Lawman

Plot synopsis:
The film starts with a scene common to many Westerns, cowboys in a drunken state shooting up a town and wreaking havoc. The rowdies are from the town of Sabbath and are visiting the town of Bannock for a little recreation that gets out of hand.
The town's marshal, Jared Maddox, rides into Sabbath and is not alone. He brings along the body of Marc Corman, one of the unruly cowhands from the recent drunken spree in Bannock, carrying it on the back of a horse. Corman and five others were involved in the accidental killing of an old man and Maddox has warrants for them. The remaining five are Vernon Adams, Choctaw Lee, Jack Dekker, Harvey Stenbaugh and Hurd Price, all hired hands at wealthy Vincent Bronson's ranch.
Maddox follows protocol and calls on Sabbath's sheriff, Cotton Ryan. He demands that the five surrender to him within 24 hours. Ryan is a lawman whose career had seen better days. He urges Maddox to avoid a confrontation with Bronson. Maddox won't back down, although he believes the suspects are likely to get light sentences due to the accidental nature of their crime and the fact that the justice system of Bannock can easily be influenced by bribes. Ryan goes to Bronson's ranch to inform him of Maddox's demands.
Bronson, unaware of the killing in Bannock up to this point, tries to negotiate by offering compensation to the victim's family and even to Maddox. Ryan explains that Maddox will not agree to anything other than an unconditional surrender of all five men. One of the suspects, Stenbaugh, who is Bronson's foreman, tries to persuade Bronson to have Maddox killed. Despite his violent past, Bronson is tired of death and violence and refuses Stenbaugh's suggestion, insisting on further negotiations.
Laura Shelby, a romantic interest from Maddox's past, tries to negotiate on behalf of Price, one of the suspects, who is now her common-law husband. Maddox is unmoved by Laura's pleas for mercy. Bronson gives up hope of reasoning with Maddox and asks his men if they wish to surrender. Adams refuses, claiming that he would go bankrupt if in jail. Retired gunfighter Choctaw volunteers to join forces with Stenbaugh in killing Maddox.
Bronson offers to compensate his men for any financial losses while at the same time trying to persuade Maddox that some compromise must exist short of total surrender. Stenbaugh and young Crowe Wheelwright come to town. Despite being told by Bronson to avoid confrontation, Stenbaugh draws out Maddox for a showdown and is killed. Crowe (who is not wanted by the law) backs down from Maddox after a brief discussion.
Back at the ranch, Bronson grieves upon hearing of his close friend Stenbaugh's death. He is comforted by son Jason. Maddox's breakfast is interrupted by local businessman Harris, leading a delegation of armed citizens concerned that the lawman is creating a lot of problems for them. Not a man to be intimidated, Maddox stands up to the townspeople and they flee the hotel.
Maddox goes to find sheriff Ryan but is confronted again by Crowe. A shot is fired by a hidden gunman, Dekker. A disgusted Ryan does place Dekker under arrest, calling him a "back-shooter," but advises Maddox to leave town as the violence seems to be spiraling out of control. Maddox reiterates his position that a lawman never compromises.
Price tries to leave town. Crowe meets with Maddox to swear that he did not set him up for Dekker's ambush. Maddox reveals his disillusionment with his job and admits that lawmen are little more than professional killers. Price, while fleeing, joins Adams on the ride to Bronson's ranch. On the way they spot Maddox. In the ensuing gunfight, Adams' horse is shot while Price escapes. The marshal captures Adams and takes him to Laura's home, where they tend to his gunshot wound.
During a romantic interlude, Maddox rekindles old feelings for Laura. He asks her to leave with him once his mission is done. She agrees under the condition that he resign as marshal.
