Man, Richard Boone... - Hombre (1967) Discussion

[–] onleft23 15 years ago

yeah well said amigo
i would not go out of my way to cross cicero grimes' path
bad news with a capital b for sure

a truly classic - and equally underappreciated - role

how boone didnt get a supporting actor nomination ill never know

i think it was the year george kennedy won it for his
'cool hand luke' part
no offense meant mr kennedy - great performance no doubt -
but my vote's for boone (and not a close call either you ask me)

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[–] ms-kpitts 15 years ago

Totally. Boone's Grimes is the classic villian. At times he made me literally shiver...still does thinking about it. Fain (Boone's villian in Big Jake - "Your fault, my fault, nobody's fault") is a cupcake compared to Grimes.

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[–] ecarle 15 years ago

Some years later, Paul Newman and others tried to hire Boone to play villain Doyle Lonnigan in "The Sting." The script was re-written several times to "beef up" the Lonnigan role and lure Boone in. But he said no. Maybe he just didn't want to share the screen with TWO beautiful men(Newman and Redford.)

Robert Shaw took the role, and was great, and got "Jaws" out of it(both films shared producers in Zanuck and Brown.)

But it would have been fun to see Newman and Boone face off one more time...in that great poker game scene for starters.

Can't you just hear Richard Boone saying to Newman,

"The name's Lonnigan. Doyle Lonnigan. I'll have you remember that."

Still, they are great enough in "Hombre," yes?

"Hey, I have a question."
"What?"
"How are you gonna get back down that hill?"

"You got a lot of hard bark on you, coming down her like this. You put two holes in me."
"Two's usually enough."

Man....

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[–] bear022013-588-696101 15 years ago

He was an ACTOR and a MAN.....we have neither at this point.

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[–] rc-108 13 years ago

Richard Boone was great in this movie...

great movie...
great cast.

many many great lines.
I give it 8.

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[–] Jason_Radley 11 years ago

Trouble is, Grimes disappears halfway through the film. That's the main problem with the movie; it feels a little disjointed.

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[–] ecarle 11 years ago

Trouble is, Grimes disappears halfway through the film.

---

That's true, but he comes back.

I think while Boone is gone, he is well "replaced" by the amiable and deadly Mexican bandit played by Frank Silvera.

The long dialogue between Newman and Silvera is just as tough and funny as the ones later one between Newman and Boone:

Silvera: Heyyyy..HOMBRE! You have put a hole in me.
Newman: You moved.
Silvera: You can be sure I moved. What you like, me hanging from a tree for you?
Newman: That would be nice.
Silvera(still smiling but ominous): I will give this bullet back to you.

(Or something like that.)

---

That's the main problem with the movie; it feels a little disjointed.

I guess. I've always felt it has the flaws of a movie made in the "slower" sixties. Its takes awhile to get all the characters assembled and to get going on the stagecoach, and then it "stalls out" a bit in the middle as everyone crosses the desert on foot(and neither Boone nor Silvera are around for fun). But those are small prices to pay for all the great scenes throughout the film, the great characters, the great lines...

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[–] eddie-fendel 11 years ago

There is some top notch acting in this western but the stand outs for me are Boone and Silvera. I love a western villain. The scene in the ticket office with Boone trying his darnest to obtain one is a simply amazing movie scene. RB at his finest.Don't know the exact words but I love the scene when Balsam says to Boone after he has robbed the stage something like 'I bet you won't get far
' then Boone says 'You've got nothin' to bet with'.Silvera does well too even with a pain in his belly and don't ask him to turn around! David Canary is fine too as a nasty piece of work if ever there was one.
Why this film never gets top marks in the film guides I'll never know.

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[–] PlatinumScreen (221) 8 years ago

The scene in the ticket office with Boone trying his darnest to obtain one is a simply amazing movie scene. RB at his finest.

Yes, yes, yes. Boone absolutely dominates that scene and nearly every other one he's in. I can almost feel all of the oxygen leaving that room when he walks in with that saddle over his shoulder. He had an amazing screen presence.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Yes, yes, yes. Boone absolutely dominates that scene and nearly every other one he's in. I can almost feel all of the oxygen leaving that room when he walks in with that saddle over his shoulder. He had an amazing screen presence.

--

...such screen presence that as Hombre rolls along, it becomes clear that, of all the stagecoach passengers, ONLY Paul Newman has the skills and strength to -- possibly -- best Boone.

That's why I like how, just as Boone's gang reveals themselves to take the stagecoach at the top of the hill while the others walk -- Boone makes sure that he is behind Newman and grabs the pistol out of Newman's holster.

Boone knows that Newman is the only man in the group who can take him. Even if Newman did nothing to stop him from taking the cavalryman's ticket(because: Native American sympathies.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I return to offer a "personal note":

I didn't see Hombre on release i 1967, but I DID see it as a second feature to a new release in 1968: Bandolero, with James Stewart(near the end of his line), Dean Martin, Raquel Welch and George Kennedy(newly Oscared for Cool Hand Luke, he was placed above the title after the other three stars agreed.)

Bandolero was more of a "pop Western," even thought its ending was as downbeat as that of Hombre.

But I remember three things about Hombre from that first, very young viewing:

ONE: When Richard Boone entered the stagecoach office, threatened Newman and then threatened the cavalry man...I was TERRIFIED. This was a disturbing, sad scene for me to watch -- I may be have been too young to watch it without terror. I was disturbed by the scene, all the way through. Boone literally disturbed me.

TWO: I instinctively knew that Hombre was a more serious, adult and prestigious film than Bandolero. It wasn't really that good a double bill (of two Fox movies.)

THREE: As we emerged from the theater and this tough double bill --in which pretty much all the "heroes" -- anti-heroes? -- died, I asked my old man what he thought of the two of them.

I remember his answer to this day: "Too much Western."

Ha. I started seeing Western double bills on my own, after that.

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[–] buzzlightbeer (1927) 2 years ago

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Thanks for reading. That scene where Boone first arrives(great entrance!) and terrorizes the room to get his ticket is gripping enough to watch when you're older, but I was perhaps a bit too young when I saw the scene and his behavior just seemed so mean and cruel. Also: the cavalryman stood up for Newman, but Newman didn't return the favor, with seemed inhumane to my young eyes, too.

Years later, I got the meaning of the scene(Newman was NOT going to help a cavalryman, no matter how "nice") and better still, the wry sting of the Elmore Leonard dialogue:

Newman: If its any difference to you, lady, I wasn't going to bleed for that man. Or even if it isn't.

---

My memory of my father's OWN wry line about that double bill ("Too Much Western") taught me that he wasn't really much of a Western fan -- or at least not of those two downbeat films on THAT double bill.

I moved on to my own love of Westerns and learned as the years went on that, no, he really wasn't that big on the genre. I took in John Wayne, and later, Clint Eastwood, on my own and with friends, not family.

What's great about "the movies" is not only remembering the movie itself, but when you saw it, where you saw it, and who you saw it with...

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[–] MartyMoose1977 (225) 9 months ago

When Boone forces his way onto the Stage Coach the rich financeer's that made the trip happen should have not allowed him to join them.. He was a bit to urgent to get his ass on THAT stagecoach and they knew they would be traveling with a ton of stolen money.

I did love the movie with it gorgeious cinematography and I enjoyed how these 7 weary travelers whom all hated each other were stuck in each other's company for days and this would be best case scenario which obviously we don't get. The acting was very good but not amazing. I give the picture 7/10.

BTW, the film is now free to watch on Youtube for anyone interested in seeing it.

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