Hombre (1967)

Third viewing; previously viewed on August 16, 2002, and, before that, between January 1983 and December 1986.

Based on a novel which is itself a reworking of Stagecoach, also a novel adaptation, which in turn was a reworking of the short story Boule de suif, by Guy de Maupassant, first published in 1880.

A stagecoach with a motley assembly of passengers is held up. One of the passengers, a half-breed, saves the day.

Not as remarkable as I thought previously, but still an engaging, well-made Western, albeit with an unmistakeable undercurrent of white guilt-tripping. One of its themes, perhaps the main one, is how social prejudices crumble under situations of distress in which the social outcast's skills become an essential tool of survival for a group of people. The problem is that the situation here feels a little more contrived than the previous avatars of 1939 and 1880, and the main character is obviously only a conceptual entity devoid of psychological verisimilitude.

Rating: 64 (down from 82)