Maddox turns over Adams to sheriff Ryan and announces his intent to leave town and start a new life. Bronson and his remaining men come looking for Maddox without realizing he is a changed man. They don't act immediately. When businessman Harris, who was waiting on the sidelines, opens fire at Maddox, the others follow suit. Choctaw draws on Maddox but is killed. Maddox insists that he seeks no further trouble. Bronson's son, Jason, is not satisfied and seeks revenge. He too, is killed by the marshal. Price panics. As he runs toward Laura, Maddox shoots him in the back, despite his code of never drawing first on a man. Seeing his son dead, a grief-stricken Bronson kills himself in the street. Maddox can do nothing more but ride by himself out of town.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
An eerily quiet early showdown scene with Burt Lancaster, Albert Salmi, and Richard Jordan (with Robert Ryan in the background) is probably the most creative and effective such scene I've ever witnessed, Leone notwithstanding.Then there's the acting.
Director Michael Winner is a controversial figure, at least in his native Britain, partly because of his political opinions, but chiefly on account of the `Death Wish' movies, which were widely seen as advocating wild-west style vigilante justice in a modern urban setting.
I was therefore interested to learn that, before making these films, Winner was also responsible for `Lawman', a traditional Western that takes a more subtle, nuanced view of law and order.Burt Lancaster plays Jered Maddox, the Sheriff of the small Western town of Bannock.
Lee J Cobb gives a poignant performance as Bronson; cattle bosses are usually shown as villainous figures in Westerns (Bruce Cabot's character in `Dodge City' being a classic example), but Bronson is a decent man, regarded as a generous benefactor by the people of Sabbath.
Robert Ryan is also good as Sheriff Ryan, a once-brave lawman whose character has been corrupted by years of compromise, as are Sheree North as Maddox's love interest and Richard Jordan as a young gunfighter out to make a name for himself.
This underrated 1971 western is not your standard issue good guys/bad guys John Wayne-type film; that style went out thanks to men like Peckinpah and Leone.
LAWMAN stars Burt Lancatser as a hard-bitten lawman who rides from Bannock to Sabbath to bring in a group of ranchers who, in a drunken spree, had shot up his town and killed an old man.
He states his goal to Sabbath's local marshal (Robert Ryan) as plain as day: "I'm gonna take these men back with me, or kill 'em where they stand."The problem is, however, that the "good people" of Sabbath are beholden to these same group of ranchers and their leader (Lee J.
The result is a somewhat violent but always compelling psychological western along the lines of HIGH NOON, well directed by future DEATH WISH director Michael Winner, perhaps his best film as a director.Lancaster is, as always, extremely good in his role as the stoic and unbending lawman, but so too is the often-underrated Ryan as Sabbath's aging and pragmatic marshal who, when he sees Lancaster being openly threatened, stops being a "kick dog" and starts being the kind of marshal the West still needs.
The cast is rounded out by such top-notch performers as Robert Duvall, Richard Jordan, Albert Salmi, J.D. Cannon, Lou Frizzell, and Joseph Wiseman.Except for an over-reliance on zooms, the cinematography by British cameraman Robert Paynter really captures the bleak scenery of the arid Southewest; the film was shot on location in and around Durango, Mexico during the summer of 1970.
Here is another great American Western that slipped under my radar.Where to start, Dircted by Michael Winner, starring Burt Lancaster in whats got to be the best Western I've seen him in so far, with Robert Ryan, Lee J.
All the whores are real looking women not caricatured or dressed overly flashy.The landscape & town sets were all shot in Durango, Mexico and some of the buttes featured were just beautiful, don't remember seeing these locations before but the rock in the outcrops look similar to those seen in the Magnificent Seven.The story basically revolves around Bannock Marshall Jared Maddox (Lancaster) a "mankiller" he has the nickname "The Widowmaker".
The drovers work for big time cattleman Vincent Bronson (Cobb) near the town of Sabbath, New Mexico.Maddox has a reputation for being quick on the draw, and always getting his man, we first see him riding into Sabbath with a corpse.
Bronson's men decide to tough it out and face Maddox.This film even has a love interest thats handled the just the way it should be in that it doesn't detract from or slow down the narrative one iota.The score is nothing that sticks in head and pretty forgettable, its not an Spaghetti Western , no picaresque characters or humor, but it does have some SW influenced action as do a lot of the post Leone & Peckinpah films of the 70's.The ending is worth the price of the DVD which I just ordered.
