Themes: Social Injustice, Hostage Situations, White People Among Indians
Main Cast: Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, Diane Cilento, Cameron Mitchell
Release Year: 1967
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
Yes, Paul Newman is a blue-eyed Indian in Hombre, but this apparent ethnic error is carefully justified in the body of the story. Newman plays a white man who was raised by the Apaches, and ever since has straddled two worlds, feeling truly comfortable in neither. While riding a stagecoach, Newman is subject to the racial bias of banker Fredric March and his snooty wife Barbara Rush. In truth, March is an embezzler, and has no reason to feel superior to anyone. This fact comes out when the coach is held up by murderous bandit-chief Richard Boone. When the passengers fight back, Boone takes Rush as a hostage. Newman, who by rights should be supremely satisfied that his tormentors are themselves tormented, proves himself the bravest of the passengers, sacrificing his own life to save Rush and put an end to Boone's reign of terror. Hombre is based on a novel by suspense specialist Elmore Leonard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
After emerging from the Hollywood blacklist, actor-director Martin Ritt found a friend in his former pupil, Paul Newman. The leading man would appear in six of Ritt's pictures, and, though their collaboration reached its peak with the nihilistic drama Hud (1963), the 1967 revisionist western Hombre was just as compelling. The film was one of a spate of late-1960s/early-1970s movies about the end of the Old West, including The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Hombre actually owes quite a bit to older Westerns: it borrows the metaphor of the stagecoach as a microcosm of society from John Ford's Stagecoach (1939); and it shares the revisionist racial concerns of Ford's The Searchers (1956). As in Arthur Penn's influential Left-Handed Gun (1958), Newman's polished good looks infuse the raw spirit of the West with a more modern sense of the existential. His man-against-the-world act would earn him his fourth Academy Award nomination that same year, for Cool Hand Luke. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Jack Martin Smith - Art Director, Robert I. Smith - Art Director, Donfeld - Costume Designer, Martin Ritt - Director, Frank Bracht - Editor, Robert I. Smith - Editor, David Rose - Composer (Music Score), David Rose - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup, James Wong Howe - Cinematographer, Irving Ravetch - Producer, Martin Ritt - Producer, Raphael Bretton - Set Designer, Walter Scott - Set Designer, Harriet Frank, Jr. - Screenwriter, Irving Ravetch - Screenwriter, Elmore Leonard - Book Author
In late 19th-century Arizona, an Apache-raised white man, John Russell (Paul Newman), faces prejudice in the white world after he returns for his inheritance (a gold watch and a boarding house) upon his father's death. Deciding to sell the house in order to buy a herd of horses -- which does not endear him to the boarders who live there or to the caretaker, Jessie (Diane Cilento) -- Russell ends up riding a stagecoach with a few of those boarders leaving town.
Three others ride with them: Indian agent Professor Alexander Favor (Fredric March), Dr. Favor's aristocratic wife Audra (Barbara Rush), and the crude Cicero Grimes (Richard Boone). Mrs. Favor eventually dislikes Russell enough (upon discovering that he is an Indian) to request that he ride up top with driver Henry Mendez (Martin Balsam).
The stagecoach is robbed by a gang led by Grimes, who knew that Dr. Favor had been carrying money that he stole from the very Apaches whom Russell grew up with. Grimes rides off with Mrs. Favor as a hostage.
Russell manages to shoot two of the outlaws -- one of whom is Jessie's boyfriend and sheriff-gone-bad Frank (Cameron Mitchell) -- who have the stolen money in their saddle bags. He insists that Dr. Favor give the recovered money back to him, Russell finding that the very bigots he rode with now rely on him to lead them to safety.
Russell's survivalist and perhaps "primitive" instincts often clash with their naive and "civilized" attitudes towards others, especially when Grimes and his remaining gang offer to trade Mrs. Favor for the money. Russell's pity for Mrs. Favor's situation eventually outweighs his dislike for her and knowledge that Grimes is using her to bait a trap.
After he pretends to give the money to Grimes and his gang, a gunfight ensues. Russell is able to kill Grimes, but immediately afterward a member of the gang shoots Russell dead.
"Hombre" is one of several films in the 1960's portraying the situation of the Native Americans in a different and more true way than what had previously been custom in westerns. The film shows the need for both Indian and non-Indian alike to cooperate with each other for mutual benefit. The subplot focuses on the hypocrisy and duality of respectable citizens.
Critical reaction
Most reviews of the film are positive. Critics praise the performance of Newman and the writing of Elmore Leonard. Film critic Roger Ebert, in a 1967 review, notes "The performances are uniformly excellent. Three particularly pleasing ones, however, were from Diane Cilento, the boarding house operator who talks Hombre into his ethical heroics; Richard Boone as the villainous Cicero Grimes, and Martin Balsam, as the good Mexican. Ritt directs with a steady hand, and the dialog by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank bears listening to. It's intelligent, and has a certain grace as well. Last year, Richard Brooks' The Professionals was the best-directed film out of Hollywood, and this year it looks as if the honors may rest with Martin Ritt and "Hombre"." Ebert gave the film a rating of three and a half out of four possible stars in his review.[1]
"Hombre" has a 100% rating on the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, making it a very "fresh" film.[2]
Trivia
John Russell is referred to as 'tres Hombres' at one point; this is a nickname he earned while working for the Indian police in the reservation. He fought like three men, therefore 'tres Hombres'. Alternatively he is a man with Caucasian, Indian and Mexican influences/blood.
"Hombre" is Paul Newman's fourth and final "H" film of the 1960s, a quartet that includes The Hustler, Harper, and another of his six collaborations with Martin Ritt, Hud. In all of these films Newman perfected the role of the anti-hero, a type of character he is closely associated with. Newman's anti-hero culminated with Cool Hand Luke in 1967, and he played one version in the lesser known Paris Blues, which was also directed by Martin Ritt. Roger Ebert, in his 1967 review of Cool Hand Luke said this about Newman's anti-hero portrayals: "He's been in movies where he is a fairly ordinary guy in a fairly ordinary situation, (...) except he won't be pushed. He knows his own mind. The bad guys in his movies don't like that, and so they try to break him. And he fights back, no matter how much it hurts. If the characters he has played stopped there, they would be more or less conventional heroes. But they don't. Although they exhibit heroic stubbornness and integrity, they're not very likable. For one thing, they're loners. For another, they don't seem to have basic human feelings. They do rotten things and don't feel bad. They're cold and aloof (...) We'd break a guy like Paul Newman if we had the chance, because he's a troublemaker, a malcontent, a loner. That's the kind of guy he played in all those movies, beginning with H ("The Hustler," "Hud," "Harper," "Hombre"). He smiled at the idiots who were crossing him. He didn't care what people thought. And a subtle change took place: The hero stopped wanting to be a hero." Ebert also commented specifically on "Hombre": (During "Hombre") the Newman character gained a degree of self-understanding. Newman played a white man who had been raised by Indians and adopted their way of life. He becomes joined to a party of travelers who are all incapable of protecting themselves and coping with the Western badlands. So Newman is the hero, the guy who can handle things and defend the weak. Only he doesn't want to. He despises the travelers and sees no need to endanger his own life to save theirs. They talk about courage and duty, and he says he doesn't know what the words mean. In the end, he does sacrifice himself to save a member of the party, but he doesn't feel good about it. (The ending) proves the uselessness of being a hero. Where will it get you?"[1]
Kevin Costner lists this as one of his favorite films, and considered remaking it around the time when he did The Untouchables. He has not followed up on the idea, but contributed to the western genre with Dances with Wolves and Open Range.
.jpg)
