Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

tieman64 Today, Elmore Leonard is primarily known for his crime fiction. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, though, he spawned a number of Westerns, most notably "3:10 to Yuma", "Joe Kidd", "Valdez is Coming" and Martin Ritt's "Hombre", the best of the bunch.Directed by Edwin Sherin, and set in post-Civil War Arizona, "Valdez is Coming" stars Burt Lancaster as Bob Valdez, a Mexican-American constable. When Valdez is manipulated into killing a black, ex slave, he rightfully holds cattle baron Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher) responsible. Valdez orders Tanner to pay the deceased man's wife one hundred dollars compensation. Tanner refuses."Valdez is Coming's" middle section unfolds like a conventional revenge-western. Tanner repeatedly beats and humiliates Valdez, who subsequently fights back. The film then climaxes with a brilliant sequence in which Tanner and Valdez face-off in the desert. "Pay the hundred dollars," Valdez reiterates simply, the line encapsulating the absurdity of both the film's plot and the sheer stubbornness of Tanner, a man whose pettiness, selfishness and cruelty Valdez's lofty principles have exposed. The "last act gunfight" has long been a cliché in Westerns. In "Valdez is Coming", though, director Edwin Sherin abruptly ends his film before the requisite showdown begins. It's an effective move; Valdez's final monetary request is the showdown's first bullet, the look on Tanner's face makes it clear that Valdez's principles have hit their target, and Sherin's abrupt conclusion forces we the audience to contemplate the pettiness of frontier justice, vengeful gratification, pride and even human egos.Unsurprisingly for a western released in the 1970s, "Valdez is Coming" is preoccupied with abuses directed against minorities. Women, Apaches, blacks, Mexicans and "half-breeds" are all the victims of cruel, white, land-owners, and Tanner's refusal to pay is always linked to his covert bigotry; Mexicans, Natives and Blacks simply don't matter. Valdez wants to make them matter.Lancaster made a number of covertly political films in the 1960s and 70s. "Valdez is Coming" isn't as good as these. It's too conventional, aesthetically plain and Lancaster looks a bit ridiculous in brown face paint. Still, it opens and closes with a pair of powerful sequences and Lancaster imbues his character with an infectious mixture of grime and grace.What really elevates the film, though, is Elmore Leonard's prose. Spare, direct and pulpy, Leonard skewers the tropes upon which "Wild West" mythology once hinged. Instead of a celebration of white masculinity, individualism and The Law, Leonard posits a brown man as the hero. More than this, Valdez becomes an almost divine figure. Granted a Christ-like resurrection (in one of the film's more hokey scenes), he becomes nothing less than a leader of the downtrodden.7/10 – See "Hombre" and "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean".

leoperu God knows what made the Broadway actor/director Edwin Sherin shoot this modest revenge western which I enjoyed immensely as a boy, next to George Roy Hill's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", Martin Ritt's "Hombre" and Sydney Pollack's "Jeremiah Johnson". All four have more things in common than solely the title heroes' sky-blue eyes ; I would like to mention only what impressed me most (and still does), i.e., the final shot belonging in the gallery of the most memorable ones in the history of western."Valdez Is Coming" is schematic and not very believable, but it has its strengths, too : for instance some fine laconic dialogue in the vein of "The Magnificent Seven", or mostly fine actors with Lancaster in the lead. (It may be a personal prejudice, but I always found the old circus artiste more convincing in roles like this one than in those in Visconti's frescoes.) I enjoyed especially Barton Heyman as charismatic El Segundo, despite the reservations of colleague R.J.Maxwell (which sound justified to me).Remarkable is the participation of the veteran Hungarian cinematographer Gábor Pogány ; his camera-work here is nothing like as spectacular as in, let's say, "Il Cristo proibito", yet there are moments when the viewer's eye rejoices, even given the mediocre non-anamorphic transfer of the MGM's PAL disc.

Claudio Carvalho While traveling protecting a stagecoach back to his town, the middle-aged Mexican-American Constable Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster) witnesses a group of locals shooting on a cabin where a black man is trapped with his Indian pregnant wife, accused by the powerful Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher) of being the killer of the local Jim Erin. Valdez decides to talk to the man, and when he opens the door, the henchman R.L. Davis (Richard Jordan) shoots; the man believes it is a setup and shoots on Valdez, forcing the peace officer to kill him. Sooner they find that the victim was innocent and Valdez asks for one hundred dollars to Tanner to give to the widow. However, he is humiliated and nailed to a cross by Tanner's henchmen and sent back to the desert. He is miraculous saved by his Mexican friend Luis Diego (Frank Silvera) but recovers his health. Valdez retrieves his outfits and weapons from the time he was a professional shooter killing Apaches for the U.S. Cavalry and rides to Tanner's land. He hits one of his henchmen (Hector Elizondo) and sends him back to Tanner's farm with the advice that "Valdez is coming"."Valdez Is Coming" is an overrated western, with a good story of guilt and revenge, supported by magnificent performances. Unfortunately the last fifteen minutes and the open conclusion are absolutely disappointing, specially considering that R.L. Davis and El Segundo have burnt Luis Diego's house and hands and abused of his daughter. The make-up of American actors with blue eyes to become a cliché of Mexican people is quite ridiculous. The disrespect with the Catholic religion is quite out of the context of the plot. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Retorno de Valdez" ("The Return of Valdez")

mjhalta I have watched this movie many times and enjoy it very much. It has great action, good acting, a superb plot, and a satisfying ending. Burt Lancaster is fantastic and show's why he is and was a superstar. This western is gritty, tough, bloody, and believable. Some movies should only be seen once, some such as this one, many times. This is not a spaghetti western!!! I think that spaghetti westerns have been way overrated. This western surpasses most if not all of the spaghetti's. Why you ask! I think Spaghetti westerns lack believability, you know the good guy is never gonna die, while in this show the good guy takes a beating and loses at the end but wins as well. Great unexpected ending!