Michael Winner's "The Lawman" reveals that a sheriff - traditional officer responsible for law and order, symbol of virtue and right - is 'not' always morally excellent and virtuous or that his prey thoroughly bad...Burt Lancaster is cast as a merciless avenger, unmoved by love or pity, determined to one end: Exterminate the opposition...The criminals here are, in fact, some law breakers, drunken cowboys - who by bad luck - have killed an old man during a rough enthusiastic drinking bout...Lancaster - blind to his faults, unwilling to judge or to be less severe, and with no intention to arrest - hunts his prey down, one by one, until the last man...There is no poetic eloquence here, no tension as the two protagonists walk slowly towards their duel, no feeling that right is victorious, no good has conquered evil, no decisive clash to capture the audience's imagination...
When You Uphold the Law. Towards the end of Lawman, Burt Lancaster says that the towns are getting fewer and fewer who need his kind of services.
Music is by Jerry Fielding and cinematography by Robert Paynter.The Lawman of the title is Jared Maddox (Lancaster), who arrives in the town of Sabbath to serve warrants on the group of rowdies responsible for the death of an old man.
Can't change what you are, and if you try, something always calls you back.Traditional Western that deals in the conflict between law and justice, Lawman, like the leading man, broods significantly.
The excellent cast turn in equally great performances, the Durango locales are beautifully utilised by Winner and Paynter, and the production design is grade "A" quality.It's an anti-backlash movie of some substance, where spicy and thoughtful dialogue comes forth from the mouths of deftly shaded characters.
The notion that the community is best served by a rigid, inflexible determination to enforce the letter of the law under all circumstances is indeed the view espoused by the film's main character (played with consummate skill by Burt Lancaster) but the message of the film is surely to point out the limitations of such a view.Towards the end of the film the Marshall is offered another vision - of a life that contain more than the vendetta, the manhunt, and the inevitable killing that follows.
Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan vie for the acting honours in this gritty and violent story of a lawman who will let nothing stand in his way as he tries to bring to justice the killers of an innocent bystander in "his" town.
Solid and adult Michael Winner Western has Burt Lancaster as an implacable sheriff to bring back wanted men.
A hardened marshal called Bannock : Lancaster arrives in a wild and whooly town named Sabbath to look for some outlaws , but these work for the powerful owner Bronson: Lee J Cobb, then things go wrong .
As his unexperienced son : John Beck and his band of gunfighters : Robert Duvall, JD Cannon , Richard Jordan , William Watson set out in pursuit Bannock .Later on , Bannock seeking the help of a timid sheriff : Robert Ryan , but he rejects him .Thought-provoking and suspenseful Western about a two-fisted as well as stoic marshal who comes into unfamiliar little town .
The acting honors go to Robert Ryan as a shy , reluctant but honorable sheriff .Others costarring providing enjoyable interpretations are the followings : Robert Duvall , JD Cannon , Sheree North , Albert Salmi , John McGiver , Joseph Wiseman , Richard Jordan , Ralph Waite , John Beck ,Richard Bull, and John Hillerman .And veteran Lee J Cobb delivers one of his finest performances as a tough land baron who seeks vengeance .Thrilling and pulsating musical score by Jerry Fielding , Sam Peckinpah's regular .
And atmospheric and evocative cinematography by Robert Paynter , Winner's usual .This intriguing motion picture was compellingly directed by Michael Winner , though it has an unsatisfactory conclusion undermining otherwise splendid story .Winner was a prolific craftsman who made all kinds of genres as Terror : The nightcomers , Scream for help , The sentinel ; Costumers : The wicked lady ; Western : Chato the Apache with Charles Bronson ; Film Noir : The big sleep , but specially thrillers such as : Appointment with death , The Mechanic ,Firepower , The stone killer , being his greatest success the Death Wish series I , II , III starred by his fetish actor , Charles Bronson.
