Hombre | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Martin Ritt |
Produced by | Irving Ravetch Martin Ritt |
Screenplay by | Irving Ravetch Harriet Frank Jr. |
Based on |
The novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard |
Starring |
Paul Newman Fredric March Richard Boone |
Music by | David Rose |
Cinematography | James Wong Howe |
Edited by | Frank Bracht |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date
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Running time
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111 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $5,860,000 |
Box office | $12,000,000 |
Hombre is a 1967 revisionist western film directed by Martin Ritt, based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard and starring Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, Martin Balsam, and Diane Cilento.
Newman's amount of dialogue in the film is minimal and much of the role is conveyed through mannerism and action. This was the sixth and final time Ritt directed Newman; they had previously worked together on The Long Hot Summer, Paris Blues, Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man, Hud and The Outrage.
In late 19th-century Arizona, an Apache-raised white man, John Russell, faces prejudice in the white world after he returns for his inheritance (a gold watch and a boarding house) upon his father's death. Deciding to sell the house in order to buy a herd of horses—which does not endear him to the boarders who live there or to the caretaker, Jessie—Russell ends up riding a stagecoach with Jessie and unhappily married boarders Doris and Billy Lee Blake leaving town.
Three others ride with them: Indian agent Professor Alexander Favor, his aristocratic wife Audra and the crude Cicero Grimes. Upon discovering that John Russell is of Apache background, Professor Favor requests that Russell ride up top with driver Henry Mendez. The stagecoach is robbed by a gang led by Grimes, who knew that Dr. Favor had been carrying money that he stole from the very Apaches whom Russell grew up with. Grimes rides off, taking Mrs. Favor as a hostage. Russell shoots two of the outlaws—one of whom is Jessie's former lover, sheriff-gone-bad Frank—who have the stolen money in their saddle bags. He insists that Dr. Favor give the recovered money to him. The bigots he rode with now appeal to Russell to lead them to safety. After Russell scouts ahead, Dr. Favor disarms Mendez. Russell returns as Favor is about to leave with the money and supplies; Russell banishes him from the group.