a French fortress. Siegel turns this scene into a massive combat sequence with Hogan demonstrating that he is an excellent shot with either hand. There are a couple of bloody shots in this battle sequence.  A guy gets a machete in the head is an example.  As usual, Clint is a cool as a cucumber. The big surprise--which I won't reveal--concerns the way that Hogan's relationship with Sara concludes. "Two Mules for Sister Sara" is part shoot'em western and part romance and together a very amusing adventure opus.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT'' (1974)

Before he ascended to the zenith of his career with the Oscar-winning Best Picture “The Deer Hunter” (1978) and then plummeted to his nadir with the costly western “Heaven’s Gate” (1980) that bankrupted United Artists and forced them to merge with MGM, writer & director Michael Cimino got his start with Clint Eastwood. Initially, Cimino contributed the Russian roulette sequences to the “Dirty Harry” sequel “Magnum Force.” Incidentally, Cimino’s first credit as a scenarist occurred earlier on director Douglas Trumbull’s sci-fi epic “Silent Running,” with Bruce Dern. Anyway, Cimino made his directorial debut with “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” (**** out of ****). This exciting, tour-de-force Clint Eastwood & Jeff Bridges thriller ranks as one of the top ten perfect crimes heist movies of the 1970s. Cimino’s film chronicles the friendship between an older man, a Korean War veteran on-the-lam, and a hopelessly footloose but fast-talking twentysomething who cherishes grand theft auto, easy women, and cliches.

Ultimately, Joe Doherty, aka ‘Thunderbolt’ (Clint Eastwood) and Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges) team up reluctantly with Eastwood’s old partners-in-crime, Red Leary (George Kennedy of “Cool Hand Luke”) and Goody (Geoffrey Lewis of “High Plains Drifter”) to rob an armored car company. They wind up wielding a 20MM cannon to blow gigantic holes in the wall of the safe. The first third of the action introduces us to the rogue’s gallery of thieves, and the second third details their elaborate plans as they accumulate the necessary tool to pull it off this complicated heist. The third focuses on the frenzied getaway, dissolution of the gang and the final showdown with Red. Not only is “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” a memorable crime caper with quotable dialogue, but also it is a top-notch drama with interesting characters, including Geoffrey Lewis as a bumbling fool and George Kennedy as a sadistic killer. Jeff Bridges received as Oscar nomination for his sympathetic but ill-fated bad guy. The scenes with Bridges dressing up like a girl to lure a tubby security guard in the alarm systems board are hilarious.

The action opens with scenic long shots of wheat fields to the lovely strains of Dee Barton’s music and we find ourselves near wooden church with a majestic steeple as an old black car wheels up to it. A burly guy in a dark suit and white hat, Dunlop (seasoned heavy Roy Jenson) gets out to stretch his legs as he listens to the choir warble a standard hymn. Cimino switches to another setting as the eponymous young drifter, Lightfoot, limps onto a used car dealership, and admires a Trans Am. The owner, brilliantly played in a bit part by Gregory Walcott) invites him to climb behind the wind and kick the engine over. “She’s cleaner than a cat’s ass,” the dealer brags and then wonders if a youth like Lightfoot can handle her. Lightfoot tells him that he has a wooden leg. While the dealer ponders this sudden shift in conversation, Lightfoot steals the car and tears away across country.

Back at the church, we discover that Clint Eastwood is posing as an Episcopal minister in black suit with a white collar. Just as John ‘Thunderbolt’ Doherty utters some Biblical homilies about the lion lying down with the lamb, Dunlop bursts into the sanctuary with a Mauser machine pistol and triggers a barrage of shots that sends everybody scrambling for the doors, including Doherty. Our hero charges across the wheat field with a wheezing Dunlop in close pursuit, pausing occasionally to fire at his fleet-footed quarry. Doherty flags down a sports car, Lightfoot in the Trans Am, and Lightfoot swerves, plunges into the wheat field, smashes into Dunlop, and kills him. Reversing, Lightfoot races back out of the field. As Lightfoot races past Doherty, Doherty slings himself onto the automobile, climbs through the passenger’s window, dislocating his shoulder, and settles in alongside Lightfoot. Presto, their friendship begins. Along the way, they swap cars with a family and Doherty decides to go his separate way at a bus depot.

