Hombre [DVD]

Paul Newman is John Russell in this film, a white man raised by Apache Indians in late 19th century Arizona. As such, he’s Apache in thought, spirit and demeanour, having seen much sorrow and suffering among his people. At one point in the story a white woman challenges his values, accusing him of heartlessness. He responds to her as follows:“Lady, up there in those mountains there’s a whole people who have lost everything. They don’t have a place to spread their blankets. They’ve been insulted, diseased, made drunk and foolish. Now, you call the men who did that to them Christians and you trust them. I know them as white men and I don’t.”This helps explain a lot about him, especially the sadness that attends him, as he’s seen much evil done in the world by those who profess to care about charity, kindness, goodness and the brotherhood of man. He has no illusions about the white man, needing neither him nor his wicked god.Russell has been up in the mountains for most of his life with the Apache. They raised him, taught him how to live. He tames wild horses on the reservation and also works for the Indian police. So, he’s a no-nonsense man of law and order.Old man Russell has died in town. Could be his father or maybe an uncle. At any rate, an old boarding house has been willed to Russell. Henry Mendez, a Mexican associate, has sent word to Russell to come down from the mountains into town. Laconic, cool and detached, Russell is hardly interested. But he goes. He even cuts his long shoulder-length hair and removes his Apache headband. He shows up clean-cut in town in white man’s clothes, respectable on the surface.At the boarding house he meets Jessie, the woman referred to in the first paragraph above. She’s an earthy, straightforward, attractive woman now in her late 30s, unmarried and having an affair with the town sheriff, Frank Braden. Frank stays in the boarding house and sleeps with her. There’s one other couple there as well, a young married pair who quarrel and bicker, Billy Lee and his wife Doris. Mendez has told Jessie that John Russell is on his way to see the property. Jessie tidies up, kicking Frank out of her bed and room for the sake of propriety.Mendez shows up first. Jessie is polishing the silverware in the kitchen. Mendez smiles, knowing the character of Russell as Jessie does not. He refers to the flower pots on the window sill and napkins on the table, items of no value to Russell. The polished silverware won’t matter either, his view of the material world conditioned by life on the reservation.Sure enough, Mendez is right. The wild white man who tames wild Indian horses will not be tamed by civilisation, its power over him weak. Russell looks the place and Jessie over. He doesn’t mean to put her out of a job and a place to live, but he has no use for the boarding house. Selling it, which he intends to do, will provide more horses for the Apache, which is a form of currency for them.“You knew that even before you came here to see the place”, says Jessie.Russell doesn’t deny it, not being a sentimental man.The rest of their exchange is as follows:Russell: “Is there anything written in the will that makes a provision for you?”Jessie: “Not a line.”R.: “Then it turns out I don’t have any responsibility toward you at all, do I?”J.: “You don’t owe me a thing.’R.: “No, fact is I don’t.”He sells the place and Jessie is homeless. After this she turns to Frank, the sheriff, proposing he make an honest woman out of her. Usually it’s men who do the proposing, so Frank is amused by her offer. But he’s straight faced and deadly serious when he tells her:“I don’t need a wife, Jessie. I need out.”Out of town, out of policing, maybe even out of the dusty and desperate Wild West altogether, trying his luck elsewhere in the country or world.Shiftless, selfish men have been the story of Jessie’s life. She knows it but keeps coming back for more. She’s one of those strong women who cannot live without the weaker sex, those whose insecurities are hidden behind bravado and guns.Frank goes bad, throws away his tin star, joins an outlaw gang. But this happens later in the story. For now Frank is still Jessie’s man.John Ford’s “Stagecoach” (1939) brought an ensemble of characters together for a stagecoach journey across open country. This film does the same. Henry Mendez works for a stagecoach company in town. They run horses and coaches out of Sweet Mary, the name of the local town. But the line is suffering losses due to the railroad opening up, so transportation by coach is now