This movie reminds me a lot of movies such as 3:10 TO YUMA as well as LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL, in that the film concerns a lone lawman trying to battle the forces of a rich cattle baron to bring some men to justice. Just like Glenn Ford and Kirk Douglas before him, Burt Lancaster is willing to stand up against all the forces trying to get him to give up and go home.
In this case, Burt is a sheriff from another town where a group of men on a cattle drive shot up the town and accidentally killed an old insignificant man. The boss of the cattle drive wants to buy off Burt, but Lancaster is determined to bring all the men back to face trial. However, none of the men are willing to "face the music" and one by one, they take on Burt--with absolutely no support from the town--who want the murderers to go free! Despite the similarities to these other films (and HIGH NOON in reverse),the film's excellent script, acting and production make it a must-see and one of the better Western I have seen. The end of the movie is exceptional, though I noticed that the LEONARD MALTIN GUIDE liked the movie but not the ending--for me, this actually was one of the best parts of the film. Particular standouts are Robert Ryan as another sheriff just too tired to care as well as Lancaster. In addition, the boss is Lee J.--who as always did a wonderful job.
Parents take note. This film is pretty violent--particularly at the very end. Given this and the way the old guys in the film keep ending up in bed, it's not a good film for younger audiences.
Lawman
1971
Action / Adventure / Western
Plot summary
While passing through the town of Bannock, a bunch of drunken, trail-weary cattlemen go overboard with their celebrating and accidentally kill an old man with a stray shot. They return home to Sabbath unaware of his death. Bannock lawman Jered Maddox later arrives there to arrest everyone involved on a charge of murder. Sabbath is run by land baron Vince Bronson, a benevolent despot, who, upon hearing of the death, offers restitution for the incident. Maddox, however, will not compromise even though small ranchers like Vern Adams are not in a position to desert their responsibilities for a long and protracted trial. Sabbath's marshal, Cotton Ryan, is an aging lawman whose tough reputation rests on a single incident that occurred years before. Ryan admits to being only a shadow of what he once was and incapable of stopping Maddox. Maddox confides to Ryan that Bannock's judicial system is weak and corrupt, and while he's doubtful that anyone he brings back will suffer more than the price of a bribe, he will not be deterred from the unrelenting pursuit of his duty. Initially Bronson appears willing to make concessions, but when his oldest friend Harvey Stenbaugh is killed after deliberately picking a fight with Maddox, Bronson digs in his heels with the rest of the town to resist the relentless lawman.
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An exceptional Western
When You Uphold the Law
Towards the end of Lawman, Burt Lancaster says that the towns are getting fewer and fewer who need his kind of services. I guess that's a comment on civilization's leavening influence.
You're a town marshal in the old west. You're doing the job alone, maybe you have a deputy or two. Burt says you got to stick to the rules, but as we see in Lawman he wings it quite a bit.
Lee J. Cobb and some of his employees and retainers from his town of Sabbath shoot up Burt Lancaster's town of Bannock and one of Bannock's citizens is killed. Lancaster trails them to Sabbath and arrives with one of them slung over a pack horse. He gives the names to Sabbath's Sheriff Robert Ryan and the story begins.
Lancaster finds that the men he's trailing are all kinds, some professional gunmen, some family men caught up in the moment. Makes no matter to him, he's bringing them in. One of them is the common law husband of a former girl friend, Sheree North, who's settled in Sabbath.
Lawman is a pretty grim western tale. It's kind of a cross between Edward Dmytryk's Warlock and Clint Eastwood's The Unforgiven. Themes from both of those films can be found here.
Lancaster gets good support from the cast. I particularly liked J.D. Cannon as Sheree North's husband and Richard Jordan as the young cowhand from Lee J. Cobb's spread.
I think more than western fans will appreciate this film.
Solid western with a great old-timer cast
LAWMAN is a pretty decent American-made western, shot in Mexico by director-for-hire Michael Winner who doesn't get much chance to show off his later style, although the film is perhaps a little grimmer, a little grittier, a little more grounded in reality than usual. The film is worth watching for the cast alone, a huge group of old-timers backed up by the fresh faces of Robert Duvall and Richard Jordan.
Burt Lancaster is the ageing hero, tracking down a group of men who were responsible for the shooting of a townsman after a celebration that got out of hand. He arrives in town and soon runs in with the marshal, as played by old-timer Robert Ryan (if you thought he looked aged in THE WILD BUNCH, you ain't seen nothing yet). The rest of the film sees him working his way through the various would-be villains while causing consternation with pretty much everybody else.
This is solid entertainment for genre fans and even the romantic scenes with Sheree North are pretty enjoyable. Ryan and Lancaster give typically assured performances, the latter excelling as a tough guy in the Eastwood mould. The likes of Lee J. Cobb and Ralph Waite support them well. Not one of Winner's finest films, but it'll do.