Hombre

Okay, I admit it. I love a great western movie. This is one of them. It fits neatly within my collection that includes "The 3:10 to Yuma," "The Wild Bunch" and my perhaps my all time favorite, "The Grey Fox."

One of the things I love about this film is its European-like pace. Certainly not in the Sergio Leoni context but rather more like "Manon of the Spring." And that suits me fine. Newman's first encounter with Richard Boone sends chills down the spine.

The liberal tone can seem a bit preachy yet, as a proud liberal myself, I like the message. Americans are not always at ease facing the truth about our government's role in the horrifice demise of Native American life and culture. So a dose of enlightenment works here.

And this film is about enlightenment as is "Little Big Man" and "Dances with Wolves." "Hombre" will remain a classic and kudos to Paul Newman for playing the role so beautifully as a not-particularly likeable character who still demands, and gets, a lot of respect as a human being.

This is one of if not Paul Newman's best performance. He cooly delivers numerous cynical one liners that are unforgettable. Several have been referenced by the other reviewers below. The acting of Frank Silvera as a Mexican bandit has not been mentioned by anyone else here and while he has a secondary role the scenes in which he is featured are some of the most memorable in the movie. He comes up the hill waving a white flag and he and Newman face off in an unforgettable sequence>when Silvera says "this Grimes -he thinks it is going to be easy" Newman responds "it's going to get harder"
Overall this is my favorite Western with great characters beautiful scenery and a tremendous screenplay.

Hombre isn't up the standards of Newman's best movies--The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But it is a pretty good movie. The characters border on stereotypical, the story is simple, and they don't touch too much on the prejudices of the times, but Newman puts in a good performance, making worthy of watching (for Newman fans). And the ending is particularly well done, and a bit unexpected. It's the ending that makes the movie worth the price.

As a dvd, Fox has created a failure. There are virtually no extras. There's a few behind the scenes stills and trailers for this movie, and a few of Newman's other films, but no commentary, documentary, or anything.

If you already have it on VHS, don't worry about buying the dvd. If you don't have it, rent it first, then decide if you want to buy it, and in what format.

This movie is a painful but beautiful slice of life.The phrase 'noblesse oblige' fits perfectly with the story.The noble permise of 'those with special gifts'should use them' fits perfectlly with John's character.His character seeks only confirmation that,in the context of this situation, another person is willing to give generously ie.possibly their life.In the end,as Malcolm pronounced on MacBeth's life 'nothing became him like the leaving of it'.

I am very surprised that "Hombre" is not available at major movie rental outlets or in DVD format. In my opinion, it is a masterpiece, the greatest western I've ever seen, and among the greatest films of any genre I've ever seen. I note, however, that AMC does feature this film from time to time, so somebody agrees with me somewhere.

The film is perfect; without a wasted word of dialogue, stunning cinematography, brilliant acting and perfect editing. It is full of irony and is absolutely unpredictable. It is near to poetry on film as can be. It brings to mind every study of philosophy and Human nature that one has undertaken from high school through college and beyond, while at the same time being entertaining, amusing and thrilling. I will never forget Paul Newman's "John Russell," or Richard Boone's "Cicero Grimes," the two opposing forces of this film, with the uniquely essential characters of "Mendez" (Martin Balsam), "the Mexican" et. al. in between. A truly great film, in the opinion of one who has been driven to write only one movie review in his entire life; this one.