sporadic.Dr. Alexander Favor and his wife Audra are in a hurry. They want a coach to take them from Sweet Mary to Bisby as soon as possible. Mendez explains that regular service has been suspended. No matter, says Audra. She and her husband will buy the horses and stagecoach. She says:“You’ll make a month’s wages in three days.”That’s how long the journey to Bisby will take — three days. From there she and Favor will be in flight to parts unknown, possibly to San Francisco and from there abroad.Dr. Favor is head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the San Carlos reservation (where Russell was raised). He’s intelligent and educated, possibly from the East Coast, urbane and apparently civilised. His wife is the same, elegant and beautiful, a woman of fashion and taste, even out here in the wild savage West. But the Favors are not all they seem, as they carry with them a dirty secret. They have swindled the Bureau and the Apache out of 12,000 dollars. The Indians go hungry, reduced to eating dog meat, while the Favors take flight.With the boarding house now closed and sold, Jessie has nowhere to go. So she’ll try her luck in Bisby next. Maybe that’s where an upstanding man is waiting for her. Billy Lee and Doris want out too. They’re fed up and think a change of scenery might do their relationship good. Russell is headed out of town too, back to San Carlos by way of Bisby. That makes six passengers plus Mendez the driver on top. The coach can squeeze in one more passenger only.A soldier buys the last ticket, a sergeant in the army who is going to Bisby to get married. He’s excited and happy, telling everyone in the waiting room his good news. Russell is passive, stoic, silent — distinctly unimpressed. Billy Lee and Doris are silent as well, their young marriage currently at rock bottom. Mendez is behind the desk, concerned only with paperwork. Only Jessie feigns interest, congratulating the soldier on his happiness. The journey ought to be relatively harmonious, but it won’t be.Cicero Grimes arrives. He isn’t subtle and quiet. He’s big, burly and mean and always gets his way. The door of the waiting room crashes open. Grimes has a huge leather horse saddle slung over his shoulder. He wants a ticket for the coach. Sorry, Mendez tells him, full up. Grimes looks around the waiting room, asks Mendez, “They going?” They are, Mendez says.Grimes approaches Russell. He’s going to need Russell’s ticket. Ah, but that’s a problem, because Russell bought the ticket, not Grimes. Though Grimes can’t know it now, he has chosen his victim badly. But luckily for Grimes the soldier is chivalrous and speaks up, defending Russell’s right not to be bullied and harassed. Instead, it’s the soldier who will be bullied and harassed. The situation is simple: hand over the ticket now or find a gun to defend yourself. The soldier has no gun and Grimes means business. He isn’t joking. The ticket isn’t worth life and death, so the soldier begrudgingly surrenders it to Grimes, leaving the waiting room with a hangdog look.The journey will be marked by two powerful things: money and greed. The money belongs to the Indians, the greed to Dr. Favor, his wife, Grimes, Frank Braden, and other outlaws in the gang of Grimes, including a Mexican bandito who will come to call Russell ‘Hombre’, which in Spanish means ‘man’, or in this case The Man, because that’s what Russell is. Grimes thinks he’s the alpha male, the man in charge, but he’s wrong. Russell is. He needn’t be demonstrative in announcing his machismo the way Grimes boldly does, as he’s got nothing to prove to anyone.The clash will come because it has to. Drama depends on crisis and on crises being resolved. Storytelling is always neat this way, unlike life which never fully resolves anything. It’s death’s job to do that, clearing up everything in the end.How can the ending be happy? It can’t. But at least we have the faint hope the money will not stay with those to whom it doesn’t belong.Russell is an existential figure. He has the clarity of those cleansed of illusions. He has seen and understood too much. His view of life is harshly honest, not sentimentally sanitising. Hubris, bluster, lies and hypocrisy don’t interest him. He’s used to them, used to seeing them performed. This isolates him, separates him from his kind. At least from the wicked among them. He would rather be back where he belongs, high up in the mountains among people who live as people do, not like savages in towns such as Sweet Mary, a place ironically named by cynical and hypocritical people.

