JoeKarlosi Commonplace Western has James Coburn as a half-breed outlaw escaping from a chain gang and setting out for torturous revenge on retired sheriff Charlton Heston, who also was responsible for the death of Coburn's wife. Heston is ready to confront him, so the criminal kidnaps Chuck's daughter (Barbara Hershey) to outsmart him. The two tough guy actors are pretty good, and there is an attempt to make the action live up to its "R" rating with some bloody shots and a rape sequence, but what used to be violent in 1976 is not as strong today and the overall results are pretty standard. Jerry Goldsmith's score is spirited. Also features young Michael Parks as the current new sheriff. **1/2 out of ****

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.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Seething with hatred and revenge half breed Zach Provo, James Coburn, had spent the last 11 years on a chain gang planing his escape. What Provo want's more then freedom is to even the score with the man who captured him and in the process, during a wild shootout, killed his Navajo wife: The former Pima County sheriff Sam Burgade, Charlton Heston.Making his escape after killing two prison guards Provo makes his way towards Yuma knowing that that's not just where Burgade lives but where his his young daughter Susan, Barbara Hershey,resides as well. Using his fellow escaped convicts to lure Burgade into the vast Arizona Desert, by promising them $30,000.00 in gold coins that he buried there, Provo plans to exact his bloody vengeance on Burgade. But only after having him witness his daughter being brutally raped by his fellow convicts or are, in not being with a woman for years, as horny as a rabbit during mating season!Brutal and very effective western that updates the John Wayne 1956 classic "The Searchers" in a father searching through dangerous Indian territory for his kidnapped daughter. Charlton Heston as the guilt-ridden Sam Burgade in his felling somehow responsible for killing Provo's wife and then having to face the fact that the same thing can very well happen to his daughter Susan is perfect in the role of the aging and retired sheriff. Charles Coburn as the vengeful half breed Zach Provo is also at his best as the obsessed with hatred and murder escaped convict.The man who escaped with Provo are really not interest in his personal affairs but have no choice, in that he knows the territory like the back of his hand, but to go along with him. It's only the thought of them having their way with Susan, when Provo gives them the green light, as well as the buried $30,000.00 in gold coins that keeps them from breaking up and going their own way.Also going along with Burgade is Susan's boyfriend Hal Brickman, Chris Mitchum, who proves in the end that he's as good as Burgade is, who felt that he just didn't have it in him, in both tracking down the escaped criminals as well as using common sense, which in this case Burgade lacks, in doing it.***SPOILERS**** The unbelievably brutal and blood splattered showdown between Burgade and Provo is almost too much to sit through. Provo who's hatred of Burgade bordered on out right insanity wanted him to suffer a slow and excruciating death. it was that hatred that Bugrade took advantage of and, after taking some half dozen bullets, thus ended up putting the crazed and blood thirsty, as well as mindless, lunatic away for good!

bkoganbing The Last Hard Men finds James Coburn an outlaw doing a long sentence breaking free from a chain gang. Do he and his friends head for the Mexican border from jail and safety. No they don't because Coburn has a mission of revenge. To kill the peace officer who brought him in and in the process killed his woman.That peace officer is Charlton Heston who is now retired and he knows what Coburn is after. As he explains it to his daughter, Barbara Hershey, Coburn was holed up in a shack and was involved in a Waco like standoff. His Indian woman was killed in the hail of bullets fired. It's not something he's proud of, she was a collateral casualty in a manhunt.Lest we feel sorry for Coburn he lets us know full well what an evil man he truly is. Heston is his usual stalwart hero, but the acting honors in The Last Hard Men go to James Coburn. He blows everyone else off the screen when he's on. Coburn gets the bright idea of making sure Heston trails him by kidnapping Hershey and taking her to an Indian reservation where the white authorities can't touch him. He knows that Heston has to make it personal then.Coburn's gang includes, Morgan Paull, Thalmus Rasulala, John Quade, Larry Wilcox, and Jorge Rivero. Heston has Chris Mitchum along who is his son-in-law to be.The Last Hard Men is one nasty and brutal western. Andrew McLaglen directed it and I'm thinking it may have been a project originally intended for Sam Peckinpaugh. It sure shows a lot of his influence with the liberal use of slow motion to accentuate the violence. Of which there is a lot. For a little Peckinpaugh lite, The Last Hard Men is your film.