Doherty leaves Lightfoot at a bus station. While he is sauntering through the depot, Doherty spots is old crime partner, vindictive Red Leary, and rejoins Lightfoot before he pulls out of town. The guys head off to a motel, and Lightfoot changes vehicle license tags. Along the way, he picks up two cuties, Melody (Catherine Bach) and Gloria (June Fairchild of “Detroit 9000”), and takes them back to the motel. Doherty, we learn, has a bad leg. Gloria inquires about all his scars and he explains that he received them in Korea. When Doherty refuses to take Gloria home at 3 AM, she runs out in her underwear and screams "rape!” Doherty gives her cab fare.

Eventually, Red and Goody catch up with our heroes. Initially, Red tries to ambush in a roadside diner parking lot. Lightfoot leads Red on a careening chase through the mountains with Red blasting away with his carbine but missing. Later, Red and Goody get the drop on them and try to kill them. Doherty disarms Red but refuses to kill him. Instead, he explains he didn’t take the loot from the previous hold-up. They stashed it in a one-room school house. When they returned to get it, the school house had vanished. Lightfoot’s suggests that they rob the same armored car company. Red hates Lightfoot from the get-go, but he cooperates reluctantly as they set up the crime. They take jobs. Goody drives an ice cream wagon. Red is a janitor at a local department store. Doherty goes to work as a wielder. Lightfoot works as a landscaping technician. They live in a trailer and pile their dough together while they plan the heist. Lightfoot tells them about his encounter one afternoon while he was pounding turf and a bored housewife stood in the window with nary a stitch on, beaver and all on display. Naturally, the perverted Red wants to know what Lightfoot did. Lightfoot surprises him by clapping his hand over Leary’s mouth and kissing the back of his hand. Predictably, Leary is furious and wants to beat the hell out of Lightfoot.

Our conspirators get through old gear out of storage, namely the 20 MM cannon. Doherty and Leary invade the Montana Armored supervisor home (Jack Dodson of “The Getaway”) wearing hose, tie them up, and get the combination for the safe. Meanwhile, Lightfoot poses as a woman to get into the alarm systems office and silence the alarms. Doherty masquerades as a cop and brings a prisoner, Leary, up to Montana Armored and bluffs his way inside. They slug the guard unconscious, drag him into the toilet, and tie him up. On the other side of town, Lightfoot does the same thing to the alarms system guy, gagging him and leaving him knotted in ropes in the toilet. While Goody goes to pick up Lightfoot, Doherty and Leary assemble the gun, blast giant holes in the vault wall, and grab the loot. Goody and Lightfoot head to Montana Armored where they hook up with Doherty and Leary, load up the loot and take off, leaving the cannon behind. They plan to sit tight at the nearby drive-in, but they close the trunk on Leary so that his shirttail is hanging out and a fat, red-haired cashier spots it. While the cops converge on Montana Armored, the cashier and manager search the parking lot. Doherty pulls out of the drive-in before the cashier and the manager can bust them, but runs straight into the cops. A chase ensues and shots are fired. Goody and Leary are sprawled in the trunk and Goody dies from a gunshot wound. Leary dumps him on a back trail and then forces Doherty to pull over. He kicks Lightfoot repeatedly until the kid passes out and slugs Doherty. Making off with all the loot and a gun, Leary runs into a road block and the cops pursue him back into town.

Leary evades the cop temporarily, but he crashes into the storefront of the department store where he worked as a custodian. A guard dog attacks him and drags his body off as the authorities show up at the door and decide to leave the dog with its prize alone until the dog handler comes in the following morning. Meanwhile, Doherty gets Lightfoot back to where Leary pushed Goody out and they swap clothes so that Lightfoot is no longer dressed up in drag. Our heroes roam the hills and catch a ride in a pick-up and wind up getting out at the Warsaw exit. They stumble upon a roadside historical park where the one-room school house sits. Although they lost the loot from their robbery, they discover the loot from the original robbery still stashed behind the chalkboard. Doherty buys a Cadillac and picks up Lightfoot. Lightfoot got kicked too many times by Leary and he looks awful. He dies as they are driving through scenic Montana and the movie concludes on a dour note.

