Joe Kidd (1972)

Director:

John Sturges

Writer:

Elmore Leonard (written by)

Release Date:

14 July 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

If you're looking for trouble - - - he's JOE KIDD

Plot:

An ex-bounty hunter reluctantly helps a wealthy landowner and his henchmen track down a Mexican revolutionary leader.

Plot Keywords:

Landowner | Mexican | Land | Bounty Hunter | Shotgun

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Dec. 23

6:00 PM

AMC

Cast

Clint Eastwood	...	Joe Kidd
Robert Duvall	...	Frank Harlan
John Saxon	...	Luis Chama
Don Stroud	...	Lamarr Simms
Stella Garcia	...	Helen Sanchez
James Wainwright	...	Olin Mingo
Paul Koslo	...	Roy Gannon
Gregory Walcott	...	Sinola County Sheriff Bob Mitchell
Dick Van Patten	...	Hotel manager
Lynne Marta	...	Elma
John Carter	...	Judge
Pepe Hern	...	Priest
Joaquín Martínez	...	Manolo (as Joaquin Martinez)
Ron Soble	...	Ramon
Pepe Callahan	...	Naco

Also Known As:

Sinola (USA) (working title)
Sinola (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Belâ arayan adam (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Joe Kidd (France) [fr]
Joe Kidd (Brazil) [pt]
Joe Kidd (Denmark) [da]
Joe Kidd (Spain) [es]
Joe Kidd (Greece) [el]
Joe Kidd (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:15 (1987) | UK:AA (1972) | Iceland:16 | Spain:13 | West Germany:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1972) | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Writer Elmore Leonard certainly did know something about classic firearms. From Frank Harlan's Custom Savage 99 (1899), Olin Mingo's Remington-Keene sporter (1880) in .45-70, Lamarr Simms Mauser C-96 (1896) broomhandle and Joe's Cased Ross Rifle sporter model M-10 (1910) in .280 Ross. Leonard took special care to ensure all weapons (even the optics) were period accurate for that movie, being set in pre-statehood New Mexico territory (1912).

Goofs:

Factual errors: Joe Kidd fires more than ten shots with his standard ten round Mauser C96 without reloading the gun once.

Quotes:

Luis Chama: I don't keep you to think. I keep you for cold nights and days when there's nothing to do.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Drive-in Movie Memories (2001)

decent starring vehicle, a little more and some for sure less

I find it interesting that Joe Kidd was written by Elmore Leonard. The stories of both Joe Kidd and 3:10 to Yuma have a distinct similarity, if not plural similarities, in that both are about an individual who needs to be brought in by a bunch of cowboys and in each story the group that's going after the man hires out another (reluctant) fellow who is doing it for money and/or for justice. In fact, watching the first half of Joe Kidd, I wondered if Leonard might be just ripping himself off for this one. Thankfully, this isn't entirely the case as Leonard wants to try and explore a story of a Mexican man (played by John Saxon, yes, he can play just about anything) who wants his proper land rights back and is up against a ruthless killer (Robert Duvall) with Clint playing the title character a the hired man who is conflicted on both sides. Should be bring in the Mexican or should he realize Duvall's bunch are mean and homicidal SOB's?

Some of these questions and ideas make Joe Kidd a little more than it might look to be to most people which is a fairly average star vehicle for Eastwood. If it suffers from anything really it's that the mid-section of the picture, when Duvall and Eastwood and their bunch are hunkered down in the tiny town in the mountain areas waiting out their culprit, it starts to lag (I actually tuned out for one or two minutes as the movie played on television). And in some respects Leonard's script, along with the usually excellent direction of John Sturges, doesn't always provide the best lines of dialog or anything straying from the uncomplicated. But luckily Duvall is really excellent in his part as this determined villain and Eastwood is sturdy as always as a man who knows how to shoot and knows his sense of justice well, which is actually kind of gray.

Minor characters, like Duvall's woman and Saxon's guy, are less developed, though they're supplemented by some good suspense scenes, a shoot-out over a very wide range of space between mountains, and that climactic train rolling into the bar. It's fairly predictable and not anyone's best work, but it's not as sub-par as you might have heard: Joe Kidd is like Elmore Leonard (and by proxy Clint Eastwood) almost lite.