[7]

Paul Newman reunites with director Martin Ritt (Hud, The Long Hot Summer) for this ensemble Western based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. It’s an Eastwoodesque performance from Newman, playing a reticent loner raised by Apaches who ends up having to protect a stagecoach crew that initially thumb their noses at him. I don’t think the ending was particularly well executed, but the characters are strongly written and played. Newman is good as always, but he’s upstaged by two mighty fine supporting turns from Diane Cilento and Richard Boone. With Fredric March and Martin Balsam.