Cimino provides recurring comic relief scenes to lighten things up and a number of character actors, such as Gregory Walcott of “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” “Gunsmoke” veteran Dub Taylor as a gas station owner, Vic Tayback of “Alice,” and “Deliverance” redneck Bill McKinney as a psychotic who cruises around in a souped up car with white rabbits galore in his trunk, appear at intervals. “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” was one of the 1970s stick up movies where the robbers got away with the loot. Indeed, Lightfoot, Goody, and Red are punished, but Doherty gets away, largely because he had lost track of the original money and because he was the most sympathetic of all the robbers. “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” is a brilliant, sometimes violent, often funny heist thriller that heist fanatics owe it to themselves to watch.

FILM REVIEW OF ''JOE KIDD'' (1971)

 Clint Eastwood, scenarist Elmore Leonard, and director John Sturges teamed up to make this traditional, action-packed horse opera about racial injustice in the old West. “Joe Kidd” (***1/2 out of ****) ranks as Eastwood’s least appreciated western. Nevertheless, it qualifies as a solid, well-made, shoot’em up with spectacular scenery enhanced by Bruce Surtees’ pictorially elegant widescreen cinematography, and a well-rounded, first-class supporting cast including Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud, Paul Koslo, and Gregory Walcott. “Mission Impossible” composer Lalo Schifrin’s orchestral score delivers atmosphere and ramps up the suspense without calling attention to itself. Schifrin is the flipside of the coin to Sturges’ usual composer Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein always brought a thunderous, larger-than-life, Aaron Copland quality to Sturge's westerns, chiefly “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Hallelujah Trail.” Indeed, “Bad Day at Black Rock” helmer John Sturges crafted a modest, little dust-raiser that gave Clint Eastwood his least pretentious but most masculine role while Duvall makes a worthy adversary with Saxon as the victimized Hispanic caught in the crossfire. Elmore Leonard of “Hombre” and “3:10 to Yuma” delivers his usual brand of quirky dialogue that has an improvisational spontaneity. “Joe Kidd” isn’t the kind of oater that makes a big impression. It lacks the off-beat imagination of “High Plains Drifter,” the stolidity of “Hang’em High,” the abrasive violence of Leone’s Spaghetti western trilogy, the epic grandeur of Eastwood’s own “Outlaw Josey Wales,” or the funereal Bergman-esque histrionics of Eastwood’s “Pale Rider” and “Unforgiven.” Watching “Joe Kidd” is like eating ham on rye and washing it down with a light beer. You’ll enjoy it, but you’ll probably forget it until somebody prompts you to comment about it and because it is so fluid, you’ll dismiss as adequate but less than memorable. If you do remember “Joe Kidd,” you’ll remember it as the western where Clint Eastwood wields an automatic German Mauser pistol and crashes a locomotive through a saloon.