Eventually, he comes to grips with this notion, tries to ride out, but his mission catches up with him in the dusty street of Sabbath.The cast is a fairly good list of name players; Robert Ryan gives a good account as the marshal of Sabbath who wishes Lancaster to ease back, Lee J.
Richard Jordan appears as a hired hand of Cobb's ranch torn between his loyalty to his friends and what is right.A tough film that makes very little effort to compromise western law..
Robert Ryan, Lee J Cobb, Richard Jordon, Riobert Wiseman, Sheree North and Albert Salmi are all superb in supporting roles.When Lancaster was good a tough guy as he was here, he was better than Wayne or Douglas or many other Stars of his generation.
Burt Lancaster plays a sheriff named Maddox, who comes from his town of Brannock to the town of Sabbath in order to arrest some cattlemen responsible for the death of an old man, after their excessive celebration and shooting led to his death.
"Lawman" is a surprisingly bloody western with Lancaster well cast as a determined, hard-nosed sheriff who enforces the law without fear nor favour.
Lancaster negotiates with Cobb to bring those responsible to justice, but the clan's dismissive and arrogant treatment of authority soon leads to more bloodshed, and escalates into a campaign of retributions from which there are few survivors.Michael Winner brings his bleak, primitive characters into the western stage, performed by a cast shimmering with stars (Lancaster, Cobb and Ryan are standouts) and a diverse supporting cast (Jordan, Salmi and Beck are notable).
Although my father told me he had not liked it when it came out, I had been curious about a Western that boasted one of the greatest casts ever, especially in terms of supporting actors: Robert Ryan, Lee J.
However, subsequent viewings have added significantly to what I see as the film's merits in terms of construction, script, cinematography and further confirmed my initial perception that acting was of the highest order by everyone, even in very minor parts.Still, I have to agree with my father that the character played by Lancaster is both inflexible and contradictory, and his killing of the very man his love interest had asked him not to kill, with a shot in the back to boot, was unnecessarily mean.
Maddox (Lancaster) and Ryan (Ryan) know what killing is about: you may not be fastest on the draw, but your readiness to kill makes the difference.Although the point about Maddox's contradictions remains valid, I have come to view LAWMAN as a well crafted study of the law implemented to excess, however much the implementer supposedly sticks to the letter of that law.Michael Winner's direction is firm and succint.
Burt Lancaster plays a no nonsense lawman that is to bring to justice a group of cattle rustlers who by accident killed an old man on their drunken night where they shot up a town.
The town of Sabbath is where this plays out and Burt Lancaster gives a very tough and cold performance as lawman and killer Maddox.
Lee J Cobb is Bronson, a respected figure in the town of Sabbath and boss of the cowboys that Maddox is to bring to justice.(As well as the name of actor that director Michael Winner would work with a lot after this picture, Bronson...Charles Bronson) Robert Duvall gives a great early showing as well.
This movie reminds me a lot of movies such as 3:10 TO YUMA as well as LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL, in that the film concerns a lone lawman trying to battle the forces of a rich cattle baron to bring some men to justice.
Just like Glenn Ford and Kirk Douglas before him, Burt Lancaster is willing to stand up against all the forces trying to get him to give up and go home.In this case, Burt is a sheriff from another town where a group of men on a cattle drive shot up the town and accidentally killed an old insignificant man.
Burt Lancaster is terrific as stoic lawman Maddox from Bannock; arriving in the town of Sabbath in order to arrest seven local cowboys who accidentally killed an elderly villager during a drunken celebration.
Fact remains that Winner, at the relatively tender age of 35, competently directed a substantial western with a cast of highly respectable veteran actors including Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee Cobb, Robert Emhardt and Robert Duvall.
There is a great cast and the tableaux of the time is excellent.A must see for fans of the genre and is an overlooked and under-appreciated film that is both an icon of the modern Western while also being a throwback to the psychological, multi- layered style of post-modern 1950's movies like High Noon, The Searchers, The Tall T, and The Naked Spur, to name a few..
