Buchanan Rides Alone: Budd Boetticher

The Westerns of Budd Boetticher hold a very special place in my heart. As Martin Scorsese once said, his Westerns distill the very essence of the genre into its purest form.  Many of his best Westerns were collaborations with an aged Randolph Scott.  I thoroughly enjoyed such films as Seven Men from Now (1956) and The Tall T (1957).  And yet I find myself feeling less enthusiastic about their 1958 film Buchanan Rides Alone.  The film follows Scott and Tom Buchanan, an ex-gunfigher looking to re-invent himself as a rancher.  When he arrives at the California border town of Agry, he becomes embroiled in a feud concerning the Agry family.  The Agry family dominates the town with members serving as mayor and sheriff.  When Buchanan first came into town, he made the mistake of aiding a young Mexican being brutally assaulted by several men.  What Buchanan didn't know was that the Mexican had just murdered one of the members of the Agry family.  And so Buchanan is pulled into a full-on struggle between the town (and family) of Agry and a Mexican group who are willing to pay a substantial ransom for the killer.  Buchanan Rides Alone contains many of the elements that made Boetticher's Westerns so fantastic: a lone, cynical gunfighter and a bleak landscape dominated by violence.  And yet, it doesn't feel like a Boetticher Western. Buchanan is just a little too happy.  There is just a little too much comic relief.  And most importantly, I never found myself intimidated by the Agry family. The Agry family can't seem to get their priorities in order. Near the start of the film, they stop Buchanan and the Mexican from getting lynched so that one of their number will be elected for mayor...or was it governor? But then the very same Agry who was so scared of upsetting voters hatches a plan to release a despised criminal in exchange for $50,000. Doesn't he realize that ransoming off a convicted murderer will ensure that nobody will vote for him?  Anyhow, the film does contain a few moments of brilliance. My favorite scene was the climactic shootout where the Agry family and Buchanan fight from opposite sides of a bridge with a sack of $50,000 in the middle.  As both sides send out envoys to retrieve the money, the number of bodies in the middle of the street increases. It is a savage, powerful scene. Too bad I can't say the same for the rest of the film.

6/10