 “Joe Kidd” unfolds with a long shot of a Mexican woman, Helen (Stella Garcia) driving a buckboard across a rock-strewn landscape. Schifrin’s music is low-key and ominous. As the introductory credits appear, several Mexican horsemen drift into Sinola from various directions, dismount, and casually loiter here and there. Unarmed, they seem initially unremarkable. As several more Mexican riders appear and the music mounts insistently, all these Mexicans converge on Helen’s wagon in a back lot. They uncover a pile of guns and arm themselves. In an interview that I conducted with John Sturges in 1978, he explained the rationale behind the various shots used to show the Mexicans riding into town. "Of course, they would arrive in groups from different directions so as not to cause unusual notice. Yet they must arrive as a group at the same time, and take up certain strategic positions bound to have a similarity. Of course, they would do this in the most casual manner they could manage meanwhile covertly looking around for possible trouble or holding onto the security of their holstered guns. Any citizen who saw all this in the detail it is shown by the camera would rush off for the sheriff, but none does or can. The audience does and maybe the word geometric relates to the way that town is laid out and foresees the movement." Meanwhile, Sheriff Bob Mitchell (Gregory Walcott of “Midway”) leaves the courthouse as the judge explains to the predominantly Hispanic audience why their land claims cannot be recognized as legitimate. At the jail, the deputies bring coffee and a pot of stew to the prisoners for breakfast. Ramon (Ron Soble of “True Grit”) and Naco (Pepe Callahan of “Mackenna’s Gold”) share the cell with Joe (Clint Eastwood) who wears city duds and a derby. Mitchell arrested Joe for drunk and disorderly and handcuffed him to the bed. Naco slides Joe’s coffee out of reach. Later, Joe slings the pot of slew in Naco’s villainous face and then clobbers him with a pot.

Luis Chama (John Saxon of “Enter the Dragon”) invades the courthouse with his men, seizes land property deeds from the records, and sets them ablaze because his forefathers were treated similarly. Chama wants to take the judge as hostage, but Joe thwarts Chama’s efforts. Another amusing scene takes place when Joe waits in a bar for Naco. Naco enters and Joe raises a double-barreled shotgun with one hand. Naco turns to leave, but then bursts back into the saloon as Joe triggers the shotgun. This is a signature scene that Leonard used in his novel “Valdez Is Coming.” Chama hightails it out of Sinola and Joe winds up serving 10 days because he refused to pay the $10 fine for poaching a mule deer on Indian reservation lands. He also resisted arrest because The day after the ruckus, Harlan (Robert Duvall of “The Godfather”) and his entourage, including Elma (Lynne Marta), Roy Gannon (Paul Koslo of “Mr. Majestyk”) Lamarr Simms (Don Stroud of “Coogan’s Bluff”), and Olin Mingo (James Wainwright) step off the train and settle into the hotel run by Dick Van Patten.

Not long after Kidd hires on to guide Harlan and company into rough country in pursuit of Chama, he discovers that Harlan has no qualms about killing Chama. Initially, Kidd turned Harlan down and decided to serve out his ten days. Joe owns a small horse ranch, and he found his Mexican ranch hand barb-wired to a fence. Ramon did this to Joe’s hired hand, so Joe changes his mind and tells Harlan that he will guide him for a $1000 rather than $500 dollars. Joe and Lamarr get off to a bad start. Lamarr confronts Joe on the hotel staircase and asks him where he is going. Joe simply grabs Lamarr’s belt and sends him tumbling down the stairs. Later, Lamarr confronts Joe again and threatens to kill him with his multi-shot Mauser pistol. Harlen and company with Kidd set out to find Chama.

At one point, Harlan takes an entire village hostage and threatens to five people if Chama doesn’t give himself up. Harlan fires Kidd and packs him into the church with the rest of the hostages. Joe has a brief scrap with Lamarr and leaves the upstart henchmen reeling after he slams a rifle butt into Lamarr’s throat and knocks him down. In the church, Joe sprawls out in the priest’s quarters. At this point, “Joe Kidd” takes on symbolic significance. The Eastwood character is about to become a genuine hero. First, the village priest offers him holy water, and this act serves as a kind of consecration for him. Kidd asks the priest to get him a gun, but he doesn't really think that the cleric with come through on his request. Later, the priest smuggles a revolver to Kidd because he cannot stand the thought of Harlan killing five of his worshippers. Kidd escapes from the church by ascending through the bell tower and manages to dispatch villainous Lamarr. Symbolically, Joe makes a messianic ascension and then spirits Helen away with him, and they ride off to find Chama. Kidd defies the odds and takes Chama back to Sinola, but Harlan doesn’t give us so easily and “Joe Kidd” concludes with a gunfight. The last scene when Kidd guns down Harlan in the same courtroom epitomizes Kidd’s character. He is seated where the judge sets so he amounts metaphorically to judge, jury, and executioner.

