Joe Kidd

Recently I picked up a box set of seven Clint Eastwood films, divided into three westerns and four other movies; I believe the two haves are available for purchase separately. Anyhow, I recently sat down to watch Joe Kidd off the set.

Eastwood plays Joe Kidd, a man who at the start of the movie is being brought into jail in the Arizona Territory sometime in the early 1890s. Joe is apparently a bit (OK, a lot) of a hell-raiser, and this isn't the first time he's been in jail. But it's only poaching on Indian land, nothing terribly serious.

Joe's perfunctory trial coincides with another event, that of the entry into town of Luis Chama (John Saxon). Luis is the leader of the Mexican-American community, the descendants of the people who were in the region before the Mexican-American War when the US won the land from Mexico. If you recall from The Baron of Arizona, the US was supposed to respect the land claims of the people who lived in the region at the time the treaty was signed. But Chama believes his people have been shafted by the incoming ranchers, especially somebody like Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall). So Chama burns the property deeds and creates a huge stir at the courthouse.

Word of all this obviously gets to Harlan, who shows up in town wanting to find Chama, who Harlan feels is trespassing on his land. To be fair, considering what Chama did in town, the regular authorities want Chama and are offering a substantial reward for him. The only think is that you get the impression Harlan wants him for his own reasons. Joe Kidd is a tracker and bounty hunter, so Harlan would like him to lead Harlan's private posse to find Chama.

Joe reluctantly agrees, and doesn't really trust Harlan. Frankly, he's got good reason not to trust the man. After getting in one skirmish, Harlan and his men finally get to the village that serves as Chama's home base, high up in the mountains. Chama orders all of the locals into the church, where he plans to shoot them in small groups until Chama surrenders. Worse, Harlan takes Joe's gun and makes him stay in the the church with the locals!

I've stated any number of times that I tend to prefer genres other than westers, although I have to admit I've been warming up to them the more of them that I watch. Joe Kidd is another of those competently made westerns that doesn't really have anything wrong with it, but which also won't stand out as anything spectacular compared to all the other westerns out there. Eastwood and Duvall both do well, while the story works and the cinematography is very nice to look at.

I'd guess that most Eastwood fans would probably pick a bunch of other movies as more memorable than this one, but anybody who's a fan of either westerns or Eastwood should probably like Joe Kidd.