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28 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :- Rough and tumble star Western with untenable moral attitudes..., 31 August 2000 Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico
After "Dirty Harry," Eastwood returns to the West to work for the first time and the last with John Sturges...With quality Westerns like "Bad Day at Black Rock," "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," and "The Magnificent Seven", Sturges would be the right filmmaker to accelerate Eastwood's cowboy career... In the event he wasn't...The excellent sketching of characters and the poignancy of the dilemma of the peasants which made "The Magnificent Seven" such a classic Western were deplorably absent in "Joe Kidd" and the film never escaped from the weakness of its own screenplay...Eastwood brought some of the qualities of Leone Stranger, but lacked his style, his wit and his class...The film is set in the small town of Sinola, New Mexico, at the turn of the century... Mexican peasants find themselves being exploited and persecuted by American landholders, most notably land baron Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall). The peasants find a charismatic leader in Luis Chama (John Saxon), who takes them before a biased judge to defend their land rights...Upon learning the judge's nature, the Mexicans turn to violence and nearly kill the judge whose life is saved by Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood), a prisoner jailed for drinking too much...This action endears Kidd to Harlan, who recruits him as a tracker for the posse he has hired to annihilate the poor Mexicans who oppose him...However, Kidd's commitment to Harlan's cause grows weaker the more he observes the landowner's methods... At one stage Harlan takes over a small Mexican town and threatens to kill all the inhabitants if Chama does not give himself up by a specified dead time... Kidd considers the action cowardly, and decides to change sides and join Chama's forces...If you are happy to see Eastwood back in the saddle, and you want to watch him with Robert Duvall, don't miss this highly forgettable Western... I'm quite sure it will manage to hold your attention...
14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :- Fighting for what you believe in doesn't always come easy., 25 June 2006 Author: lost-in-limbo from the Mad Hatter's tea party.
Joe Kidd is discreditable ex-bounty hunter who's facing a couple days in jail, but a well-known big flier landowner Frank Harlan pays his fine hoping that he would join his group of hunters in tracking down the revolution leader Louis Chama. Who's upset about the treatment his people have received in the land reform policies and he goes into town to show he and his group mean business. But Kidd has nothing against him so he declines, but that all changes when he finds out Chama and his outlaws stole his horses and touched up his carers. So after that, Kidd decides to join in the hunt, only to discover that maybe he's on the wrong side.How many times have we seen it, don't mess with Clint! After the highly significant cop thriller "Dirty Harry", he returned to the western foray with not-so forcible results. "Joe Kidd" is what you can call, one of Eastwood's lesser westerns, but I actually enjoyed it. Maybe that's because I knew very little about it and I wasn't expecting anything revolutionary, but I found this little slam-bang western to be an earnest vehicle for Eastwood, which has a capable supporting cast in Robert Duvall, Don Stroud and John Saxon and in the director's chair is John Sturges. With those names involved it could have been much more, but it's not all a waste. I thought that it started of rather unusually and far from your typical Eastwood western. It's quite unpredictable and it's laced with a lot quick-witted humour, but when it gets into its groove with the journey part of the story, it falls into a systematic pattern. There's nothing overly dynamic about it, but since it's quite a short flick it goes by quick enough without any meandering sequences. We get an even amount of humorous wisecracks, sturdy action set pieces and a steam-rolling climax for the undemanding. The performances are extremely good as the main characters are very egotistical. Eastwood provides his causal persona in the lead role, although this character seems to have a little more spruce and morality in his actions than that cynical edge we come to love. Duvall is influentially striking as the snaky villain Frank Harlan. Saxon is a superb character actor and that translates into his minor performance of Louis Chama. Don Stroud, Paul Koslo and Stella Garcia were more than decent too.The consciousness story by Elmore Leonard is rather weakly drawn-up with very little in the way development and little to pushy in it's unjustifiable moral high ground. Although I loved the ironic judge, jury and executioner symbolism that fate has in-stored for the main villain. Sturges' direction won't blow you away, but it was a competent display and he manages to incorporate the sublime backdrop of the High Sierras with on spot and open location photography. There are many well-placed angle shots and leeway in its execution. Another facet that was surprising was Lalo Schifrin's distinctively, pulsating score that's never over-powering, but it was always there.You might forget all about this western after a day or two, but with these class people involved in this production, just expect some captivating, light entertainment. I found it satisfying enough, but Eastwood would go onto better things a year later with the spell-bindingly, cruel "High Plains Drifter".
