inspectors71 Fans of Andrew V. McLaglen movies (McLintock!, Chisum, and The Wild Geese come to mind) won't mind the dark, nasty, gory The Last Hard Men with James Coburn and Charlton Heston. It's standard revenge stuff until you notice that it's way more violent and sociopathological than something fluffy like McLintock! or the all- purpose, crowd-pleasing Chisum.What the six years from Chisum to The Last Hard Men wrought. McLaglen had no trouble dabbling in a bit of gore here and a skosh of savagery there, but The Undefeated and Chisum were rated G. TLHM brings you lots of close-up impalings and incinerations and splashy gunshot wounds, sometimes in slow-mo! It seems that ol' Andy McLaglen was watching a lot of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone in the early 70s!The biggest change might be McLaglen's treatment of women. In McLintock!, John Wayne woos Maureen O'Hara by stripping her to her undies, dragging her through molasses, showering her with feathers, spanking her with a stove shovel, and boinking her as the lights come up. To quote Judith Crist, "What girl could resist?"In The Last Hard Men, Barbara Hershey, a woman I find much more real and appealing than the actressy O'Hara, gets pummeled by Coburn, leaving her gasping on the floor of Heston's home, with a sprig of hair across her face, daring not to brush it away for fear of getting hit again. Jump to Coburn releasing two of his henchmen to chase down Hershey, as her dad, Heston, watches from a distance. They catch her and rape her while Coburn taunts Heston with "They're xxxxxxx your daughter!"The switch from chauvinism to sadism, from the early 60s to the mid- 70s, couldn't be a pleasant one for the likes of Hershey's character.With that said, I sat engrossed in The Last Hard Men when I saw it as the lead up to The Enforcer in December, 1976. It was just the sort of intense, brutal movie that I grooved on in my late teens. I learned to really like Charlton Heston and James Coburn, so much so that I have searched out movies with these two actors, long before I really noticed them.I got my prurient kicks some years later seeing Barbara Hershey nekkid in the imbecilic The Entity, but the more I think about it, I realize she was more appealing, sexier when she was fighting back against the thugs in the western. Cripes, where am I going with this?I miss Heston and Coburn. I miss Wayne (and the PC police in California can pound sand with their complaining about John Wayne being a hater). I think I liked The Last Hard Men not in spite of its sadism, but because of it. Kind of like The Professionals and The Dirty Dozen.Does that make any sense?

FightingWesterner In the waning days of the wild west, a chain gang led by James Coburn blasts their way to freedom, where he sets his sights on the daughter of Charleton Heston, the man responsible for his capture eleven years earlier.Director Andrew V. McLaglen (who's done better) tries hard to capture a Sam Peckinpah type vibe, but fails in part because of uninspired writing and disappointing performances by Heston and Barbera Hershey. Likewise, Jorge Rivero is flashy, but bland as Coburn's right hand man.However, it's mildly entertaining, thanks to some potent violence, nasty performances by Coburn and fellow escapee John Quade, as well as the presence of solid character actors Michael Parks and Christopher Mitchum.

lost-in-limbo Typically violent and brutal, but rather plodding western that has shades of film-maker Sam Peckinpah streaming through it. Coming in towards the back-end of a dying genre, "The Last Hard Man" sees the traditional American Wild West making way for modern times involving steam trains, telephones, cars and telegrams. However amongst these changes are two, very dogged nemesis coming to blows, but they do things the way they know best and rarely embrace the changes to help in some shape. Its old-fashion horse-back tracking is simplistic, where it's all about the primal instinct for revenge. Now it's personal. Vendettas loom. A cat and mouse game is started, where the two never back down for each other. They battle it out, knowing each others moves. But the actions which are perceived are surprisingly twisted in a way to gain some sort of upper hand.Charlton Heston plays an aging, but retired sheriff Sam Burgade who suddenly gets back in the saddle after the man he put away a decade ago Zach Provo (James Coburn) escapes. Burgade knows he would be a target, as Provo blames him for his Navajo woman's death. So Burgade puts himself out there, but Provo surprises him by kidnapping his daughter.It's probably not as exciting as it could have been where the set-pieces just causally morph and the operatic dramas only blister. Well that's until it reaches its rough, but very intense and unpleasant climax between the two men. It's quite a memorable, if barbaric standoff mainly due to Coburn's character's delusional state of mind. Coburn simply commands the screen, even when he isn't igniting it and he just nails down the part as the half-breed who becomes so obsessed in seeing Burgade squirm. While Heston is more in checked with a professionally sturdy turn. The support cast are just as good with the likes of Chris Mitchum, Larry Wilcox, Barbara Hershey and Michael Parks.Director Andrew V. McLaglen's handling is tough and gritty, while slow grinding it did bestow some flashy moments of slow-motion to heighten the emotional effect of certain situations. However in the end those moments just felt more pointless and the visuals really do centre of the repugnant side. It's hard-headed in a weary manner, but it remains efficient. Jerry Goldsmith's palatable music score is serviceable, if nothing more.

moonspinner55 Incarcerated train robber near Yuma breaks free his chain-gang and heads for the retired sheriff responsible for killing his wife (as well as a hidden stash of gold which remains hidden thanks to the screenwriter). Attempt to bring the western genre up-to-date with 1970s-style violence and brutality isn't even in the same league as some of the new-fangled westerns which came out of the late-'60s. It is impossibly simple and square, with the female characters merely around as punching-bags and possible rape victims. As the former sheriff back in command, Charlton Heston gives one of his laziest, least-inspired performances ever (he has one good moment, attempting to read a letter and fumbling for his glasses). James Coburn, as the half-mad half-breed, is pretty much on auto-pilot as well, but Coburn has a way of turning even the hoariest dialogue and situations into something prickly and unnerving. It's his show all the way. *1/2 from ****