User Reviews

Richard Boone is the title character in this weak entry in the cowboys and nuns/missionaries genre that includes "Two Mules for Sister Sara" and "Rooster Cogburn." Sister Mary (Leslie Caron), survives an Apache massacre. She buries her dead friends, and continues on her journey through the desert to Santa Fe. The viewer is then assaulted by a dinky love ballad that has absolutely no purpose in this film other than to get nominated for an Oscar. Madron (Richard Boone) comes along and agrees to help Sister Mary to Santa Fe for no reason. They are shadowed by both a gang of outlaws, and the murderous Apache warriors. In the spirit of most modern westerns, the outlaws threaten to assault Sister Mary but Madron kills them all except Angel (Gabi Amrani), who is taken along for the ride so he won't tell everyone about the nun and the tough gunfighter. Angel leaves the duo to outsmart the Apache, who watch Madron pretend to kill Sister Mary, bury her, then fight it out with their leader, Sam Red (Haim Banai). Keeping with modern Hollywood's skewed version of life, the nun and Madron fall in love. Remember, all priests and nuns are either a target for ridicule, assault children, battle Satan, or need a good roll in the hay to loosen them up. Sister Mary is ashamed at her, uh, denunning, and Madron finds religion too.

This western was shot in Israel, and poor Leslie Caron looks appropriately exhausted in her full nun's habit. She and Boone, two opposite actors if there ever was, have a nice chemistry together. Boone is always good in these types of roles, his last role in "The Bushido Blade" was embarrassingly bad, but a scoundrel gunfighter is right up his alley. His motivation for wandering in the desert and discovering Sister Mary is not known, and any quasi-spiritualism attempted by the film makers is badly done. Jerry Hopper's direction is awful, his camera seems to run as the actors are rehearsing where they are supposed to stand for the real takes. Nonsensical scenes are tossed in to cover mistakes in editing, and there are several. Watch when Madron draws on Angel, his pistol jumps from his left to his right hand, then back again. The scant plot summary is necessary because the plot is scant. Not much happens, mostly Sister Mary and Madron ride around in the desert and argue cute. "Madron" came out in 1970, which marks the beginning of the end of the mainstream Hollywood western. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was successful, and Clint Eastwood worked for the genre through "Unforgiven", but when junk like this comes out, is it any wonder the western has been relegated to basic cable television and streaming premieres? "Madron" is a vast disappointment.

I grew up watching westerns. I'm an American now living in the UK just to explain. I caught this film one lazy afternoon and was chuffed to see craggy ole Richard Boone with the lovely Lesley Caron.

Its the little bits that made this film interesting. Instead of just grabbing the hot coffee pot they use something to protect their hand. He gives her the definition of 'yonder'.

The ending song is a bit cheesy OK, its dreadful, but the hero dies and the female hero rides off into the sunset. An interesting twist on the typical rough guy falling in love with an unsuitable woman, who is usually the one to die. You know, mythic hero's true love must die to keep him on his journey blahblahblah.

A enjoyable little B Western.

I watched this film because I am a Richard Boone fan. Firstly let me say, he does a tremendous job in this movie. All the actors do a very good job. The story starts off very well, and then it loses direction. It just kinda of seems like they didn't know what to write. They had a great beginning it kinda gets lost, then they have an absolute downer of an ending. Witch also is a problem cause the first part of the movie had a bunch of humor I was in stitches after the the initial attack when the main characters meet it gets pretty humorous. So it keeps that tone until the end where it gets real dark real quick. It just didn't make a lot of sense tone wise. Overall though there are some very good performances and if your willing to deal with the problems it has some genuinely good moments.

This film has an interesting background. It's the first filmed in Israel that was meant to be set elsewhere; i.e. the American West. Richard Boone was hoping to help the infant Israeli film industry with its birthing pains.

Each day of filming was beset with financial woes. At the end of every day Richard Boone, who was involved with production, had a meeting with the financiers. Somehow they managed to find enough money to complete the film. It holds together.

The script wasn't that great but Leslie Caron and Boone gave their best performances. The romance between the nun and the gunslinger made sense within the context of the story. It was refreshing to see Boone play a not-so-bad guy once more. The death of the hero rather than the heroine makes for an unexpected and poignant ending.

A word: Use caution if you're disturbed by graphic violence. In the theater version a man was emasculated in graphic and bloody detail. This scene has been edited from most versions of the film.

If you get a chance to see MADRON, don't pass it by. It's worthwhile for Richard Boone and Leslie Caron. They were brilliant.