“JOE KIDD” (1972): GOOD WESTERN FILM

 

Joe Kidd is a 1972 American Revisionist Western film starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall (both have posts in my blog), written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges: he has just now a post in my blog.

The film is about an ex-bounty hunter hired by a wealthy landowner named Frank Harlan to track down Mexican revolutionary leader Luis Chama, who is fighting for land reform. It forms part of the Revisionist Western genre.

Plot

In the town of Sinola in New Mexico in the early 1900s, Joe Kidd, a disaffected former bounty hunter, is in jail for hunting on Indian land and disturbing the peace. Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners who are throwing the poor off their ancestral lands and raids the courthouse. A posse is formed by wealthy landowner Frank Harlan to capture Chama. Kidd is invited to join but declines. Harlan persists and Kidd relents when he learns that Chama's band has raided his ranch and attacked one of the workers there. The posse is made up of numerous ruthless men, some of them armed with new-style rifles that have a much greater range than previous types.

The posse rides into a village near Chama's hideout and forces the villagers into the church at gunpoint. They threaten to kill five Mexican hostages unless Chama surrenders. Harlan no longer trusts Kidd and throws him into the church too, to prevent him from helping Helen, a female captive who unbeknownst to Harlan is also Chama's lady love and the other Mexican hostages. Kidd manages a daring escape. He saves the hostages by finding Chama and his associates and forcing them to comply with his wishes. He lets Harlan and the posse know he will deliver Chama to Sheriff Mitchell in town. The posse moves ahead to intercept a train back to Sinola, while a lone shooter engages Kidd and his party; these are pinned down as Mingo, the best shot of Harlen's group, has a high-powered rifle and is firing from the rocks above. However, Kidd who managed to also obtain one of the posse's long-range rifles during his escape, now assembles the gun and manages to kill Mingo.

When Kidd and the captured Chama arrive in town they discover Harlan is already there with the rest of the posse survivors and planning to kill them all. Kidd intends to go through with his plan. To get to the jail, Kidd drives a steam train through the town saloon. A gunfight ensues between Kidd and Harlan's men. Kidd triumphs over the other men and manages to kill Harlan in the courthouse by hiding in the judge's chair. Chama then surrenders to Mitchell. Kidd punches the sheriff (because the sheriff had punched him during the poaching arrest), collects his things and leaves town with Helen.