GARY COOPER AND BURT LANCASTER IN THE 1954 WESTERN VERA CRUZ
Friday, June 18th, 2010VERA CRUZ
1954/Director: Robert Aldrich/ Writers: Roland Kibbee, James R. Webb
Cast: Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero, Sara Montiel, George Macready, Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson
I love a good Western and some of my favorites types of westerns have to be what I call the Mexican Westerns. These sorts of westerns became popular during the sixties and typically featured renegade mercenary types from America who travel into Mexico for purposes that usually revolve around nothing more than money and gold. The backdrop is one of the many periods of revolution in Mexico during the late 19th century and into the early 20th century. Typically there is some sort of transformation in the motives of the mercenaries towards the end of the film away from gold and wealth to some sort of cause, or to something the men once believed in before life made them cynical and ruthless. The best examples are films like The Wild Bunch, The Magnificent Seven and The Professionals. One could also include the handful of legendary and influential Westerns by Sergio Leone and many other Spaghetti or Italian-Westrns as well some lone cowboy films – as opposed to a band of mercenaries –like Two Mules for Sister Sara with Clint Eastwood and Valdez is Coming with Burt Lancaster. While 1954’s Robert Aldrich (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charolette, The Dirty Dozen, Flight of the Phoenix) film Vera Cruz is not as violent or cynical as Sam Peckinpah’s classic of slow motion blood spatter it can still regarded as an early transitional western and the first of the Mexican Westerns of the sixties. The action takes place during the period of Mexican revolt against the French during the brief and troubled reign of Emperor Maximillian. Seems Austrian born Maxillian was none to keen on heading off to Mexico to manage the situation there but its hard to say no to repeated requests by Napoleon III. And he had good reasons for reservations since his short reign was marked by constant revolt by the rebels led by Benito Jaurez (the Jauristas) and his eventual overthrow and execution by firing squad. Most of these films do not try to be historical dramas and instead use the backdrop of Meixico’s civil unrest as a flexible vehicle for the conflicts between the gringo fortune seekers and whoever stands in the way of their loot and booty.















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