Vera Cruz is a very entertaining action filled south of the border western featuring two Hollywood superstars on different paths in their careers. Looking exhausted and well beyond his 53 years Gary Cooper was clearly at the end of his reign as a Hollywood leading man. Energetic Burt Lancaster was riding a wave of success that would make him as big as any actor of his era.
Even the characters they play are representative of the old and new breed of heroic figures in film. Cooper's moral and noble civil war veteran turned mercenary is not far removed from his more youthful Trampas role in The Virginian made decades earlier blended with a little High Noon maturity. Like Cooper, this character type had become an anachronism by the time Cruz was made. Lancaster as the greedy and cold blooded partner Joe Erin, is full of life and charm, a classic anti-hero. He is a likable rogue if you can get past his murderous and duplicitous ways.
Hired as mercenaries by Emperor Maximilian, the pair along with an array of other cut throats form an uneasy alliance to transport a countess and a fortune in gold safely to the port city of Vera Cruz. Erin has other plans however. Underrated director Robert Aldrich ( Attack, Kiss Me Deadly, Ulzana's Raid) moves the action along at a rapid pace with solid editing and minor emphasis on romantic interest, concentrating more on the relationship between Cooper and Lancaster. His hardboiled style, evident in so many of his films certainly favors the villainous Lancaster who in turn does not disappoint.
While it is not a classic western you can see the influence it had on Peckinpah's Wild Bunch and "Spaghetti Westerneer" Sergio Leone claims also to have been inspired by it. On its own it remains a better than average western due much in part to Lancaster's rollicking performance.
Even the characters they play are representative of the old and new breed of heroic figures in film. Cooper's moral and noble civil war veteran turned mercenary is not far removed from his more youthful Trampas role in The Virginian made decades earlier blended with a little High Noon maturity. Like Cooper, this character type had become an anachronism by the time Cruz was made. Lancaster as the greedy and cold blooded partner Joe Erin, is full of life and charm, a classic anti-hero. He is a likable rogue if you can get past his murderous and duplicitous ways.
Hired as mercenaries by Emperor Maximilian, the pair along with an array of other cut throats form an uneasy alliance to transport a countess and a fortune in gold safely to the port city of Vera Cruz. Erin has other plans however. Underrated director Robert Aldrich ( Attack, Kiss Me Deadly, Ulzana's Raid) moves the action along at a rapid pace with solid editing and minor emphasis on romantic interest, concentrating more on the relationship between Cooper and Lancaster. His hardboiled style, evident in so many of his films certainly favors the villainous Lancaster who in turn does not disappoint.
While it is not a classic western you can see the influence it had on Peckinpah's Wild Bunch and "Spaghetti Westerneer" Sergio Leone claims also to have been inspired by it. On its own it remains a better than average western due much in part to Lancaster's rollicking performance.