If you like Westerns, this is one of the best, only because of the great actors, especially, Burt Lancaster.
When drunken cowboys kill an old man while shooting up a town, unbending lawman Burt Lancaster follows the cattle drive to it's end, in order to round up the men responsible.
Cobb wants to buy him off, like he did town sheriff Robert Ryan, while Cobb's men and the rest of the crooked town have more direct ideas.Shot around the same time as director Michael Winner's Chato's Land (probably back-to-back) and Lancaster's Valdez Is Coming, this is cut from the same grim, hate-filled, violent cloth.
Like Winner's later (and more famous) Death Wish, it has a bit to say about the blurring of the line between justice and vengeance, law-and-order and chaos, getting away with it and punishment, with a bit of privilege versus principles thrown in for good measure.Lancaster is intense, but a bit one-note (like his character).
Although Lawman is, in many ways, a bland bloodbath, and there's more than enough plug-nickel psychology to go around, you can't help but begin to like what you're seeing.Burt Lancaster, one of the most overrated stars in the heavens, is the "lawman" who comes to Bent Armpit or Pig Wallow or whatever the name was for the town that's harboring a bunch of idiot cowhands who accidentally killed an old guy in Lancaster's burg some time before.
Tough Burt Lancaster (Marshal Maddox) goes behind a family who committed some disturbs in a neighbouring town and unintentionally killed an old man.
Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan head up an extraordinary cast in this solid western from screenwriter Gerald Wilson and producer-director Michael Winner.
LAWMAN is just another B western despite having a cast that includes Lancaster , Ryan and Duvall.
Lee J Cobb and Robert Ryan play characters who understand that the old way of doing things have passed by.
As Maddox started riding out of town, it was the town shopkeeper who was about to shoot him in the back, saved by friend Lucas (Joseph Wiseman) who had some history with the fabled lawman.The film offers intriguing performances by veterans Robert Ryan and Lee J.
Bannock Marshal Jared Maddox (Burt Lancaster) rides into the town of Sabbath with one of the men who participated in the shooting.
The cowboys have no knowledge of the accidental shooting until months later the marshal of bannock Jared Maddox excellently played by Burt Lancaster arrives in the town of Sabbath to arrest them.
Snakes and such and sometimes they can get pretty good with it, with enough practice, but a Lawman is a trained killer of men.This is explained in a scene between Burt Lancaster and in his first movie role Richard Jordon, a fine actor who left us too soon.
Several months later Jared Maddox(BURT LANCASTER),the marshal for Bannock, arrives in the town of Sabbath, which is owned and controlled by Bronson, intent on arresting Bronson and the men responsible for the incident.
The film is worth watching for the cast alone, a huge group of old-timers backed up by the fresh faces of Robert Duvall and Richard Jordan.Burt Lancaster is the ageing hero, tracking down a group of men who were responsible for the shooting of a townsman after a celebration that got out of hand.
The much anticipated ending came with an unexpected twist, leaving the audience to figure out the punchline of the movie.The aging cast of Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J.
The focal point is that of Lancaster's lawman character (who somewhat develops into the bad guy role), where he begins to doubt his unflinching methods ("No man needs killing")  but it's hard to break away from what he knows best and in the film's terrific climatic standoff; his true nature comes through as he knew of no other way of getting the job done.
It's the bad guys (Michael Winner, Robert Paynter and Jerry Fielding) vs the good guys (Burt Lancaster, Lee J.
Another Burt Lancaster Western where he puts in a good performance in a movie that largely misses the mark.Here's what I liked:Very nice use of ambiguity about who are really the good guys and the bad guys.
In 1971, this qualifies the movie as a "Vietnam" Western, although this is very oblique reference.Great performance by Lancaster at his minimalist best.Very good supporting cast with Robert Ryan, Robert Duval, Lee J.
Great actors: Burt is solid as man on a mission, Robert Ryan is always good.