A gunslinger with a compelling and unique brand of personal honor arrives in the town of Pecos, New Mexico Territory, apparently in advance of a citizen who was sent on a mission to find one. I'm not quite sure what the film makers were trying to achieve with the appearance of the Dancer (Dal Jenkins) arriving by stagecoach, but the town folk certainly wouldn't have got their money's worth out of that Don Knotts-like character. The guy was afraid of his own shadow.
Jules Gaspard d'Estaing (Yul Brynner) maintains that he's 'not human' while relying on a fast gun and an unusual insight into the human condition as he sizes up the residents of the small Western town. Hired to kill a returning Confederate soldier (George Segal) who threatens to shake up the existing order in the pro-Union town, 'Jewel' begins to realize that his intended victim has more integrity and courage than the folks who hired him. A not so subtle backdrop of racism against Mexicans in the divided town also works it's affect upon the Creole born gunman.
Personally, if I were handling the script I wouldn't have had d'Estaing resort to a drunken rampage to bring the town to it's knees. I feel he would have had a more forceful impact if he'd taken on the town head on. However I found the exchange between Jewel and the citizens kind of interesting. When the sheriff (Bert Freed) drew down on him, Jewel shot the gun out of his hand, but when Crane Adams (Clifford David) did the same, he was shot dead for his trouble. It made me wonder if Crane's shooting was fatal because of Jewel's professed love for Ruth Adams (Janice Rule), or whether the shooting angle provided no other way to defend himself.
I'm a little conflicted on Brynner's performance here. Perhaps because Jules d'Estaing was a conflicted individual himself trying to find his way in an unsettled West with a history of personal abuse and racism himself. I thought his characterization would have been helped if he took his own advice as given to Ruth Adams, and that was to smile once in a while.
Jules Gaspard d'Estaing (Yul Brynner) maintains that he's 'not human' while relying on a fast gun and an unusual insight into the human condition as he sizes up the residents of the small Western town. Hired to kill a returning Confederate soldier (George Segal) who threatens to shake up the existing order in the pro-Union town, 'Jewel' begins to realize that his intended victim has more integrity and courage than the folks who hired him. A not so subtle backdrop of racism against Mexicans in the divided town also works it's affect upon the Creole born gunman.
Personally, if I were handling the script I wouldn't have had d'Estaing resort to a drunken rampage to bring the town to it's knees. I feel he would have had a more forceful impact if he'd taken on the town head on. However I found the exchange between Jewel and the citizens kind of interesting. When the sheriff (Bert Freed) drew down on him, Jewel shot the gun out of his hand, but when Crane Adams (Clifford David) did the same, he was shot dead for his trouble. It made me wonder if Crane's shooting was fatal because of Jewel's professed love for Ruth Adams (Janice Rule), or whether the shooting angle provided no other way to defend himself.
I'm a little conflicted on Brynner's performance here. Perhaps because Jules d'Estaing was a conflicted individual himself trying to find his way in an unsettled West with a history of personal abuse and racism himself. I thought his characterization would have been helped if he took his own advice as given to Ruth Adams, and that was to smile once in a while.