A Gunfight (1971)

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The movie does well, but not for his direction, script, photography or even wardrobe, which are acceptable. The line that separates this movie from the classic battered western movie is its peculiar choice of actors. Starring Johnny Cash and Kirk Duglas, the plot is based on the expectation of the town folk for knowing who of the two is the best gunman, when Abe Cross arrives at the town where Will Tenneray is trying to set a quiet life for himself. All in all, it's one of those acceptable movies, except in this case there are two iconic American characters.

A Gunfight is directed by Lamont Johnson and written by Harold Jack Bloom. It stars Kirk Douglas, Johnny Cash, Jane Alexander, Karen Black and Raf Vallone. Music is by Laurence Rosenthal and cinematography by David Walsh. Will Tenneray (Douglas) and Abe Cross (Cash) are two ageing gunfighters who after meeting each other in town hit it of straight away and actually like and respect each other. However, with both men in need of money and the whole town intrigued as to who would win in a gunfight between them, Tenneray hits upon the idea of the two of them having the gunfight and selling tickets to the event, with the winner receiving the ticket proceeds… It was the first mainstream American film to be financed by American Indians—the Jicarilla Apaches—but this in now way was a propaganda move since the narrative has nothing to do with Native Americans. It's a most unusual Western in a lot of ways, off beat and deliberately played for fun at times, yet it pulses with dark thematics involving the human condition. Stripped bare is the fickle value of celebrity status, deftly cloaked with the ignorant blood-lust of a paying public. Director Johnson keeps the pacing smooth as we get to know both men and watch their relationship unfold. All the while we are getting a grasp on the townsfolk in general, while the two ladies of the men's world are impacting greatly due to the sensitive screenplay. All roads lead to the ironic venue of a bullfighting arena across the border, where a full house of paying patrons come to see one of the men die. Whoever that is doesn't really matter, the caustic insertion of a dream sequence at film's end leaves us in no doubt that the winner really hasn't won at all. With great performances from Douglas and Alexander, and good ones from Cash and Black, film also holds up well on the acting front. But the real stars here are Johnson and Bloom, for they have produced a clever picture that doesn't over reach itself by trying to be cerebral. It deserves to be better known and appraised. 7.5/10

I picked this up as a part of a set of dozen DVDs worth of westerns. I like westerns and I figured these would be good enough entertainment and wouldn't force me to use my brain after I get home from work.This was the first one of the movies I decided to watch, probably because I was intrigued by seeing Cash in a western. I knew he did some acting, but I had never seen any of his acting work before. I did notice that a clip from the movie made its way into Cash's video for "Hurt".I guess this was sort of typical for a movie from the revisionist era of westerns. It explores the themes of becoming old and the world you knew is dying around you. Granted, its no Wild Bunch or Unforgiven, but in its own way it is good. Not much action, which probably lost the movie a good share of its audience, but this isn't that kind of movie. These are men who are past their need for quick adrenaline fixes.The film puts much focus on the blood thirst of the townsfolk, which is in its way also a comment on the audience. The cruelty of the whole setup becomes quite poignant at the bull fight. The images of the bull being killed and afterwards slaughtered were a nice reminder of what the people were truly after.The ending isn't a real double ending. The part in which Tenneray actually won the duel, was just a fantasy by Cross. The idea was to show that even if it had ended differently, things wouldn't have been better for the Tenneray family.Also, any fan of the genre can appreciate the man in black actually winning the final duel. It goes against all the rules of western. Personally, I love it.However, mostly the film was fairly boring, straightforward and predictable. It wasn't the mind-numbing stuff I was looking for, but it wasn't the great artistic movie experience I look for when I'm not totally tired by work either. It falls somewhere between. I was hovering somewhere between 7 and 8, but in the end it rounded down to 7. Still worth watching, but not worth going through any trouble to see it.

The Western showdown is a duel, a matching of gunplay skills in which the faster, more professional gunman wins... The logical extension of the show is without doubt a gladiatorial Roman circus combat between two fighters and such is the elemental structure of Lamont Johnson's film...Kirk Douglas is a retired gunman sick enough of his life, and Johnny Cash is a weary gunslinger who knows that even if he wins, he will eventually lose... Both are famous, veteran gunfighters who provide their talent as the quick and the fast... The auditorium chosen is a bullfight ring...Whether the two men are considered as gladiators or bullfighters, the film deplorably smashes the traditional conception of the showdown, twisting it from a clash between good and bad into a show of a very poor quality...The situation exposed is certainly ambiguous, implausible and anti-climactic against popular blood lust...The film captures the viewer with a double-ended showdown... One with Douglas as the winner, and the other with Cash...Our feeling is that the strands of myth and honest re-creation which connect the American Western to the real American West are being cut by those whose roots are far removed from the actual frontier... To the Western purist, such tendency can only be seen with alarm... The screen showdown has been undermined and ruined... There are no white hats and black villainy anymore...