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Lawman (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Lawman' is a 1971 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Michael Winner and starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb and Robert Duvall.
Plot synopsis
Drunken cowhands from the town of Sabbath are shooting up the western town of Bannock.[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/title.jsp?stid=81072 TCM on Lawman]
Jared Maddox is Bannock's marshal. Days later he rides into Sabbath with the body of Mark Corman, one of the renegade cowhands shot that night in Bannock. Corman and five others were involved in the reckless killing of an old man, and Maddox has warrants for them.
Maddox calls on Sabbath's sheriff, Cotton Ryan. He demands that the five surrender to him within 24 hours. Ryan tells Maddox the five work for Vincent Bronson, a wealthy cattle rancher, and that he should avoid a dangerous confrontation. Maddox is not moved.
Ryan goes to Vincent Bronson's ranch to inform him of Marshal Maddox's arrival in Sabbath. Bronson, unaware of the killing in Bannock offers cash as compensation. Sheriff Ryan explains that Maddox will only accept surrender.
Bronson's defiant foreman, Hog Stenbar wants Maddox killed. Bronson refuses, insisting on negotiation and asks his men to surrender.
Cast
* Burt Lancaster as Jared Maddox
* Robert Ryan as Cotton Ryan
* Lee J. Cobb as Vincent Bronson
* Robert Duvall as Vernon Adams
* Sheree North as Laura Shelby
* Albert Salmi as Harvey Stenbaugh
* J. D. Cannon as Hurd Price
* Joseph Wiseman as Lucas
* Richard Jordan as Crowe Wheelwright
* John McGiver as Mayor Sam Bolden
* Ralph Waite as Jack Dekker
* John Beck as Jason Bronson
* William C. Watson as Choctaw Lee
* Walter Brooke as Luther Harris
* Robert Emhardt as Hersham
* Richard Bull as Dusaine
* John Hillerman as Totts
* Hugh McDermott as L.G. Moss
* Wilford Brimley as Marc Corman.
Production
The film was based on an original script by Gerald Wilson who said he was inspired by an item he read in the journal of Charlie Siringo which said the only hired killers in the old West were the lawmen, and it was they who caused most of the violence.Mole sees the light: DEREK MALCOLM reviews new films and talks to Gerald Wilson who wrote the script for Scorpio
Malcolm, Derek. The Guardian 25 Oct 1973: 14. Wilson also wanted to say that "law and order is certainly not the only way to administer justice."
In November 1969, it was reported Michael Winner was scouting locations in Durango and that Burt Lancaster would most likely star.Paramount Slates Move to Suite
Los Angeles Times 17 Nov 1969: e25. Winner did not want to go to Spain - where many Westerns were shot - because he wanted "an American influence". The film wound up being made in Chupaderos. Winner says he managed to hire the village for filming just before Howard Hawks tried to secure it for 'Rio Lobo'.Fastest gun in the west
Crosby, John. The Observer 14 Dec 1969: 7.
Filming began in April 1970.'Frame a Figg' Costars Set
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times17 Mar 1970: e14.The streets of Durango
SHIVAS, MARK. The Guardian 8 Aug 1970: 7.
It was Winner's first Western. "The West is everybody's," he said. "Americans come to Britain to film English history. Why shouldn't an Englishman go west?"Clinchy p 136
"The West is vulgar," he said. "The West is dirty. It's like a hippie colony. The problem with making a western is you get your priorities the wrong way around. You can't find anywhere to go to the toilet and yet you have to bring everything to a halt the minute one of the horses goes. And then wait to sweep up after it."'Lawman' Won a Shoot-out With 'Rio Lobo' on Location in Mexico
SHIVAS, MARK. Los Angeles Times 28 June 1970: p26.
Winner later said:
Id never even done a Western before but I got very serious about it. I had American professors come up and look at locations and I wanted to get the details correct. I asked what they usually used for oil lamps and they said that they just used new ones and threw some dust on them. I told them that was ridiculous and that they could get authentic period oil lamps for 20 quid on the Portobello Road. So the crew were all coming over from England with these things crammed in their luggage. It was the most authentic Western ever made. Everything was real. We sold the set to John Wayne who was coming in and doing another movie on the set after us.
Release dates
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Reception
Critical
Howard Thompson of 'The New York Times' called the film "a potent but curiously exasperating Western" with "a baffling, oblique arrogance about the central character, played well by Lancaster, that belies his seeming quest for justice ('the law is the law'), the point of the film. But he is also a cold, egocentric fish."Thompson, Howard (August 5, 1971). [https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/05/archives/a-shootemup-lawman-bows.html "A Shoot-'Em-Up 'Lawman' Bows".] 'The New York Times'. 25.Roger Ebert of the 'Chicago Sun-Times' gave the film two stars out of four and called it "a Western with a lot of sides but no center. The bad guys are too monotonously bad to be interesting. The characters played by Lee J. Cobb and Robert Ryan are more interesting, but never get a proper chance to influence events. And the Lancaster character, as limited by Winner, seems driven by some unhealthy inner hang-up that causes the whole movie to go sour. Winner should have told us a lot more about his lawman, or a lot less."
Gene Siskel of the 'Chicago Tribune' awarded two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "It's the opportunity to see some familiar faces that makes 'Lawman' an entertaining Western. It just has to be the faces, because the story is so depressing and poorly conceived."Siskel, Gene (September 2, 1971). "Lawman". 'Chicago Tribune'. Section 2, p. 15.
'Variety' described it as "a quite entertaining film that never hits many high spots but will amuse western addicts," adding, "Lancaster, as usual, is a highly convincing marshal, tough and taciturn. Ryan is also excellent as the faded, weak marshal with only memories. But it's Cobb who quietly steals the film as the local boss who, unlike many in such films, is no ruthless villain.""Film Reviews: Lawman". 'Variety'. March 24, 1971.
Kevin Thomas of the 'Los Angeles Times' called it "a good solid western" with Cobb "a fine and worthy adversary" to Lancaster.Thomas, Kevin (September 1, 1971). "Lancaster a Fast Gun in 'Lawman'". 'Los Angeles Times'. Part IV, p. 11. Gary Arnold of 'The Washington Post' stated that the film "smells of confused plotting, gratuitous brutality and a veritable outbreak of overripe dialogue."Arnold, Gary (July 17, 1971). "Corrupted, Cliched 'Lawman'". 'The Washington Post'. E7. John Pidgeon of 'The Monthly Film Bulletin' called the story "utterly conventional" and concluded that "despite the acting, the themeof the morality of taking life in the name of the lawis ill-served by Winner's fashionable attention to gore, not to mention his hotch-potch of styles, as tiresome as the frenetically zooming camera."
The film holds a score of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 8 reviews.
References
Notes
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