19 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :- Another Great Performance of Clint Eastwood, In an Above Average Western Movie, 14 January 2004 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood) is a former gunman and bounty hunter, hired by the landlord Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) to chase Luis Chama (John Saxon), a Mexican-American fighting for land reform. Along the hunting, Joe realizes that Frank's men are cold blood killers, and decides to help Luis Chama. He convinces him to fight for his rights in the court of justice. In the way back to the city, Frank's men try to kill Luis Chama. Clint Eastwood has another great performance, having a great duel with Robert Duvall. The story has some flaws, but anyway, maybe the greatest problem is the expectation generated by the name of John Sturges: we always expect another masterpiece from him, and maybe this is the reason why there are some underrated comments about this above average Western movie. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Joe Kidd
15 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :- Classic Clint...., 31 August 1999 Author: George Litman from Marietta, OH USA
Clint was already a veteran of many westerns by the time he made "Joe Kidd" and, though many don't find it among his best, it shows Clint as the Joe of the title doing what he does best.As a ne'er-do-well who ends up siding with Luis Chama (Saxon), a wanted Mexican bandito, Kidd does battle with a group of bounty hunters (led by a suitably villainous Duvall) out for Chama's blood."Joe Kidd" is leisurely but not uninteresting; after all, any film written by Elmore Leonard has interesting points (just look at his later work). And when I saw Clint eye that train, I knew something was going to happen (you'll have to see that one yourself).Overall, "Joe Kidd" may not be as big as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" or as profound as "Unforgiven", but it's a good film nonetheless and bears watching. If just for that classic Eastwood squint.Eight stars. And for future reference, never upset a man holding a pot of stew.
9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- Decent, if not the most memorable Eastwood Western, 21 September 2006 Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
This is a pretty good though very simple Western and I am sure that the somewhat low ratings are due, in part, to the movie not being exactly what Clint Eastwood fans expected. In this film, he plays Joe Kidd--a decent sort of guy but not exactly as super-human as "the man with no name" in his Spaghetti Westerns. He's a lot like Eastwood in UNFORGIVEN because he seems not so super-human, except that he is a fundamentally decent person in JOE KIDD, whereas in UNFORGIVEN he's almost like a multiple personality (one nice and the other evil). The character Joe Kidd shows off his abilities here and there, but he isn't the amazing man with a 6-shooter as you'd expect from Eastwood either--though he sure does pretty well with a rifle or train (you'll have to see what I mean by seeing the picture). So overall, this film is very good but a bit subdued and more realistic than most of Eastwood's Westerns--plus at under 90 minutes, it's pretty short as well. One way I knew this was a pretty good flick was that my wife sat and watched the film with me--and she hates Westerns.
15 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :- As memorable as a Hopalong Cassidy B-flick, 6 December 2003 Author: Brian W. Fairbanks (brianwfairbanks@yahoo.com) from Cleveland, Ohio
Everything about "Joe Kidd" suggests quality of the highest order. Here you've got Clint Eastwood co-starring with Robert Duvall (in one of his first post-"Godfather" roles), to say nothing of an excellent supporting cast that includes John Saxon, in a western directed by John Sturges whose name I will always utter with reverence because he gave us "The Great Escape." And it's based on an Elmore Leonard novel. Prepare to be impressed."Joe Kidd" opens well with Clint Eastwood all duded up in the most splendid threads he ever wore in a movie. In no time at all, though, it all goes rapidly downhill, becoming as memorable as a Hopalong Cassidy B-flick. Everyone involved acknowledged it was a disappointment, but why? Patrick McGilligan's recent bio of Eastwood (which is close to a hatchet job) suggests Sturges had succumbed to alcohol by then and simply wasn't up to the job, but star and co-producer Eastwood, humble in the presence of a man who directed so many fine films, was reluctant to usurp the reins. The movie's inferior reputation may now be in its favor. Having read so many bad reviews of the film, Eastwood fans who haven't seen it yet may have such low expectations that it may seem better than it is. If so, enjoy.