One of the best Westerns ever made. A stellar cast. Paul Newman is superb, but ably supported by every other cast member. A thoughtful and sensitive portrayal of a man, generally shunned by fellow passengers, whose moral code is gradually revealed as the dangers mount up. Richard Boone plays the baddie perfectly. In truth, a masterpiece.

Very good film. Unfortunately I didn't realise there was already a copy in my collection, so I passed this one on to my son. Excellent performances, especially that of Paul Newman.

.......the Good (Paul Newman, Martin Balsam), the Bad (Richard Boone, Frank Silvera), and the Beautiful (Barbara Rush, Diane Cilento) plus a whole other bunch of seasoned troupers. A great story. Do not miss this!

Newman is probably best known for Butch & Sundance, but he made several excellent westerns and this was one of the best. As the white boy raised by the Apache and taught their ways he really has no allegance to the white population and little liking for most of them, so it is ironic that he loses his life protecting them. The film has a good cast of familiar faces including Richard Boone as the chief villain and a good storyline from the pen of Elmore Leonard who wrote several good westerns before switching to crime novels. Many of his stories have been filmed. EG. Get Shorty. JR.

Excellent western. Very good characters and story.

Beautiful blu-ray transfer for a classic western,the picture quality is sharp as a tack,I bought this on amazonmarketplace,from screen archives entertainment,their customer service was excellent,it was a bit expensive,but well worth it.This is what blu-ray is all about,taking a classic western from the 60,s and making it feel like this is the first time you,ve seen it,the picture quality is gorgeous,Highly HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!Cheers Guys,Davy Cairns,Scotland.

Paul Newman as the man what some man really reluctantly are. Man out off a crowd. Was Paul Newman for such role ? Some attempts for social justice to be seen in the name of Red Indians.

Quanto tempo che non vedevo questo film! Almeno 40 anni! Paul Newman (John Russell) mezzo Indiano e mezzo Bianco, l’assoluto eroe della pellicola che darà la vita per salvare i passeggeri della diligenza dai banditi anche se ha dei “modi bruschi”. Richard Boone (Cicero Grimes), “cattivo” come sempre, come il “Maggiore Jim Lassiter” in “Rio Concho”, di Gordon Douglas. Solo che, in quel film, ammazzava gli Apaches, qui invece è un volgare bandito di strada. Fredric March (Alexander Favor), il classico agente indiano corrotto che pensa soltanto ai soldi e ad arricchirsi a spese degli Indiani. Frank Silvera (bandito messicano), conosciuto da noi sessantenni come “Don Sebastian de Montoya”, il suocero di Leif Erikson (John Cannon), in “The High Chaparral”, o meglio, “Ai Confini dell’Arizona”. Bella differenza da “proprietario terriero messicano” a “bandito”! Di questa serie, c’è anche Cameron Mitchell (“Zio Buck Cannon”), ma in questo film interpreta lo sceriffo, poi diventato bandito, Frank Braden. 105 minuti tra paesaggi mozzafiato, attese snervanti, botta e risposta tra Paul Newman (John Russell) e le donne e … una di queste, in cerca di marito.

Magnífico film sobre la perseverancia y los valores. Una hermosa y atractiva producción enmarcada en el dinámico escenario del baloncesto de los años 70's, y la vida universitaria de aquella época. Su personaje principal nos presenta una singular imagen de ingenuidad y valores, dignos de tomar en cuenta es esta época tan liberal en que vivimos actualmente. Además, una excelente técnica cinematográfica y perfecta fotografia y angulos de enfoque maravillosos.Todo el film Evoca aquella ilusión y los sueños de juventud, la fidelidad entre amigos y el primer amor. Sus actores nos regalan una especial identificación con los personajes. La recomiendo para todo público, particularmente a los jóvenes de hoy.

Un magnifique western tourné dans de très beaux paysages tantôt désertiques, tantôt montagneux avec un Paul NEWMAN dans une prestance parfaite, en rôle de blanc élevé parmi les Apaches. Cet hombre est confronté entre sa couleur de peau et son cœur profondément attaché à la culture indienne et défenseur des opprimés parqués dans des réserves ( San Carlos ).Une très belle distribution avec un Richard BOONE en méchant sans scrupule, prêt à tout pour obtenir le magot suite à une attaque de diligence avortée et également Martin BALSAM, la belle Diane CILENTO.L'image est parfaite, très beaux contrastes, aucune rayure. Bravo à l'éditeur qui rend hommage à ce classique.La version sortie en DVD il y a quelques années était de bonne qualité mais cette version Blue Ray devance largement le DVD.

