STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: FILM “Joe Kidd”
What happens when the men you’re riding with is more dangerous than the man you all supposed to be hunting?
Directed by John Sturges, and written by Elmore Leonard, Joe Kidd is about the eponymous bounty hunter who is roped into being a part of a posse created by a wealthy landowner to hunt down a Mexican bandito/revolutionary taking revenge against the local landowners for unjustly kicking the poor off their land.
Kidd realizes that the bandito is just helping to fight for the poor, even if he is committing violent acts. However, the posse seems to be more fueled by bloodthirst than anything resembling justice.
The film is a unique western story in that it isn’t a grand epic adventure. The posse’s destination isn’t anything extravagant, nor is the journey all that interesting because that would imply there is a bond with the characters… which there isn’t. That’s not a negative, there shouldn’t be a bond with Kidd and the posse; these men are terrible people. Kidd himself isn’t exactly exempt from terribleness either.
In fact, the mission is supposed to be a simple task; what makes it complicated is the impatience of the posse, willing to hold innocent people hostage to force the bandito out of hiding. It’s a tactic that Kidd is against, or rather because he is now one of the hostages because it’s clear he’s not as ruthless as the rest of them.
That’s what the film is about: when it comes down to it, who’s the real criminal here: the lower class population or the high class?
I found out about the film when I was looking up anything Elmore Leonard related. He wasn’t just an author, he wrote some screenplays as well. Plus, it was one of his westerns, so I couldn’t say no to that.
Joe Kidd scales back the scope of the story, and focuses on the characters, though a moment in the climax involving a train is so insane, I wish more of today’s movies (western or not) would do it. I also recommend Leonard’s first novel The Bounty Hunters which has a similar premise and equally detestable men.
Sit in a judge’s chair, and check it out.
