Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Hombre Blu-ray Movie Review

Stagecoach.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 22, 2015

People who grew up in (relatively) rural situations are probably familiar with the 4-H Club, the so-called “youth development” organization which focuses on head, heart, hands and health (hence its quadrilateral title). Urban folks need not lament, though, for if they were around in the 1960s and attending movies with any degree of regularity, they may in fact have become members of another 4-H Club of sorts, this one comprised of films starring Paul Newman. (The) Hustler, Hud, Harper and Hombre each helped to cement Newman’s status as one of the decade’s most commanding and dependable leading man presences. (“H” titles continued to crop up throughout Newman’s long and vaunted career, including such efforts as Harry & Son and (The) Hudsucker Proxy. A case might also be made for both Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man, which utilized the famous author’s moniker as part of its title, and The Secret War of Harry Frigg, since Newman does in fact play another Harry in the film.) Hombre and Hud (and in fact Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man) shared not just Newman’s star power (or in the case of the Hemingway film, co-star power), but the directing finesse of Martin Ritt. Ritt had directed Newman to his first Academy Award nomination in 1958 for The Long, Hot Summer, continuing to work with the iconic actor in such other outings as the underappreciated Paris Blues and interesting The Outrage, a reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s legendary Rashômon reset in the American Southwest of the 19th century. Revisionist Westerns were something of a cinematic rage in the 1960s, and Hombre is one of several efforts which sought to recast well worn tropes of “cowboys versus Indians” in a somewhat more realistic, well balanced light.

Hombre is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard (3:10 to Yuma, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty), though the source novel may not be as familiar a referent as two other films Hombre seems to have taken a page from, The Searchers and the somewhat related The Unforgiven. As in both of those then relatively recent efforts, Hombre depicts a “gray area” of cultural and societal identity in its depiction of a genetically white man who has had considerable Apache influence, making him almost a Native American by default. Since there’s no “secret” as in The Unforgiven or indeed no “quest” as in The Searchers, that leaves ample room in the adapted screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. to explore issues of bigotry and shifting allegiances, as John Russell (Paul Newman) attempts to navigate between two completely different worlds, probably never feeling completely at home in either of them.

Hombre is fairly laconic in its presentation, as Russell decides to temporarily forsake his Apache tribe when a (white) relative leaves him a modest inheritance. Rather interestingly, the film isn’t that interested in exploring any kind of backstory for Russell, never detailing things the way they are (eventually) in The Unforgiven, and instead being content to plop this cultural hybrid down in media res, as it were, watching him navigate a treacherous course where he isn’t fully trusted by white society. An early showdown with some white bullies (including David Canary) harassing some Indians doesn’t leave much question as to where Russell’s true sympathies reside, however, something that may further alienate him from whites.

The major plot mechanics of Hombre actually kick in once Russell is on a stagecoach with a gaggle of other characters. These include Jessie (Diane Cilento), a resident landlady at the property Russell inherits; two well to do passers through, Alex (Frederic March) and Audra Favor (Barbara Rush); dysfuntional newlyweds Billy Lee (Peter Lazer) and Doris Blake (Margaret Blye); and blustery interloper Cicero Grimes (Richard Boone). (According to the commentary included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, Leonard's original novel was told from the first person point of view of Billy Lee Blake, though the character evidently had a different name in the book.) Almost immediately Russell’s “indeterminate” cultural/ethnic heritage becomes a bone of contention, forcing Russell to ride “up top” with the driver, Russell’s Mexican friend Henry Mendez (Martin Balsam). When some bad guys show up to rob the stagecoach (or specifically one character), with some “inside” involvement, that propels the film into its final act, where Russell, once scorned for not being “really” white, is now looked on as the characters’ only hope for survival out in the unpredictable and dangerous landscape.

Hombre manages to be surprisingly literate (considering the fact that Russell is about as talkative as Clint Eastwood typically is in a Leone film) while also avoiding an overly cartoonish ambience despite the at times hyperbolic behaviors of Alex Favor and (especially) Cicero Grimes. For an outing trafficking in supposed gray areas (at least with regard to Russell's "identity crisis"), the film perhaps offers a glut of too obvious moral “black and white” issues that are offered in a fairly on the nose fashion. This is especally true with regard to Favor, who for example isn’t just a boorish thief of Apache gold, he’s an increasingly disheveled bigot as well. But Hombre ultimately delivers an unusually powerful and nuanced depiction of some desperate characters unraveling, with perhaps only their preconceptions about each other ironically keeping them at least partially knit together.

Hombre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hombre is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1 (as the commentary mentions, this was one of the first Fox films to opt for Panavision instead of CinemaScope). The film was lensed by the legendary James Wong Howe, who is perhaps better remembered for some of his incredible black and white cinematography (Seconds), but who proves here that he was certainly no slouch with regard to working in color. Ritt and Howe are somewhat less concerned with the landscapes and more with the characters who pass through them, and so the film has a somewhat different emphasis than, say, a John Ford western. While Hombre does offer an at times John Fordian sweep of wide open spaces, it often instead favors long studies of faces and reactions. Detail and fine detail in these shots is excellent, offering clear, precise views of Newman's famously blue eyes or the crags in March's face. When we do get shots of the great outdoors, detail on busy elements like scrub or leaves resolve without issue and depth of field is generous. Colors are beautifully suffused and accurate looking, though I did feel things tipped ever so slightly toward the brown end of things on occasion (something that might be exacerbated by the film's emphasis on a ruddy sienna tinged ambience). Occasional moments are slightly soft looking (see screenshot 12), but sharpness and clarity are generally superb. Grain is very natural looking and resolves perfectly, and there are no compression artifacts of any note.

Hombre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hombre features a full bodied sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which capably supports the film's dialogue, as well as effects like horse hooves or the trundling sound of the stagecoach, along with more bombastic effects like gunshots. David Rose's elegiac score is also very well rendered on this problem free track. Fidelity and prioritization are both fine and dynamic range is reasonably wide.

Hombre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Theatrical Trailer (480i; 2:21)


• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono.


• Audio Commentary features Lee Pfeiffer and Paul Scrabo.

Hombre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hombre is occasionally just a bit too pat in its formulations, but it's ultimately such a thoughtful, nuanced and, yes, scenic enterprise that it's hard not to be won over by its gritty determination. Newman brings a steely (and incredibly blue) eyed stalwart calmness to the title role, and the supporting cast offers great turns by March, Cilento, Balsam and Barbara Rush in what may what be her finest film performance (and, yes, I'm including Can't Stop the Music). Technical merits are excellent, the commentary is very enjoyable and Hombre comes Highly recommended.