Characterization is integrated into the action so that the entire film becomes a fast-moving, tightly-knit story without one extraneous character or event. Every action that Kidd performs in the opening sequence foreshadows his later behavior. Rescuing the judge from Chama’s men compares with Kidd’s decision to bring in Chama before Harlan’s men kill innocent Mexicans. The remorse that Kidd displayed in the courtroom or tried to conceal with his admission later that he “made a poor judgment with which he must live. This philosophy reveals Kidd’s character. He accepts live in terms of good and poor judgments and lives with them. He is not proud of his mistakes, but he wastes no sentiment on them. Throughout the opening scenes, Sturges strongly characterizes Kidd as a man of unruffled nonchalance. According to Clint Eastwood, at CLINT EASTWOOD.NET, "Joe Kidd" never had an ending, and Eastwood states that he had never before gone into a movie without knowing "the punchline." Eastwood adds that Sturges said they would figure it out as they went along. Eastwood didn't seem too impressed with the train ending." Glenn Lovall in his book "Escape Artist" points out that Sturges got the idea for the train ending from an unproduced World War II movie project. Sturges had ambivalent feelings afterward about the film. He wrote in a letter to me in 1978 that, "There were a lot of holes in Joe Kidd. Some in the script that were never fixed and some resulting from cuts because the scenes just did't play." What sets “Joe Kidd” apart from other Eastwood westerns is the reluctance of the hero to shoot down his adversaries. Altogether, “Joe Kidd” qualifies as an underrated oater.

An excellent book to peruse if you are interested in John Sturges, his life, and his films is Glen Lovell's exhaustive biography on Sturges entitled "Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges." Mr. Lovell spent 10 years writing and researching this seminal text.

FILM REVIEW OF ''MAGNUM FORCE" (1973)

Clint Eastwood reprises his role as Inspector Harry Callahan of the San Francisco Police Department in "Hang'em High" director Ted Post's "Dirty Harry" sequel "Magnum Force." The sturdy supporting cast includes Hal Holbrook, David Soul, Robert Ulrich, Tim Matheson, John Mitchum and Mitchell Ryan. The vigorous John Milius & Michael Cimino screenplay clarifies our hero's law & order ideology that he took so much flak for in the original. Indeed, "Magnum Force" whitewashes Eastwood's saintly but insubordinate cop. Remember, in "Dirty Harry," he ignored the law when he tried to save the life of a kidnapped girl, but Harry's violation of the villain's Miranda rights allowed the fiend to go free despite overwhelming evidence that he was the murderer. In "Magnum Force," we find Harry back on the job. The filmmakers never explain what precisely occurred during the interim, but it really doesn't matter. Harry is back and that is all that counts. Harry encounters a quartet of gung-ho 'young Turk' motorcycle traffic cops who are crack shots with their .357 magnum service revolvers.

"Magnum Force" opens with an angry mob of citizens protesting the release of infamous mobster Carmine Ricca (career character actor villain Richard Devon of "The Silencers") and his associates, who walk out of court, climb into their automobile and tool off to freedom despite the riotous crowd. They don't get very far before a uniformed traffic cop in black leather with a cream white helmet pulls them over for crossing the double lines on the freeway. When the thug driver gives the cop some lip, the cop—who we cannot see because he is virtually anonymous in his regalia—whips out of his service revolver and punches holes in all four of them, leaving them sprawled dead in the car. Harry investigates and his new superior, Lieutenant Neil Briggs (Hal Holbrook of "The Great White Hope") chews him out for not being on the stake-out to which he has been assigned. By this time, Harry has acquired a new partner, an African-American (Felton Perry of the original "Walking Tall") to show that he isn't a bigot. Harry takes Smith out to airport to grab a hamburger and stumbles onto a hijacking plot. Harry masquerades as an airline pilot to get aboard the jetliner and thwarts the swarthy looking hijackers with a few shots. When Harry gets back to the stake-out at a super market, he nails a couple of gun-toting bandits. Later, a pimp (Albert Popwell who played the bank robber in "Dirty Harry" that was on the receiving end of Callahan's speech) corners one of his girls at night and takes a stash of cash that she has been hording. He repays her greedy by pouring drain cleaner down her throat. The next time that we see the pimp he is being pulled over by another traffic cop. He offers the cop a bribe and the cop blows him away. prefer to take the law into their own hands and execute crooks that rely on the loopholes in justice to get out of being prosecuted from their crimes.

