White Apache

HOMBRE (1967)

AN OVERLOOKED CLASSIC

This is a flat-out great western, even though often it is overlooked on the many "Best" lists. It is existential, yet spiritual.

Jesse: That soldier would have helped you and you know it.
John Russell: I didn't ask for any.
Jessie: He didn't even have a gun.
John Russell: That's his business he don't wanna carry one.
Jessie: It takes a lot to light a fire under you, doesn't it ?
John Russell: If it's alright with you, lady, I just didn't feel like bleeding for him. And even if it isn't alright with you.

It has action, but not too much. It focuses more on the interaction of its characters.

Audra Favor: I can't imagine eating a dog and not thinking anything of it.
John Russell: You ever been hungry, lady ? Not just ready for supper. Hungry enough so that your belly swells ?
Audra: I wouldn't care how hungry I got. I know I wouldn't eat one of those camp dogs.
Russell: You'd eat it. You'd fight for the bones too.
Audra: Have you ever eaten a dog, Mr. Russell ?
Russell: Eaten one and lived like one.
Audra: Dear me.

Later when John Russell met the antagonist, Cicero Grimes.

John Russell: You had better put down that gun. You got two ways to go, put it down or use it. Even if you tie me, you're gonna be dead.

John Russell: The dead are dead. You ought to bury them.
Jessie: I'm sure that's good advice. Trouble is, Mr.Russell, I think you feel the same way about the living.
John Russell: Glad to buy you dinner.
Jessie: There's a lot of men who'll do that.
John Russell: Well, I'd just as soon make it breakfast.

The cinematography by James Wong Howe, one of his last efforts, is crisp and expansive; shown magnificently on the DVD version; full of Apache angst and pride, and wide expanses of desert, rugged hills, and torrents of alkaline dust. The score, by David Rose, is energetic and melodic. The strains of the main title tune haunt us, and move us with emotion. Director Martin Ritt made the most out of an unconventional plot with his powerhouse of a cast; and somehow he filmed a picture without preaching.

Paul Newman, a giant among actors, found something in his character, John Russell; a stillness, an incredible strength buried deep within honed survival skills, a quiet confidence, great skill with a gun, a sense of brotherhood with the Apaches, the ability to move like lightning, like a desert snake, great stamina, deep mystery, and ultimately a compassion for others. It is a very layered, complex, and brilliant portrayal.

The supporting cast was excellent, surrounding Newman with talented adversaries and cronies. Diane Cilento, as Jesse, was willful, pragmatic, outgoing, yet still sexy; the earth mother of the piece.

Jesse: And we got him a marble headstone. It had his name on it, and underneath, we had them put,"In theFullness of His Years." Is that all right with you?
John Russell: I'll settle for that. I'm not on the slab.
Jesse: Well, what do yu figure yours is going to read?
John Russell: "Shot Dead," probably.
Jesse: Don't people take to you, Mr. Russell ?
John Russell: It only takes one who doesn't.

Richard Boone was the bad-to-the-bone Cicero Grimes; adding a new dimension to villany. Yes, he was mean, was a bully, was hard as nails, yet Boone was still able to show us an interesting man with deep shadows on his past; a gem of a performance.

Grimes: Mister, you have a lot of hard bark on you comin' down here like this. Now, you put two holes in me, and I owe you.
John Russell: Two's usually enough for most.
Grimes: I wouldn't try anything because that Vaquero[nods toward Frank Silvera, the Mexican behindRussell] is more than a fair hand. Did you bring the money ?
John Russell: Guess I brought my dirty laundry by mistake.
Grimes: Let's see it.[ Grimes opens the saddle bags and pulls out some old clothes ]
Grimes: Now what do you suppose hell is gonna look like ?
John Russell: We all gotta die, it's only a matter of when.

And earlier in the film, when Boone as Grimes has come up the hill, to posture and make a series of demands.

John Russell: Hey, I got a question. How are you planning to get back down that hill ?
Grimes: Now you wait a minute ! I'm getting back down the same way I came up ! (Begins running back down the hill. Russell shoots him twice as he is running.)
Jesse: Cicero Grimes, meet John Russell.

Fredric March, as the San Carlos Indian Agent, Mr.Favor, allowed us to dislike him, then even pity him.He managed to dredge up a form of redemption out of the shoals of a potentially one-dimensional character. Martin Balsam found an odd humanity, within is Mexican character, the stage driver, Mendez; a man prone to compromise, a survivor. And in a small flashy part of a Mexican bandit, Frank Silvera made a tremendous impact. He helped us like this brigand, and he shined with every gesture and line.

Mendez: Hombre, which name today, which do you want ?
John Russell: Anything but bastard will do.

Setting up an ambush, Newman said to Balsam:

John Russell: You will have to hit something, Mendez, first the men, then the horses.
Mendez: I don't know. Just to sit here and wait to kill them ?
John Russell: If there was some other way, we'd do it.
Mendez: Maybe we can keep going and try to outrun them.
John Russell: If you run, they're gonna catch you, they're gonna kill you. You believe that more than you believe anything.
Mendez: All right.
John Russell: And try not to puke. You may have to lie in it for a long time.

Barbara Rush as the jaded opportunist, Mrs. Favor, and Margaret Blye as the young Mrs. Blake, were both quite competent.

Jesse: Where are you going ?
Mrs. Blake: I'm going to get my husband. That man(Grimes) hurt me.
Grabbing her by the shoulders. Jesse: You stop right there. You got just what you asked for, shaking your tail in front of him, teasing him the way you did !
Mrs. Blake: Oh, you talk so dirty...
Jesse: Let's go up to the cabin, and clean you up. You will say nothing to your husband, or anyone else.

Mrs. Blake had "firted" with Grimes earlier:

Mrs. Blake: I've heard a lot of stories about what the Indians do to white women.
Grimes: They do the same thing to white women they do to Indian women, and they don't mind it much, red or white.

One false note in the casting was Peter Lazer as Billy Lee Blake. Even with repeated viewings, his performance never improves. There is no real substance to it. He never managed to rev up his character to the level of those around him; like a Shetland pony competing in a race with thoroughbreds. CameronMitchell, as Braden, and David Canary had great energy and smooth professionalism fused into their supporting roles.

Braden: Hey, what's going on ?
Jessie: I'm moving you out. I want you to take your socks, your cigar stubs, your long johns, and your nickel-plated sheriff's badge, and amble back down the hall to your own room.
Braden: I like it here.
Jessie: Can't quite remember how you got squatter's rights in here, anyhow. Seems to me you came by one night to ask for an extra blanket and stayed a year.
Braden: I been working since I was ten years old, Jessie, cleaning spittoons at a dime a day. It's now thirty years later, and all I can see out the window here is a dirt road going nowhere. The only thing that changes the view is the spotted dog lifting his leg against the wall over there. Saturday nights, I haul out the town drunks. I get their 25-cent dinners and their rotgut liquor heaved up over the front of my one good shirt. I wear three pounds of iron strapped to my leg. That makes me fair game for any punk cowboy who's had one too many. No, Jess, I don't need a wife. I need out.

The most haunting moment of the film, what stays with you, is the death of John Russell. Newman had carefully established that this hombre would not bleed for others. He was like a coyote bedding down with domestic dogs; an outcast. Yet it was only his strength that the others clung to during a crisis. So, why, in the last gasp of the plot, would this hardened pariah suddenly sacrifice himself to save a woman who had demonstrated contempt for him ? We are left without a real answer, just a sweet sadness, and the awesome realization that we have witnessed some level of greatness.


Glenn Buttkus 2002