Vera Cruz (1954), starring veteran cowboy, Gary Cooper, and young Burt Lancaster, receives no less than a seven star rating from most every critic, and many others rank it in the “superb” category. Frankly, I think they’ll all nuts! But, hang in there a moment while I first tell you a few good or interesting things about the film and a non-spoiler overview of the plot.
First, it’s a historically significant film; Twentieth Century Fox owned the rights to CinemaScope, the first wide-screen format, so United Artists decided not to fork over the cash to buy this technology and, instead, put SuperScope on its maiden voyage. It is said that this film is the best example of SuperScope at its best, which is not saying very much, since this technology did not last long (though it did spur other, better wide-screen technology). The vistas shot, using SuperScope, such as the Mexican Pyramids, are VERY pleasing to the eye.
Next, the movie is remarkably fast-paced and, therefore, probably a must see for film school students. The average shot length is an amazingly short, five seconds. That equates to over 1100 film edits! You’re eyes will get a work out here and the fast pace makes up for some of the places where there is either too much talking or boring dance scenes.
Next come some outstanding performances. Gary Cooper, the consummate good guy character is his usual, dependable, likeable self. Though Clark Gable advised him not to take the role, for fear that Coop would be upstaged by the young Lancaster, it doesn’t take long to see that Gable’s worries were unfounded; Coop’s stoic style and character blows the relatively new Lancaster off the screen, scene after scene, and as I’ll show you later, Lancaster’s own attempts to steal the screen are probably one of the biggest reasons that Cooper commands the audience. Also giving an outstanding performance is Ernest Borgnine, playing one of Lancaster’s lackeys. Borgnine, known for his rage-faced bad guy emotion on camera, is most believable when he smashes a glass bottle and prepares to gut Ben Trane (Cooper) like a fish…and that grill of his; I wouldn’t want to have been one of Borgnine’s kids when he was mad after being woken on a Sunday morning. Aside from these two actors, Charles Bronson and Jack Elam put in solid performances.
Now to the scenes worth mentioning.
You’ve got a lame horse in the beginning of the film; I’d like to know what they did to that horse to get him to do that weird walk; I’ve never seen another film get such a performance out of a beast. Short but well done.
Jumping over the precipitous ledge, onto the other ledge, was a great and exciting piece of film to see, as well as the stunning spin-and-shoot-behind-the-back gun slinging of Lancaster.
The beginning dialogue, between Cooper and Lancaster, is excellent and should be studied, but then the screen writer must have popped some pills and mentally checked out after fifteen pages, because the dialogue never matches its beginnings.
There is an exciting and splendidly captured ambush and wagon chase scene, one of the best I’ve seen from this genre. There is this great stone bridge shot worthy of being called “eye candy,” and Bronson’s rape attempt sequence does put you on the edge of your seat for a VERY brief but worthwhile moment.
Probably my favorite moment in this film is the marksmanship scene. If you see no other part of this film, fast-forward to this scene. You’ll be able to tell the scene while speeding, at 16x light speed, because it is a longer scene. Be prepared to laugh out loud!
All right, enough of the good stuff, here comes the bad…
5 Reasons Vera Cruz is Sup Par
1. Burt Lancaster’s Affect. His trade-mark smile just makes him look like the village idiot mugging for Mr. DeMille! I mean, come on, Burt, knock it off; we all know you love yourself at this point; we all know you want to make an impression on the silver screen. But you’re constant mugging just proves what we know and that is you are intimidated by your fellow actor, Gary Cooper, and that’s as it should be!
2. Burt Lancaster’s Over-Acting. He moves around the scenes with his arms out, as if he’s going to suddenly draw, but there’s nobody around him to draw upon. He moves his arms in anything else he can get to move when he is onscreen with others, especially Cooper; that’s the oldest actor’s trick in the book. He is way to animated and punctuated when he eats chickens, which he does alot, in an obvious attempt to show us that his character is barbarian-like. He drinks like a drunk, when it is clear that his character is sober. And on and on and on. If you find more examples of his over-acting in this film email me; I’m making a list.
3. Implausible Situations and Scenarios. Our two boys are surrounded by hundreds of men, inside a fort courtyard, yet the leading general enemy, standing a mere three feet away, allows some of Erin’s (Lancaster) lackeys, who are standing far away from a group of children, to walk over, after announcing they are walking over, and kidnap the children! Didn’t any of the hundreds of men surrounding all four walls of the fort, rifles pointed down at the kidnappers, not know how to say, “Hey, don’t you guys walk slowly and deliberately across the courtyard toward our children!” No wonder the Mexican government felt as though the studio made Mexicans look stupid! Then there’s the unbelievable scene in which the enemy general has a guitar player at his side during the major confrontation, involving guns and killing (two dead upon the ground) and the general has him play a slow number. We all know that the only reason for this is so we, the audience, have something to listen to while the camera pans over the entire fort wall. You can’t do a long, boring pan shot without music, I guess. And get a load of all the riflemen on the walls! That’s ridiculous! The director, Robert Aldrich, must have been smoking something that day, or maybe he took a few of the screen writer’s pills. One implausible situation after another. Again, write me an email when you find more, for there are many. Maybe you’ll give me one I’ve not yet recorded and didn’t have room to include here.
4. Too Much Back-and-Forth Plot. I’ll just say it this, for heaven’s sake, please trust somebody and stick with ‘em! Trying to keep the audience off guard and confused isn’t going to work here, unless you are a New York “Find-the-Lady” hustler. We get it already, guys; everybody trusts nobody. Now move along with the movie!
5. Predictable. If you don’t know who dies and what happens, at least thirty minutes prior to the end of the film, you’re probably an idiot and will thoroughly enjoy this film!