Ted Post isn't half of the helmer that Don Siegel was, and "Magnum Force" pales by comparison with its illustrious predecessor. First, despite the presence of some strong villains, the bad guys are rather straightforward types. Nobody is as psychotic as Andy Robinson's Scorpio in "Dirty Harry." These antagonists are well-heeled gangsters with armies of gunmen or they are slickly dressed motorcycle cops with impenetrable sunglasses that make them look intimidating. All in all, "Magnum Force" is rather conventional. Dirty Harry fans would have to wait for "Sudden Impact" before the character had another memorable speech. The closest that Milius & Cimino come to a signature line is Harry's comment: "A man has got to know his limitations." Otherwise, the dialogue is as disposable as the spent shells that Harry empties from his revolver. The shoot-outs are staged with some competence, and lenser Frank Stanley's camera-work is far about average. There is a major shoot-out between a mob and Harry. Eventually, Harry winds up on the hood of the car being driven by a hood that conveniently loses control of the vehicle and impales himself on a crane. Early in the storyline, Harry stumbles across a career cop and an old friend, Officer Charlie McCoy (Mitchell Ryan of "High Plains Drifter") who hates the system almost as much as Harry does and makes no pretense about it. Milius and Cimino use McCoy as the red herring. He appears to be the unhinged cop who has been killing thugs, that is, until he gets killed himself.

A little more than half-way through the action, the badguys identify themselves to Harry and ask him to join them. Surprisingly, for them, Harry refuses to and it's only a matter of time before he has to confront them. As it turns out, Harry's worst suspicions have come true. Vigilante cops within the SFPD are knocking off suspected criminals with extreme prejudice. Eventually, Harry has to tangle with them aboard a mothballed aircraft carrier after a brisk but uneventful car chase. The motorcycle stunts come off looking tame.

The biggest difference in "Magnum Force" from "Dirty Harry" is the relationships that Harry has with women. He had no woman in "Dirty Harry," but here we see him date an Asian-American as well as Charlie's ex-wife. Harry never gets them between the sheets because he has to respond to some criminal emergency that cannot wait for him. Interestingly, according to scenarist John Milius—in an above-average but less than satisfactorily complete commentary—revealed that Eastwood had received mail from women requesting that he work women into the movies, but that the women come onto Harry instead of vice-versa. "Magnum Force" packs a lot of heat, but it cannot compare with Don Siegel's original. Hal Holbrook makes an okay villain. John Mitchum returns as Inspector Frank DiGiorgo, the only cast member who appeared in the original "Dirty Harry."

FILM REVIEW OF ''WHERE EAGLES DARE''

Clint Eastwood probably killed more of Adolf Hitler's German soldiers in director Brian G. Hutton's "Where Eagles Dare" (**** out of ****) than he did western outlaws as either Sergio Leone's Man with No Name in the "Dollars" trilogy or criminals as "Dirty Harry" in his five Warner Brothers crime movies. Bestselling British author Alistair MacLean penned the splendid screenplay that he later converted into a much tamer novel about a team of elite British M.I. 6 secret agents that parachute into Germany to rescue one of the top-ranking officers with a mother lode of knowledge about the June 6th Normandy landings. This MGM blockbuster that runs 158 minutes is probably the greatest action-adventure movie with a World War II setting ever produced. We're talking wall-to-wall gunfire with more surprises and complications than most movies ever attempt. Richard Burton and Eastwood as in top form and they get considerable help and guidance from busty Ingrid Pitt and Mary Ure as undercover female agents. "Where Eagles Dare" is also notable for its percussive orchestral soundtrack by composer Rod Goodwin, who carved a niche for himself in World War II movie soundtracks with "633 Squadron," "Force 10 from Navarone," "Operation Crossbow," and "The Battle of Britain." Some war movies take an anti-war stance, but neither Hutton nor MacLean had higher ideals on their collective minds when they made this war-as-an-adventure epic. If you are a World War II movie buff and you haven't seen "Where Eagles Dare," then you need to get yourself a copy of this memorable massacre.

