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. Cobb), and are openly hostile to Lancaster for the most part. Lancaster, of course, is unperturbed by the hostility, dedicated as he is to finishing his job one way or another. 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. Cobb is sympathetic as the leader of the ranchers. 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. Jerry Fielding's score (as conducted by David Whittaker) adds to this film's starkness and occasional violence, and is sometimes influenced by jazz and even a bit of Aaron Copland in one sequence.
LAWMAN is for those western fans with a taste for suspense and psychological tension, and remains impressive to this day.
The problem is, however, that the "good people" of Sabbath are beholden to these same group of ranchers and their leader (Lee J. Cobb), and are openly hostile to Lancaster for the most part. Lancaster, of course, is unperturbed by the hostility, dedicated as he is to finishing his job one way or another. 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. Cobb is sympathetic as the leader of the ranchers. 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. Jerry Fielding's score (as conducted by David Whittaker) adds to this film's starkness and occasional violence, and is sometimes influenced by jazz and even a bit of Aaron Copland in one sequence.
LAWMAN is for those western fans with a taste for suspense and psychological tension, and remains impressive to this day.