The Last Hard Men (1976)

I saw this film when I was 14 years old and loved it....I am now 52 and I still enjoy the film...is it perfect...no...but is it a good movie...yes. Especially if you like westerns..Heston and Coburn are great in their roles. The obsession Coburn's character with Heston dovetails into Heston's character who pines for the west 'as it was'. They are two players that are of the 'old west' not the new...it is somewhat a tale of change in the west in America that occurred at the turn of the century. I would like to add that the soundtrack was well done and the secondary characters were well played. At the end of the day I feel its a good movie worth a watch.

A Movie so Derivative and Dull that without Shame. So much of this Film had come before that this Rip-Off is in Violation of any respect due its Predecessors. The Action is presented in an Unremarkable, Unrestrained, Mirror image of a paint by numbers New Violence kit.The Star Cast is uninspired and seem Uninterested, probably because they feel a Sense of detached, diluted Deja-Vu. It tries to have a Hard Edge with a Soulful Protagonist but delivers a Dud and a Soulless Villain with absolutely Amoral Behavior, but presents a Pathological Bore.The Editing and Exposition is Hackneyed and intrusive and the Movie seems to be quickly stuffed into the can and shipped before anyone Notices that there is Nothing Present beneath the wrapping.The Western, after its explosive Ten Year run from Leone to Peckinpah, didn't need anymore of this type Imitative fodder for its Unfortunate Demise, as the Genre quickly Fell Out of Favor.

This one came out during the Western genre’s last gasp; unfortunately, it emerges to be a very minor and altogether unsatisfactory effort – even if made by and with veterans in the field! To begin with, the plot offers nothing remotely new: James Coburn escapes from a chain gang, intent on killing the man (now retired) who put him there – Charlton Heston. While the latter lays a trap for him, Coburn outwits Heston by kidnapping his daughter (Barbara Hershey). Naturally, the former lawman – accompanied by Hershey’s greenhorn fiancé (Chris Mitchum) – sets out in pursuit of Coburn and his followers, all of whom broke jail along with him.Rather than handling the proceedings in his customary sub-Fordian style, McLaglen goes for a Sam Peckinpah approach – with which he’s never fully at ease: repellent characters, plenty of violence, and the sexual tension generated by Hershey’s presence among Coburn’s lusty bunch. Incidentally, Heston and Coburn had previously appeared together in a Sam Peckinpah Western – the troubled MAJOR DUNDEE (1965; I really need to pick up the restored edition of this one on DVD, though I recently taped the theatrical version in pan-and-scan format off TCM UK). Anyway, the film is too generic to yield the elegiac mood it clearly strives for (suggested also by the title): then again, both stars had already paid a fitting valediction to this most American of genres – WILL PENNY (1968) for Heston and Coburn with PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID (1973)! At least, though, Heston maintains a modicum of dignity here – his ageing character attempting to stay ahead of half-breed Coburn by anticipating what his next move will be; the latter, however, tackles an uncommonly brutish role and only really comes into his own at the climax (relishing his moment of vengeance by sadistically forcing Heston to witness his associates’ gang-rape of Hershey). Apart from the latter, this lengthy sequence sees Heston try to fool Coburn with a trick borrowed from his own EL CID (1961), the villainous gang is then trapped inside a bushfire ignited by the practiced Heston and the violent death of the two ‘obsolete’ protagonists (as was his fashion, Heston’s demise takes the form of a gratuitous sacrifice!).The supporting cast includes Michael Parks as the ineffectual town sheriff, Jorge Rivero as Coburn’s Mexican lieutenant, and Larry Wilcox – of the TV series CHiPs! – as the youngest member of Coburn’s gang who’s assigned the task of watching over Hershey (while doing his best to keep his drooling mates away!). Jerry Goldsmith contributes a flavorful but, at the same time, unremarkable score.

TLHM is a gritty turn-of-the-century western pitting aging lawman Chuck Heston against escaped con James Coburn, who has kidnapped Heston's luscious daughter (the ever fetching Barbara Hershey). The shootouts and death scenes are almost G-rated by today's standards, but you can tell they were trying. Also, by 1976, there had been a lot more violent and bloody flicks, like THE WILD BUNCH and SOLDIER BLUE. So we must make do with the characters, and Heston and Coburn prove why they don't make them like this any longer. If this were remade, you might cast Mel Gibson or Tommy Lee Jones as the worn out cop and Stuart Wilson or Gary Busey as the obsessive bad buy, but it just wouldn't be the same. Heston and Coburn were legends. There are no legends today. Worth a look.