Admiral Rolland (Michael Hordern of "Royal Flash") sends a group of British commandos on a suicidal mission to rescue U.S.A.F.F. General George Carnaby, (Robert Beatty of "2001: A Space Odyssey") one of the overall coordinators of planning for the second front who is imprisoned in an impregnable mountain fortress called the Schloss Adler, a.k.a 'the Castle of the Eagles.' As it turns out, the Schloss Adler is the headquarters for the German Secret Service in Southern Bavaria. Colonel Wyatt Turner, DSO MC (Patrick Wymark of "The League of Gentlemen") informs them that the castle is named appropriately "because only an eagle can get to it." Apparently, on a night flight to Crete, Carnaby's British Mosquito was shot down by a wandering Luftwaffe Messerschmitt and the Mosquito crashed in near the town of Werfen. Major Jonathan Smith (Richard Burton of "Raid on Rommel"), Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood of "Kelly's Heroes"), Captain James Christiansen (Donald Houston of "633 Squadron"), Sergeant Harrod (Brook Williams of "The Wild Geese"), Captain Philip Thomas (William Squire of "Alexander the Great"), Sergeant Jock MacPherson (Neil McCarthy of "Zulu"), and Edward Berkeley (Peter Barkworth of "Seven Keys") are to parachute into Germany, enter the castle and snatch Carnaby.

One of the sergeants suggests at the briefing that the R.A.F. fill a bomb-laden plane and crash it into the mountain fortress. Rolland reminds him that killing an American general might anger General Eisenhower. No sooner have our heroes bailed out than one of them, the radio operator, is found dead in the snow with a broken neck. The Gestapo raids a tavern in Werfen and arrests the rest and takes them separately for questioning. Smith and Schaffer are hauled away together, but they manage to escape after their car crashes. Smith and Schaffer then climb atop the cable car that ascends to the Schloss Adler. Simultaneous, one of their undercover agents, Mary Ure, is being escorted by a suave but sadistic Gestapo officer in the cable car to work in the castle.

Once our heroes have gotten into the castle, Smith interrupts a meeting between high ranking German officers and General Carnaby. Smith proves beyond a doubt to SS-Standartenführer Kramer (Anton Diffring of "Heroes of the Telemark") and Gen. Rosemeyer (Ferdy Mayne of "The Fearless Vampire Killers") that he is a double-agent working for the Nazis as well as the British with a night-time call to another high-ranking German general.

Eventually, when it comes time to break out of the castle, Smith relies on Schaffer who plasters the place with trip-wire explosives. Once the Nazis realize what is going on, all hell breaks loose. "Where Eagles Dare" the movie surpasses MacLean's own novel; he wrote the screenplay and he provides Richard Burton with some of the greatest lines that you'll ever hear in the World War II movie. Indeed, "Where Eagles Dare" is the best World War II thriller that Burton and Eastwood ever made, with Burton making more W.W. II thrillers than Eastwood. The rest of the cast is first-rate and composer Rod Goodwin of "633 Squadron" provides a memorable score that ramps up the action and intrigue. At 158 minutes, "Where Eagles Dare" never lets up on either action or excitement. The surprises that crop up in the narrative match the sizzling action sequences. Clearly, this is Brian Hutton's most memorable film, far better than the action comedy romp that he went on to direct "Kelly's Heroes" with Clint Eastwood after "Where Eagles Dare" wrapped. For the record, the propeller driven plane that appears during the opening credits is vintage Nazi plane. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the fighter planes that Smith and Schaffer blow up in the last major shoot out sequence.

Hollywood has yet to equal "Where Eagles Dare."