Vera Cruz (1954)

I don't trust him. He likes people – and you can never count on a man like that.

Famous in many ways for being a "proto-Spaghetti Western", and highly rated among Spaghetti Western fans because of it, I recall not liking this very much on first viewing. On re-watching I enjoyed it a good deal more. Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster play two mercenaries who are travelling to Mexico with the aim of getting rich from the Mexican civil war. They are hired to escort a countess—and her wagon full of hidden gold—to the port of Vera Cruz. Along the way almost everyone double-crosses everyone else in an effort to get the money. Jack Elam and Ernest Borgnine have entertaining small roles as minor mercenaries. Charles Bronson has an even more minor, and hardly recognisable, role.

I'm not sure I entirely buy the argument that this is a direct link to the Spaghetti Westerns – the 10 year gap would seem to suggest otherwise, and it certainly didn't inspire a marked difference in tone from Hollywood Westerns. However, it clearly was a source of inspiration. It has many of the key features: the Mexican setting (civil war, not revolution though) with American adventurers; the amoral, mercenary heroes (complete with a sliding scale of amoral mercenariness); and the stylised final gunfight (although that certain wasn't it's invention).

In terms of quality, the story was excellent, with just the right amount of double-crossing to level you still able to follow it, and the differences between Lancaster's character (a truly self-serving bandit) with Cooper's (a former confederate who's after money but who does care about other people – see the quote at the start of the review) well delineated. I don't think it says anything deep about the plight of man though. The acting was also spot-on, I though. The directing was a bit showy at times (he seemed to have a fondness for looking through arches) without succeeding in being as stylish as, say, Sergio Leone. I also wasn't convinced the Mexican pickpocket/Juarista (Sara Montiel) are her relationship with Cooper's character really fitted in – everyone seemed unconvincingly accepting.

The picture quality in the TV version I saw was a bit fuzzy, so not fantastic, but certainly watchable. There seems to be a decent enough blu-ray version though, although the colours look a little muted in that.