In der "Opening Sequence" sitzen John Russell (Paul Newman), den man HOMBRE nennt und der Postkutschenfahrer Henry Mendez (Martin Balsam) in einem Saloon und sprechen über die bevorstehende Einstellung der Linie nach Bisbee, weil die Eisenbahn diese Strecke übernommen hat. John, der als kleiner Junge von den Apachen entführt wurde und bei ihnen aufgewachsen ist, hat ein Haus von seinem Stiefvater in Bisbee geerbt. Aktuell sieht er aus wie ein Apache und Mendez überzeugt ihn, für die Fahrt nach Bisbee wieder "zu seinen Wurzeln" zurückzukehren und als Weißer in Erscheinung zu treten. Weitere Fahrgäste auf diesem Trip sind Alexander Favour (Fredric March) und seine Frau Audra (Barbara Rush). Favour war Reservatsleiter und hat die Apachen nach Strich und Faden betrogen, d.h. Hilfsgelder der Regierung nicht für Lebensmittel und Arzneien ausgegeben, sondern in die eigene Tasche gesteckt. Die 12000 Dollar hat er in zwei Satteltaschen dabei. Außerdem fahren noch die Gasthausinhaberin Jessie Brown (Diane Cilento) und das jung verheiratete Paar Peter und Doris Lazer (Billy Lee und Margaret Blye) sowie der zwielichtige Cicero Grimes (Richard Boone) mit. Russell reitet voraus, weil er den Weg am besten kennt und Banditen und Indianer die Gegend unsicher machen. Prompt kommt es zu einem Überfall von Banditen - auch Grimes gehört zu Ihnen. Sie entführen Audra als Geisel, die anderen ziehen weiter und Russell führt sie zu einem verlassenen Bergwerk. Dort kommt es auch zur entscheidenden Auseinandersetzung. Regisseur Martin Ritt hat in diesem Film von 1969 alle Charaktere brillant und individuell gezeichnet. Auch die trostlose, sonnenverbrannte Landschaft passt genau ins Bild. Paul Newman liefert eine seiner besten Leistungen als HOMBRE. Es gibt reichlich Spannung bis zuletzt und ein ungewöhnliches Ende. Das ist einer der besten Western, die jemals produziert wurden.Das Bild (Farbe) ist Widescreen 16:9, der Ton Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo in Englisch und Hybrid in Deutsch, sowie Mono in Italienisch, Französisch und Spanisch. Die DVD wurde von Fox im Rahmen der Klassiker-Reihe im Schuber mit Beiheft, individueller Filmbeschreibung und Postkarte veröffentlicht. Als Extra gibt es den Kinotrailer.

