This is a great movie. Unfortunately, it's almost 70 years old, and that means fewer and fewer people will get to see it. Vera Cruz has everything a good, solid, and edgy movie should. The two male leads are poles apart. There's a pretty girl, a corrupt emperor, a dandy, a "crapton" of gold, a gang of cutthroats, and some fine exteriors.
On top of that, you don't know for sure if you can trust the good-good guy, and you know you can't trust the bad-good guy.
Aldrich has crafted a ripsnortin' adventure, and even though Burt Lancaster steals the show, Gary Cooper is the guy who will force him to give it back.
The only other movies I have seen that were as pure in entertainment were Rio Bravo, the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and Five Card Stud. I think it says something for westerns that three quarters of the movies I have mentioned in this review were oaters.
Finally, at the end of the movie, I looked up when the film was made, and I was startled that it was produced in 1954. The film is edgy because nobody's pure, no immaculate white hat anywhere to be seen. By the end of the 1950s, Hollywood was experimenting with how much studios could get away with and still receive a Production Code seal of approval. Think of Anatomy of a Murder and Psycho. How they got made is beyond me. That is, if they had been made five years earlier.
Vera Cruz is somewhat morally ambiguous. Gary Cooper is a mercenary, and his character isn't quite as squeaky as we would expect. Just look at his eyes when he and Lancaster are setting up the details to take a countess from Mexico City to Vera Cruz.
He may be a good guy, but he's workin' the angles, folks!
So, with all that said, it would behoove you to convince a young un' to sit down to enjoy a flesh and blood western adventure. Maybe give the kid 15 minutes--just think of the concept of "courtesy bites."
Maybe you'll get lucky, and he or she will not complain when the hook sinks in.
On top of that, you don't know for sure if you can trust the good-good guy, and you know you can't trust the bad-good guy.
Aldrich has crafted a ripsnortin' adventure, and even though Burt Lancaster steals the show, Gary Cooper is the guy who will force him to give it back.
The only other movies I have seen that were as pure in entertainment were Rio Bravo, the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and Five Card Stud. I think it says something for westerns that three quarters of the movies I have mentioned in this review were oaters.
Finally, at the end of the movie, I looked up when the film was made, and I was startled that it was produced in 1954. The film is edgy because nobody's pure, no immaculate white hat anywhere to be seen. By the end of the 1950s, Hollywood was experimenting with how much studios could get away with and still receive a Production Code seal of approval. Think of Anatomy of a Murder and Psycho. How they got made is beyond me. That is, if they had been made five years earlier.
Vera Cruz is somewhat morally ambiguous. Gary Cooper is a mercenary, and his character isn't quite as squeaky as we would expect. Just look at his eyes when he and Lancaster are setting up the details to take a countess from Mexico City to Vera Cruz.
He may be a good guy, but he's workin' the angles, folks!
So, with all that said, it would behoove you to convince a young un' to sit down to enjoy a flesh and blood western adventure. Maybe give the kid 15 minutes--just think of the concept of "courtesy bites."
Maybe you'll get lucky, and he or she will not complain when the hook sinks in.