Hombre (1967)

 

This brutal western is easily one of Paul Newman's best performances, hearkening back to "HUD" in its power and forthright honesty. Newman plays a white man raised by Apaches on the reservation in Arizona who grew up to become a member of the Indian police. His real father has died and he cuts his long hair and goes down to the town to claim his inheritance, a boarding house which he intends to sell "for a herd of horses down in Contention." The residents of the building, including the attractive female manager, are thus made to leave and he accompanies them on their stage coach journey down to Bisbee. They are joined by the Indian agent, skillfully played by Frederic March, his snooty, sheltered wife, and a sinister stranger, wonderfully acted by Richard Boone at his most gritty and threatening.

The characters in this movie, regardless of their importance, are fleshed out convincingly. The writing is spare and fraught with meaning, in fact, it is almost too perfect. No words are wasted and no act appears frivolous. Newman plays the quintessential stoic, an Indian mystic who rises above the circumstances of his harsh existence out of sheer detachment. He accepts the brutality of the world at face value and harbors absolutely no illusions. He doesn't stick his neck out like some damn fool in order to impress anybody and he survives because he deals with what comes his way, yet refuses to be affected by it, no matter how tough things get. Just to watch his very convincing interpretation of this sort of person is rewarding enough, but that is only one of the roles so well evoked in this excellent drama. Richard Boone has some of the great lines, such as, "Mr., you've got some mighty hard bark on you coming down here like this," followed by, "Well now, what do you suppose HELL is gonna look like?" Frederic March hands in a good performance as the crooked Indian agent, a role quite unlike his great offerings in earlier films such as "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" or "The Best Years of Our Lives." "Hombre" is first-rate movie fare, an entertaining, action-filled story brimming with conflict. As art, it is right up there with the best films ever made, a philosophical masterpiece.