Some reviewers on this site have said that all the white people in this film are louts; that's not true. Unlike Dances With Wolves, where every white man other than Kevin Costner's character is a brute, a lunatic or a savage, in Hombre the characters have a great variety of virtues and faults -- admittedly, mostly faults, but they are not caricatures, and I don't see this movie as a liberal guilt trip by whites.For example, Peter Peter Lazer as the ticket agent stands up to Cicero Grimes and enforces the rules of the stage company; that's an example of a white character in the movie showing integrity. Diane Cilento's character is frank and gritty and self-confident. She stands up to Grimes in the stagecoach, calling him on his lewd comments. It's her integrity at the end of the movie, her willingness to put her own life on the line for others, that makes Newman's character finally relent from his self-contained aloofness and face the outlaws.Newman is generally described in these reviews as selfish and egotistical; I disagree. The scene in the bar where he clobbers a tough guy in a bar who's abusing Indians with the butt of his rifle, showed lots of courage and it was done for others who were not in a position to help themselves. (Western justice wouldn't help the Indians; they knew it, and Skip Ward and David Canary's characters knew they could get away with it.) I thought it showed a lot of guts on Russell's part. As a half-white he stood a better chance at justice; but then, he didn't rely on others to provide him with justice. That's one of my favorite scenes in the movie.The scene in the ticket office when Richard Boone's character Cicero Grimes enters, sets the background for a number of important aspects of the characters of the people in the cast. Grimes starts off trying to bully Newman's character John Russell into giving up his ticket. Grimes licking his lips, the way a cat does when it's really ticked off and ready to explode, with the word "friend" on his lips, is incredibly intimidating. He even blows away a returning soldier, who can't stand up to him, played to a "T" by Larry Ward. Newman's character, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying it and isn't fazed by Grimes' intimidation. I wish that scene had played out a little longer -- I'd like to have seen how Russell would have eventually dealt with Grimes; but that dynamic was held off till the last scenes of the movie.Newman was aloof in the ticket scene. He didn't reach out to help anybody else, and this sets the scene for who he is: A self-sufficient man, who assumes that everybody else can fend for themselves, too. That's why he doesn't jump all over himself to help others -- he assumes they're grownups and can take care of themselves.Besides coming to the aid of the Indians in the bar, another scene where Newman's character reaches out to help people is when the stage is held up. On the one hand he says to the bandits that he's not a witness to anything. But as soon as he sees his chance, he grabs his rifle and starts shooting. That's another aspect to the character of John Russell -- he's ruthless with criminals. If they threaten his life -- he threatens or takes theirs. This trait was also shown when he banished Dr. Favor to the desert with no water -- after Favor attempted to leave everyone else without water. Even Dr. Favor said it was tough, but just. This trait of John Russell was also shown when Cicero Grimes came up the hill to have a palaver with the people he was holding hostage at gunpoint in the shack. Grimes in essence came up the hill under a flag of truce. None was waved, but that was the dynamic, and he assumed that the "rule" of the situation was that since he was coming to talk, nobody would harm him. But Newman's character wasn't buying into this hypocrisy. Cicero Grimes was threatening the lives of all of the people in that shack. His conversion to gentlemanly ways when it suited him was something John Russell didn't buy into. Newman's character saw his chance, and shot and seriously wounded Grimes. Boone's character Grimes understood, shown when he paid the grudging but sincere compliment "you've got a lot of hard bark on you." (Newman's character wasn't swayed by the compliment. He didn't care what other people thought of him, good or bad. He was independent outwardly and inwardly.).Paul Newman has generally gravitated towards playing scoundrels in a lot of his movies, people with great flaws. But this role is my favorite of Newman's, of all of his movies. The message of his character that I take from the film is: be independent, be self-sufficient. People in general are namby-pamby, and his blunt self-sufficiency chases that out of the people around him; they rise to the occasion and become grownups. In this sense it is a true American movie, i.e. depicting something of the American character; or at least our mythic impression of ourselves. America over-does independence and individualism, and Hombre is a terrific example of it.When Barbara Rush's character is staked out in the sun, her husband won't attempt to save her, and comes across as a selfish you-know-what. John Russell won't save her because he knows, as he says to the two women in the shack, that even if they give up the money, the bandits will still kill them all. He knows there is no way of saving the woman tied up in the sun, and he has decided to not attempt it. Not until, that is, Diane Cilento's character outdoes him in integrity. She offers, at significant risk to her own life, to take the money down the hill to the bandits, even though she knows how ruthless the bandits are. She wants to try to save Mrs. Favor. Newman's character can't let that happen. I don't think it's just because it's a woman showing him up. That's part of it, but I think that a careful read of his character shows that he pays his own way through life, and he abounds in integrity. John Russell can't let somebody else bail him out, and have a higher level of integrity than his own -- so he relents and walks down the hill. He does so only after protecting the financial interests of the Indians from whom the Favors stole the money -- again showing his willingness to reach out to help people. Granted, two of the instances in the movie where he extends aid to others, are helping Indians. But he did get the whites through the desert. They followed him because, as he said, "I can cut it, lady." And he did, and they survived because of him. I think these examples refute the characterizations of some reviewers that Newman's character is selfish and egotistical. Individualistic to a fault, sure; but not egotistical, and not selfish.This is one of my top ten favorite movies, along with Gandhi, Patton, A Thousand Clowns, The Third Man, The Fallen Idol, A Man For All Seasons, and a few others (mostly good character studies of men). I've watched Hombre dozens of times, and have just bought the DVD and am waiting for it to arrive. I live a few hundred miles from where Hombre was filmed, and I've contacted the Tucson Film board to ask exactly where the Old Helvetia Mine is located, where the last scenes in the movie were filmed. I'd like to visit there. This is a great drama, and a very satisfying movie.Brent Poirier, Las Cruces NM USA