4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- Clint Rides The Train, 18 January 2009 Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
Clint Eastwood plays the title role in Joe Kidd a former bounty hunter and tracker hired by big rancher Robert Duvall to bring in John Saxon. Saxon's a local hero among the Mexican population in this southwestern based film for standing up to the Anglo ranchers like Robert Duvall who've robbed them of their lands both gunfighters and with bought justice in the courts.It doesn't take Clint long to decide he's made a big mistake as Duvall's hired bully boys intimidate the local Chicano population. The last straw is when Duvall and company ride into a pueblo, have the local priest Pepe Hern summon all the villagers, where he announces the next morning he'll shoot five people if they don't surrender Saxon or give him information where Saxon is. The sort of stuff the Nazis did in their occupied countries. Duvall anticipates Clint's change of mind by taking his gun and locking him up as well. But of course there's no way that's going to stop Clint Eastwood.Not that Saxon is anything to write home about. He's a bit of a lout himself, especially in the way he treats his girl friend Stella Garcia. As he so eloquently puts it, all he wants her for is something to keep warm with on those cold nights on the prairie and he's not interested in her opinion. Talk about your alpha male on the prairie. Still he's one of the good guys for better or worse.I don't think Joe Kidd measures up to Clint Eastwood westerns like The Unforgiven or Pale Rider or The Outlaw Josey Wales. But it's one of the most entertaining he ever did. I'm not bored by one second of it and I do love that climax where Eastwood makes use of that locomotive in a creative fashion. Joe Kidd is definitely an Eastwood film for the ages.
6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Just don't kid around with Joe Kidd, okay…, 23 April 2008 Author: Roger Burke (mayapan1942@yahoo.com) from Australia
Just another vehicle for Dirty Harry in the west? Well, not quite. This time round, Clint plays the title role – an individualist, of course, and one with a sense of justice not unlike Dirty Harry; where Joe Kidd differs is that he has no truck with the law and prefers the hunter's life on the range.Which, in turn, causes him to wind up in jail because, in the opener, we find Joe in jail having been charged with hunting deer on reservation land. After being summarily fined $10 and deciding to work out the fine in jail instead, the court proceedings are interrupted by a large band of Mexicans desperately seeking justice about land claims in the area.During the subsequent shooting melee when the Mexicans attempt to kidnap the county judge, Joe takes the initiative and gets the judge safely away, and out of harm. After the bandits run, Joe settles down to work off his jail term of ten days – only to be hauled out of that predicament by Robert Duvall's nasty business tycoon, Frank Harlan, who wants to hunt down, with his own band of killers, the leader of the Mexican band, Luis Chama, as portrayed by John Saxon.Thereafter follows an inventive narrative and denouement as written by one of America's best writers, Elmore Leonard, involving a hunt to the high sierras and a Mexican standoff – and a Mexican standoff - between the Mexican bandits, the American bounty hunters and finally Joe who escapes the clutches of the bounty hunters to try to persuade Chama to plead his case in a court of law.To say more would ruin the plot for you. Clint does his usual laconic, iron-fisted turn with revolver, rifle and now pistol – an automatic German C96 Mauser, no less (the setting is in 1897 or so, and that pistol began production in 1896). Robert Duvall is suitably slimy and duplicitous, hell bent on killing whomever he wishes to get his way; perhaps a bit of a parody of bad guy, but what the hey! The real parody, however, is Don Stroud, as Lamarr, the gunman who just can't behave while Joe Kidd is around. While John Saxon's Mexican bandit, Luis Chama, is sympathetically done.The setting is simply and starkly beautiful – snow capped peaks in the sierra, the undulating plain, a frontier town, rocky outcrops, a small village with the inevitable church and bell tower which plays an important and somewhat comedic part in the battle between the competing bands. Director Sturges certainly took advantage of the natural splendor to make this film all that more enjoyable.As always, though, my criticism with Hollywood Westerns made from the fifties to the seventies generally is that the characters are way too clean: these were rough conditions, dirty times, filthy streets. I know there were exceptions, but that just proved the rule. Eastwood's Unforgiven (1995), Jamurschs' Dead Man (1996) or Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1992) redressed that aspect very nicely, however.For 84 minutes you'll enjoy a good story, well acted and with appropriate action. See it if you can. Recommended for all.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Bad Hat on Squint but Duvall is There!, 10 July 2004 Author: shepardjessica from sparks, nevada
Decent early 1970's Clint western with plenty of stooges to beat up on (including Paul Koslo - who got beat up by a million stars in the 70's), but R. Duvall with his authentic "Southwest" accent steals the show along with John Saxon as Louie Chama (almost playing the same character he did in The Appaloosa with Brando, except he's almost a good guy in this one). Beautiful locale (wherever they filmed it), almost a Man with no Name theme to it - A 6 out of 10 without being special; just your basic racist (Duvall's gang) and the mercenary with a Bad Hat (Squint) to deal with them. Best performance = Robert Duvall. Decent stuff but Mr. Eastwood's done better, before and since.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- decent starring vehicle, a little more and some for sure less, 18 January 2009 Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
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.
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