A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: VERA CRUZ (1954).
VERA CRUZ. United Artists, 1954. Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero, Sarita Montiel, George Macready, Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, Morris Ankrum, Charles Buchinsky. Screenplay: Roland Kibbee & James R. Webb, based on a story by Borden Chase. Director: Robert Aldrich.
Films in which American or European mercenaries show up in Mexico at a time of revolutionary change and hire out their guns to one side or the other, or both simultaneously, can be considered a proper subgenre of the Western. Alternatively, they have all the hallmarks of adventure films: an exotic locale, a daring protagonist on a quest fraught with danger, a love interest that develops out of said journey, and, of course, some form of priceless object or treasure that the protagonist hopes to acquire.
As fans of the Western genre know all too well, there are many – perhaps too many – Spaghetti Westerns, most of them made between 1965 and 1975, that fall into the "mercenaries in Mexico adventure film" subgenre. Released in 1954, the Robert Aldrich directed film Vera Cruz may rightfully considered a pioneer work in the aforementioned subgenre to which I just alluded.
Both gritty and lavish, Vera Cruz takes some effort and patience to fully appreciate. Upon first glance, the rather cynical story isn't particularly complex, but it's got a lot going on underneath the surface that merits attention. Indeed, Francois Truffaut himself was both a critic and admirer of the film's narrative structure in which motifs and sequences, such as Mexican revolutionaries surrounding the mercenaries and one partner rescuing another, are repeated throughout the film.
In the wake of the American Civil War, former Confederate colonel and Louisiana plantation owner Ben Trane (Gary Cooper) ventures south to Mexico in search of profit. He's willing to hire himself out to the highest bidder in the Franco-Mexican War in which Emperor Maximilian I (George Macready) is facing down a Juarista nationalist peasant revolt led General Ramirez (Morris Ankrum). Trane ends up joining forces with Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster), a cynical, borderline nihilist gunfighter eager to double cross anyone who gets between him and his money.
The plot follows the exploits of the two men as they guide a convoy filled with gold from Maximilian's lavish palace to Vera Cruz. Along for the journey are a French princess (Denise Darcel) and a Maximilian loyalist (Cesar Romaro). Each is not exactly whom they seem to be, leading to a series of plots and double crosses, some of which do get a bit wearing on the viewer.
What the film lacks in cohesion, it more than makes up for in sheer spectacle. There is something just so, well, cinematic about the movie. Indeed, the final battle sequence in which the mercenaries, along with their newfound Juarista allies, invade a government outpost is exceedingly well staged and photographed. The same goes for the final dramatic showdown between the two mercenaries. In a movie like this, there can only be one man left standing. One last matter for Western fans: look for Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, and Jack Elam in supporting roles. They are great as expected.
4 Responses to "A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: VERA CRUZ (1954)."
David Vineyard Says:
In some ways this is also almost a paean to the star power of the aging Gary Cooper. He could easily have gotten lost against the colorful on the edge of over-the-top Lancaster, but instead Burt has to use every bit of his considerable skills and his own star power to stay on the screen whenever Cooper is simply standing there.
Cooper, with a look or a word, delivers tremendous screen command. As William Wellman noted when he first used him in WINGS, for the five minutes he was in that film you could not look at anyone else on the screen.
Here he could easily have looked stolid or tired or just out of it, but instead his physical presence, wary eyes, slight stoop, and narrow smile balance and even enhance Lancaster's more colorful performance.
For modern viewers used to the kinetic action of the Spaghetti Western or modern action films the deliberate way the story is told and developed may confuse them.
What is cohesive in the film is that Cooper and Lancaster's characters develop an actual bond so that the tension throughout the film that at some point Cooper's moral compass and Lancaster's anarchic spirit are going to throw them into direct conflict generates real suspense and drama.
Everyone in the film is good, but it is Cooper's film and he carries it with a weary grace and deceptive ease few stars ever manage.
Other than VARIETY GIRL (1947), a movie in which lots of movie stars appeared as themselves in cameo roles, this the only movie that Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster were ever in together.
They were both good in this one, but I agree with David that Gary Cooper did it better.
July 1st, 2016 at 9:36 pm
One of Borden Chase's best screenplays… and that's saying something.
July 2nd, 2016 at 11:32 am
I missed Chase's involvement with this film, Dan, so I've just added him to the credits. IMDb doesn't say that he worked on the screenplay, though, only that he wrote the story the movie was based on.
Sunday, Jun 26th, 2016 at 12:33 pm
Reviews and Western movies