Silver Screen Influences: Lawman

Lawman staring Burt Lancaster is one of my most influential Westerns yet seems to be one of the most overlooked by fans of the genre. Fresh off the heels of Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch, Lawman takes another big step into the darker, bloodier '70s version of the Wild West. With quotable dialog that easily rivals films like Tombstone and The Good The Bad And The Ugly, Lawman is violent, ruthless and complex and has left its mark on every novel and story I’ve written. Even the description in my book TEMPERANCE of a dime novel cover featuring the legendary killer Duke Valentine is a literal description of the Lawman movie poster.

Burt Lancaster’s Marshal Jared Maddox is also the basic template for my character the gunfighter Cincinnati. He has a code and a set a rules he calls the law and no amount of reason or sense can sway him from it. Maddox is so blinded by the law he’s created he becomes more of a mindless killer than the mindless killers he’s after. Robert Ryan plays Marshal Cotton Ryan, an old acquaintance of Maddox who tries his hardest to be the level-headed go-between for the bloodthirsty lawman and the reasonable rancher who employs the men he’s after. At one point Ryan tries to sway his marshal counterpart’s decision by saying, “There’ll be dyin’.” Maddox simply replies, “It’ll be their doin’.”

Lawman is dirty, it’s harsh and its ending will catch you so off guard that it’ll keep your mind busy for days. I absolutely love this movie and wish more people would get to know it. If you’re a fan of the darker Eastwood films like High Plains Drifter and Unforgiven, Lawman is a no-brainer.

 

Lawman (1971)

Director: Michael Winner

Writer: Gerald Wilson

Stars: Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb

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