Valdez Is Coming (1971)

Although the Title, in 2016, could be a Warning coming out of a Donald Trump Rally, in 1971 it was from the Pen of Elmore Leonard's Social Consciousness along with Soul Traveler and Actor Burt Lancaster.It is an Underrated and Little Seen Western and a Product of its Era to be sure. Liberal in its Leanings and Message, it is the Tale of Oppressed Minorities, Blacks, Mexicans, Women that is Set in a Time when Whites Overtly Flaunted Their Privilege and Took Advantage. Valdez, an X-Calvary Apache Hunter ("Before I knew better.") and current Lawman, goes on a One Man Crusade Against Injustice.Almost Crucified and Killed, He is Determined to see some Humility and Compassion, from a Gang Leader, along with a $100 Compensation for an Indian Widow. It's a Gritty Western, in the Spaghetti Tradition of Stylized Realism and Mythical Overtones. It has been Lost in the Ether of Leone, Peckinpah, and Eastwood, but is a Solid and Enlightened Entertainment than can Side with its Betters because of its Message and has an Effective Low-Key Performance from Burt Lancaster.

Today, Elmore Leonard is primarily known for his crime fiction. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, though, he spawned a number of Westerns, most notably "3:10 to Yuma", "Joe Kidd", "Valdez is Coming" and Martin Ritt's "Hombre", the best of the bunch.Directed by Edwin Sherin, and set in post-Civil War Arizona, "Valdez is Coming" stars Burt Lancaster as Bob Valdez, a Mexican-American constable. When Valdez is manipulated into killing a black, ex slave, he rightfully holds cattle baron Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher) responsible. Valdez orders Tanner to pay the deceased man's wife one hundred dollars compensation. Tanner refuses."Valdez is Coming's" middle section unfolds like a conventional revenge-western. Tanner repeatedly beats and humiliates Valdez, who subsequently fights back. The film then climaxes with a brilliant sequence in which Tanner and Valdez face-off in the desert. "Pay the hundred dollars," Valdez reiterates simply, the line encapsulating the absurdity of both the film's plot and the sheer stubbornness of Tanner, a man whose pettiness, selfishness and cruelty Valdez's lofty principles have exposed. The "last act gunfight" has long been a cliché in Westerns. In "Valdez is Coming", though, director Edwin Sherin abruptly ends his film before the requisite showdown begins. It's an effective move; Valdez's final monetary request is the showdown's first bullet, the look on Tanner's face makes it clear that Valdez's principles have hit their target, and Sherin's abrupt conclusion forces we the audience to contemplate the pettiness of frontier justice, vengeful gratification, pride and even human egos.Unsurprisingly for a western released in the 1970s, "Valdez is Coming" is preoccupied with abuses directed against minorities. Women, Apaches, blacks, Mexicans and "half-breeds" are all the victims of cruel, white, land-owners, and Tanner's refusal to pay is always linked to his covert bigotry; Mexicans, Natives and Blacks simply don't matter. Valdez wants to make them matter.Lancaster made a number of covertly political films in the 1960s and 70s. "Valdez is Coming" isn't as good as these. It's too conventional, aesthetically plain and Lancaster looks a bit ridiculous in brown face paint. Still, it opens and closes with a pair of powerful sequences and Lancaster imbues his character with an infectious mixture of grime and grace.What really elevates the film, though, is Elmore Leonard's prose. Spare, direct and pulpy, Leonard skewers the tropes upon which "Wild West" mythology once hinged. Instead of a celebration of white masculinity, individualism and The Law, Leonard posits a brown man as the hero. More than this, Valdez becomes an almost divine figure. Granted a Christ-like resurrection (in one of the film's more hokey scenes), he becomes nothing less than a leader of the downtrodden.7/10 – See "Hombre" and "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean".

While traveling protecting a stagecoach back to his town, the middle-aged Mexican-American Constable Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster) witnesses a group of locals shooting on a cabin where a black man is trapped with his Indian pregnant wife, accused by the powerful Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher) of being the killer of the local Jim Erin. Valdez decides to talk to the man, and when he opens the door, the henchman R.L. Davis (Richard Jordan) shoots; the man believes it is a setup and shoots on Valdez, forcing the peace officer to kill him. Sooner they find that the victim was innocent and Valdez asks for one hundred dollars to Tanner to give to the widow. However, he is humiliated and nailed to a cross by Tanner's henchmen and sent back to the desert. He is miraculous saved by his Mexican friend Luis Diego (Frank Silvera) but recovers his health. Valdez retrieves his outfits and weapons from the time he was a professional shooter killing Apaches for the U.S. Cavalry and rides to Tanner's land. He hits one of his henchmen (Hector Elizondo) and sends him back to Tanner's farm with the advice that "Valdez is coming"."Valdez Is Coming" is an overrated western, with a good story of guilt and revenge, supported by magnificent performances. Unfortunately the last fifteen minutes and the open conclusion are absolutely disappointing, specially considering that R.L. Davis and El Segundo have burnt Luis Diego's house and hands and abused of his daughter. The make-up of American actors with blue eyes to become a cliché of Mexican people is quite ridiculous. The disrespect with the Catholic religion is quite out of the context of the plot. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Retorno de Valdez" ("The Return of Valdez")

Burt Lancaster's crystal clear blue eyes is but one, but the most obvious reason I can't take Valdez Is Coming all too seriously. Burt's given some great performances, but can't overcome his Anglo looks and a heavy handed script.Lancaster plays Bob Valdez, the Valdez who's coming in the title role. He's a Mexican-American sheriff who because of some trigger happy men in a posse is forced to kill a black man recently discharged from the cavalry with an Indian wife now left a widow. The leader of the posse is rich rancher Jon Cypher who organized the manhunt on the say so of Susan Clark, the widow of a man this black trooper supposedly killed. Not that Cypher is terribly upset about the mistake. He's got a low opinion of people of color.But when Lancaster just asks him for a decent amount of money for the widow, Cypher goes into a rage because no people who aren't white are going to tell him what to do. He fixes a kind of cross and ties Lancaster to it and sends him out on the desert. The mockery of the Catholic religion isn't lost on the Mexican populace.It's more than not lost on us, we the audience get hit on the head with it. When Lancaster gets loose, he goes Rambo on Cypher and his men. It's a lot of blood and guts after that, worthy indeed of any Sylvester Stallone film.According to a recent biography of Burt Lancaster, what Lancaster was trying to do was show the Mexicans as decent folks for the screen. His accent is passable, but why didn't they get the man some contact lenses to change that blue eye color is beyond me. And that religious symbolism was just a bit too much.Still when the action gets going, it doesn't let up. Those sequences are the best part of Valdez Is Coming. It's not Burt Lancaster's best venture in the west though.