Hombre (film)

Hombre
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Martin Ritt
Screenplay by	Irving Ravetch Harriet Frank Jr.
Based on	Hombre by Elmore Leonard
Produced by	Irving Ravetch Martin Ritt
Starring	Paul Newman Fredric March Richard Boone Diane Cilento
Cinematography	James Wong Howe
Edited by	Frank Bracht
Music by	David Rose
Color process	Color by DeLuxe
Production company	Hombre Productions
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	March 21, 1967 (1967-3-21)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,860,000
Box office	$12,000,000

Hombre (Spanish for 'man') is a 1967 American revisionist Western film directed by Martin Ritt, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard and starring Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone and Diane Cilento.

Newman's amount of dialogue in the film is minimal and much of the role is conveyed through mannerism and action. This was the sixth and final time Ritt directed Newman; they had previously worked together on The Long, Hot Summer; Paris Blues; Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man; Hud; and The Outrage.

Plot

David Canary as Lamar Dean in Hombre

A rider approaches an Apache-raised white man, John Russell, with a request from his boss to come into town. When John arrives, Mendez (a stagecoach driver) informs him that his adoptive father has died, leaving him a boarding house in a nearby town. Mendez encourages him to return to the "white world;" meanwhile, two cowboys harass John's Apache companions and John smashes a glass in the face of one cowboy before leaving.

In town, John informs the boarding house manager Jessie that he intends to sell the house. Upstairs, the messenger Billy Lee Blake and his young wife Doris argue about the disappointing life they have in the small town. Jessie tells her boyfriend, the sheriff, Frank, that she is losing the house and asks him to consider marrying her. When he refuses, she leaves.

At the stagecoach station, a rich woman and her husband offer an exorbitant price to run the stage, which was recently closed by the company for slow business. Billy offers to drive them, and convinces Mendez that they can manage the trip. That night, John, Jessie, Billy and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Favor (the rich couple) and a soldier are awaiting the stage. A man named Grimes demands the soldier's ticket, and threatens him into giving it to him. During the ride, Dr. Favor's wife is disturbed to find that John is an Apache sympathizer, and the doctor asks Mendez to have John ride outside the stage with him.

The next day the stage is robbed by a gang consisting of the cowboys from the bar, the sheriff and Grimes, who knew that Dr. Favor (the territorial Indian Agent) was transporting $12,000 he embezzled from federal funds meant for the Apaches that John lived with. They take the money and Mrs. Favor as a hostage, but John manages to kill one of the cowboys and the sheriff with a hidden rifle and recovers the money. The group flee into the mountains behind John, who takes the money from Favor. A Mexican from the gang comes to offer an exchange of Mrs. Favor for the money, but John refuses, stating no one wants Mrs. Favor back. Both groups are forced to head back to town, and Favor must apologize to John since they now need his help.

Later on, Favor snatches a shotgun from a resting Mendez and tries to make off with the money on his own. John catches him, and exiles him from the group. The remaining group makes it to an abandoned mining shack for shelter, but the gang approaches from another side and also shelters in an adjacent building. They are revealed when Jessie sees Dr. Favor, and calls him to the shelter. After a shootout in which Grimes is severely injured, the Mexican once again tries to exchange Mrs. Favor (now in very poor shape) for the money, but John refuses. They argue amongst themselves; Jessie wanting to help Mrs. Favor, but John insisting they would be killed as soon as they turned over the money.

With Mrs. Favor near death, and continued pressure from the group, John gives his rifle to Billy with instructions to kill the Mexican so that he can handle Grimes. He takes the money from the saddlebags, telling Billy to ensure it is returned to the Apaches, and goes outside to make the exchange. Mrs. Favor collapses on the hill to the shelter, obscuring Billy's view of the Mexican. When Grimes sees the saddlebags are empty, he shoots John, who shoots him and the Mexican. Jessie rushes to John's side, but he has died.

Cast

• Paul Newman as John Russell
• Fredric March as Reverend Alex Favor
• Richard Boone as Cicero Grimes
• Diane Cilento as Jessie Brown
• Cameron Mitchell as Frank Braden
• Barbara Rush as Audra Favor
• Peter Lazer as Billy Lee Blake
• Margaret Blye as Doris Blake
• Martin Balsam as Henry Mendez
• Skip Ward as Steve Early
• Frank Silvera as Mexican Bandit
• David Canary as Lamar Dean
• Val Avery as Delgado
• Larry Ward as Soldier

Background

Hombre is one of several films in the 1960s portraying the situation of the Native Americans in a different way from how they had previously been seen in Westerns. Management of Indians who did their share of pioneer killing (witting or unwitting), and their perception of exploitation, are somewhat depicted.

Production

The movie was filmed on location in the Coronado National Forest in Arizona, at the Helvetia Mine in Pima County, Arizona, at Old Tucson, Arizona, and at the Bell Ranch in Santa Susana, California. Stage station scenes were filmed at Jean Dry Lake, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Reception

Box office

The film earned $6.5 million in rentals in North America, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.

According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $9,600,000 in rentals to break even and made $9,910,000, meaning it made a profit.

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.

Hombre holds a 93% approval rating on the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews with an average rating of 8.1/10.

See also

• List of American films of 1967

External links

• Hombre at IMDb
• Hombre at the TCM Movie Database
• Crowther, Bosley (March 22, 1967). "Screen: An Able 'Hombre'; Western Recipe Served Skillfully at Astor (Review)". The New York Times. p. 41.