Director Alan J. Pakula and cinematographer Gordon Willis, masters at capturing urban paranoia, give this post-WWII western a lachrymose solemnity; while both men may have been quite taken with the western clichés that litter Dennis Lynton Clark's screenplay, they keep the mood so sorrowful that the characters never quite emerge. Indeed, Clark's script seems to begin after the central drama has already been played out. Land baron Jason Robards, embittered by the death of his son and holding a decades-long grudge against rancher Jane Fonda, is in unhappy cahoots with oil drillers, and all want Fonda off her land so they can start getting rich. The picture is sleepy-slow and only half-realized, with Pakula's lofty ambitions clashing with Clark's writing, which is occasionally crass. Some good scenes (including Fonda and James Caan dancin' the Texas Star), pretty locales and a decent score from Michael Small can't really make film worthwhile. ** from ****
Review of Comes a Horseman
