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Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud, Stella Garcia ... see more see more... , James Wainwright , Gil Baretto , Pepe Callahan , Chuck Hayward , Pepe Hern , Paul Koslo , Lynne Marta , Joaquín Martínez , Clint Ritchie , Ron Soble , Maria Val , Dick Van Patten , Gregory Walcott , John Carter

In John Sturges'sAmericanized version of Sergio Leone's Man-With-No-Name films, Clint Eastwood is Joe Kidd, a cryptic stranger who arrives in the New Mexican town of Sinola, where Mexican bandito/revo... read more read more...lutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who are throwing the poor off land that rightfully belongs to them. When a posse -- financed by wealthy landowner Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) -- is formed to capture Luis, Kidd is invited to join but prefers to remain neutral. Harlan keeps badgering Kidd to join up, and Kidd finally relents when he finds that Luis's band has raided his own ranch and one of his ranch hands has been injured. The bloodthirsty posse rounds up five Mexicans hostages and threaten to kill them unless Luis surrenders to them. One of the hostages is the attractive Stella Garcia (Helen Sanchez), and Kidd falls in love with her. Harlan notices this and throws Kidd in jail to prevent him from helping Stella and the Mexicans. Kidd decides the position himself as the voice of reason in this nest of disorder. He escapes and saves the Mexican hostages, determined to capture Luis himself and see that he gets a fair trial. But when Kidd captures Luis and delivers him to Sheriff Mitchell (Gregory Walcott), Harlan is in town waiting for him. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

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49% liked it

7,747 ratings

Critics

83% liked it

6 critics

PG, 1 hr. 27 min.

Directed by: John Sturges

Release Date: January 1, 1972

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DVD Release Date: August 18, 1998

Stats: 235 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (235)


  • March 14, 2010
    Ordinary western has good actors and nice scenery but nothing you have seen many times before. Still if you like Clint and westerns this will work fine for you.
  • February 8, 2010
    No, it's not one of the best westerns ever made, but it's really fun. Clint Eastwood gives a great performance and really plays a different western hero than usual. It's also sort've odd to see Robert Duvall as such a scumbag. It's got a really great style that makes up for the u... read moreneven plot.
  • December 25, 2006
    Bizarrely sloppy by-the-numbers Clint Eastwood western, particularly considering the talent involved. There seems to be little logic involved in any of it; only Clints charisma and the loosely associated bouts of screen violence demand attention; the "plot" is inconsequential.
  • October 31, 2006
    Average western film, but I'm such a fan of Clint Eastwood.
  • June 16, 2010
    Joe Kidd has Clint Eastwood as a moody cowboy who's a man of few words yet again. He's on no ones side but his own, but he has morals. So when a rancher played by Robert Duvall threatens to kill 5 innocent people every hour until a rebel (John Saxon) hands himself in, that doesn... read more't sit well with Joe Kidd.

    Eastwood is good of course even if he basically gives the same bad-ass performance in every western he has done. But the name Joe Kidd is just a ridiculous name for him. It works better when he's just a mysterious guy with no name. Still the movie has some decent action and it did keep my attention. It's not the best Eastwood western, but it's not bad either.
  • December 31, 2009
    Clint Eastwood is one of those magic ingredients that make any movie worth watching. His stoic screen presence is nearly unmatched and although he can act, he usually does not need do. Thus is the case in Joe Kidd, the story of a righteous but broody gunman who gets mixed up in a... read more war for land rights in US borderland. It all comes down to a suave showdown and Clint taking center stage once more. Robert Duvall adds some much needed depth into the supporting cast, but all in all, the movie is not much more than a pulp western story.
  • February 25, 2012
    Eastwood Ultimatum. Setting is really interesting, but overall too simple and shallow. Because of the lack of clear catharsis for the protagonist (like revenge, as in all the westerns by Eastwood himself), it does not give you much emotional fulfillment at last. Eastwood characte... read morer is, thus, simple, and this film's just like one of Dirty Harry series. I wish Eastwood was going to direct this one too, then it could've been really different and a lot deeper (even though Sturges is the right choice for making this film as it is).
  • November 17, 2010
    A weak story for this one ruined the whole film going into the film you think it would be great but it wasnt I was shocked how bad it was
  • February 12, 2008
    I watched Joe Kidd based on the strength of its pedigree-- actors Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall and John Saxon, director John Sturges and writer Elmore Leonard--knowing full well that it didn't get very strong reviews when it was released. I found that this film was fairly... read more inconsequential as Eastwood westerns go--certainly nothing on the level of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Unforgiven or even Pale Rider--but it was still pretty entertaining. One of the things I liked was how Leonard wrote Chama (Saxon) as slightly more dimensional than Mexican bad guys usually get to be. In fact, by the end of the story, he doesn't really come across as the main villain of the piece; that's reserved for the always excellent Robert Duvall. Chama actually has a legitimate grievance that leads to his becoming an outlaw, and he proves to be a resonable man by the end of the film. After all, he doesn't threaten to execute innocent hostages, as Duvall's Harlan does.

    If there's really a huge weakness, it's Sturges's direction (or seeming lack thereof). He chooses to show everything in master shots, therefore making for a rather lifeless viewing experience. Sturges was about 60 at the time he directed Kidd, so maybe that was a factor. It's hard to tell. It would have been interesting to see what Eastwood himself would have done with the material.
  • January 27, 2008
    I liked this one too...I guess Mr. eastwood can't do no wrong for me, love his westerns. Good or bad I love his work and his damn face is the one you picture when you hear the word Gunslinger...

Critic Reviews


Jeffrey M. Anderson
May 1, 2009
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

It's still a prime example of a good, sturdy bread-and-butter Western. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
November 6, 2004
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Entertaining but senseless. Full Review

March 26, 2009
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

Roger Greenspun
May 9, 2005
Roger Greenspun, New York Times

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Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 1, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Rebecca Murray
December 21, 2003
Rebecca Murray, About.com

No review available.

Carol Cling
August 22, 2003
Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal

No review available.

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

May 24, 2003
Film4

Click to read the article Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Joe Kidd Trivia


  • Who was 'Joe Kidd', in the 1972 film directed by John Sturges?  Answer »
  • Which one of these Clint Eastwood films was NOT directed by Don Siegel?  Answer »

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