I'd never heard of this movie until I read web-site article about Dwight Yoakam, which included an interview. Dwight gave this movie a big shout out, saying it was highly unconventional, yet quite likable. And since I've pretty much liked Paul Newman and Lee Marvin in almost everything they've been in, I took a chance. Let's just say that I'm still on board with Dwight the musician, but I've got a big thumbs down to Dwight the movie critic.
I'm going to be brief, as I don't want to rain on Terence Malick's script and Stuart Rosenberg's direction too hard. But this movie just never got going AT ALL. It just seemed like the boys from "Cool Hand Luke" (Newman, Strother Martin & Wayne Rogers, along with Rosenberg) decided to put the band back together again, but forgot to include a REAL STORY.
Instead, we get Newman as a broke cattleman, bumbling around South of the Border negotiating cattle prices with stubborn Mexican ranchers. Where's the humor and/or intrigue with that plot line? When the only (semi) interesting part of the film is Elizondo & Sierra, two US citizens of Puerto Rican descent, playing smarmy Mexicans, you've got real problems in a movie with 2 stars as big as Newman and Marvin. Stay away from this one unless you're a Newman "completest"!
I'm going to be brief, as I don't want to rain on Terence Malick's script and Stuart Rosenberg's direction too hard. But this movie just never got going AT ALL. It just seemed like the boys from "Cool Hand Luke" (Newman, Strother Martin & Wayne Rogers, along with Rosenberg) decided to put the band back together again, but forgot to include a REAL STORY.
Instead, we get Newman as a broke cattleman, bumbling around South of the Border negotiating cattle prices with stubborn Mexican ranchers. Where's the humor and/or intrigue with that plot line? When the only (semi) interesting part of the film is Elizondo & Sierra, two US citizens of Puerto Rican descent, playing smarmy Mexicans, you've got real problems in a movie with 2 stars as big as Newman and Marvin. Stay away from this one unless you're a Newman "completest"!