Lawman (1971)

Directed by Michael Winner. Starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb, Sheree North, Richard Jordan, Robert Duvall, Albert Salmi, Joseph Wiseman, J. D. Cannon, John Beck, Ralph Waite, Walter Brooke, Richard Bull. [R]

Surly Western story of a marshal (Lancaster) arriving in a small town with the intention of arresting several ranch-hands, but town sheriff Ryan warns him against trying, and most of the locals would rather see the visiting lawman chased off or killed. The basic story is simple but the motivations are convoluted, and the film’s revisionism drains away the archetypal division between good and bad—Lancaster plays his anti-hero as a sour, obstinate man, as cold-hearted as he is single-minded, while Cobb’s imperial rancher is more reasonable and conflicted than imperial ranchers tend to be in the movies (or almost any character, really, when they’re played by Cobb). Made with sturdy care but unoriginal style by Winner—not exactly a veteran of the genre—and some of the more interesting characterizations aren’t enough to make us care about the outcome of the blunt but emotionally-remote showdown finale. Something of a fascinating failure, but a failure all the same. Wilford Brimley has a small part.

48/100