VALDEZ IS COMING

US, 1971, 90 minutes, Colour.
Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Frank Silvera, Jon Cypher, Richard Jordan, Barton Heyman, Hector Elizondo.
Directed by Edwin Sherin.

Valdez is Coming is considered one of the best movies of the 1970s. It is clearly in the tradition of Sergio Leone’s Man Without a Name westerns and was filmed also in Spain.

Burt Lancaster portrays a scout of Mexican descent who becomes a sheriff. When he is commissioned by a landowner to kill an Apache, he then asks for compensation for the widow. The land baron then sets his thugs onto Valdez, they put him on a cross, beat him – and he is released by another gunslinger, played by Richard Jordan in his first film. There is a pursuit of Valdez by the land baron’s thugs – and Valdez takes his mistress as a hostage. She is played by Susan Clark.

The film is something of a revenge western – but is caught up in issues of racism, brutality, lynch law mentality, the greed of land barons. It was directed by Edwin Sherin, noted television and Emmy award-winning director of Law and Order, his first feature film. He followed it up with the exploration of post-Vietnam trauma in My Old Man’s Place.

1. The impact of the film? Its strong reputation? A film of the 60s and 70s? The tradition of the spaghetti western? Given American treatment? Location photography in Spain?

2. The situations, the lawless west, the landowners, the role of the sheriff? The musical score?

3. Burt Lancaster as Valdez, his presence, his history as a hunter, hunting the Indians? His attitude towards the past – regrets? His role as a sheriff, little to do? Tanner, the commission, the death of the Indian, his concern about the widow? The setting up of a situation?

4. The race issues, Apaches, Hispanic Americans, being despised? The arrogance of the white landowners? Of the gunfighters?

5. Issues of power, the land, authority, a law unto themselves, lawlessness, bullying? The impact of deaths?

6. Valdez in himself, his age, work, attitudes, especially towards race? Doing Tanner’s bidding? Regrets? The death of the Apache? Concern about the widow? Asking Tanner for a meeting, for help? Tanner’s response? Gay’s reaction? Humiliating Valdez, making him suffer? His being freed? Vengeance? From the cross to vengeance? Taking Gay as hostage from Tanner?

7. The supporting western characters? The Indians, the gunfighters, life in the town, henchmen and thugs?

8. How typical a westerner was Tanner with his arrogance and wealth? His attitude towards Gay? His resentment towards her, love? The dramatic impact of Valdez’s capturing and taking her? The revel¬ation that she was a murderess?

9. The character of El Segundo and his men pursuing Valdez? His vengeance, his admiration for Valdez, the reasons for his not killing him?

10. The ambiguity in the character of Davis? His hysterical sharp-shooting at the beginning, his loudmouthed attitudes towards Valdez, his watching him carrying the cross, the irony of his letting him loose, the love—hate, admiration and disgust, his being captured and spared, bearing the message to Valdez, his refusing to shoot him? A credible if ambiguous western character?

11. The ambiguity in the character of Gay? A potential heroine, her experience with Valdez, attracting Davis's attention, her decision to remain with Valdez, to get the money from Tanner, the fact that she had killed her husband?

12. The impact of Valdez shooting so many men? The response to the violence of the film?

13. The irony of his capture, the potential for a showdown and its lack of realization, the peaceful solution and its impact?

14. The film's use of conventions in chase, shootouts and violence? Its criticism of these conventions? The human values that this film stood for?