Invitation to a Gunfighter

This is a bit of an odd Western. Set after the Civil War, a Confederate soldier named Matt Weaver (George Segal) comes home to the New Mexico territory and finds his farm was bought and sold by the local big shot, Mr. Brewster (Pat Hingle). Matt's told to leave town, but the man who bought his home turns up dead the next morning.

Brewster hires a gunfighter, Jules Gaspard d'Estaing (Yul Brynner), to kill Matt Weaver, but Jules seems more interested in making said Brewster humiliate himself. He's also interested in Ruth Adams (Janice Rule), who runs a general store with her drunken, one-armed, bitter husband, and who was engaged to Matt before the war. When Jules shows no interest in killing Weaver, the Brewster hires Weaver to kill Jules, in a plan that has no chance of backfiring whatsoever.

Surprising amount happening in this one. Ruth claims she married Crane because Matt needed to understand how irrevocable his decision to fight with the Rebs was for her. She is strongly anti-slavery, as was the entire town apparently, except Matt and his father. They joined the Confederates, the entire rest of the town went on the Union side. At least on the white side of town. The large Mexican population seems to have been segregated. Of course, Matt and his father were the only white folk to treat the Mexicans as equals, so who are the real racists here? Also, it's claimed Matt only joined the South to be contrary, I assume out of disgust at the hypocrisy of all the other white folk. Which doesn't really change the fact that he did fight for the Confederate Army, regardless of what his reasons were.

Into this, you throw Jules, who we're told is one-quarter black (he uses the term "quadroon", which I've never seen outside a history book). I think they darkened Brynner's skin, or maybe they used lighting to achieve the effect. Seems in poor taste either way. Watching him lead the big shot around like a docile puppy is one of the high points of the film (there are three wounded Union soldiers in town tickled by it each time, including one who can't see and has to listen to his friends' description).

In some ways, it reminds me of High Plains Drifter, although this film predates that one by almost a decade. Mostly in the way the town (part of it anyway) is so terrified of this one tired, unhappy Reb soldier, that they bow to this call for a gunfighter, and then let the gunfighter walk all over them. He cheats at cards in the most obvious, lazy way possible, and no one even thinks to try and call him on it. Brewster wants Jules here to kill the gunfighter, Brewster owns most of the town, so they all go along with it. He's the bank. So Jules punishes them for their weakness, and out of his own, understandable anger and bitterness. He shows kindness at times, mostly restricts himself to punching up, rather than down, but the longer he stays, the more frustrated and torn he gets.

Jules becomes interested in Ruth, initially as a way to bring Weaver to him, but later out of some possible romantic interest. Ruth is polite, somewhat friendly, but mostly is trying to get him to not kill Weaver. Their mutual curiosity leads to a scene or two where everything stops so they can lay out their backstories and motivations to each other. Which is awkward, but it doesn't seem like the movie was going to explain certain things any other way. I'm not sure there needed to be any hint of attraction from Jules towards Ruth; the movie already has Ruth married to Crane but still caring about Matt. Is it necessary to complicate things further? There are a few scenes where Jules interacts with some of the local Mexicans, including a good friend of Matt's. I wouldn't have minded more of that.

As it is, the mere suggestion something might be happening between Jules and Ruth is what Brewster uses to get Weaver to face Jules. Weaver is smart enough to realize it would be dumb to fight someone on Brewster's behalf, especially someone Brewster hired to kill him. But Brewster mentions Ruth went into her home willingly with Jules, and maybe there's a reason Jules hasn't tried killing Matt, wink, wink, all sense flies out of Matt's head.

I read once that you can make white working class folks eat any amount of shit from the wealthy if you convince them minorities are going to take their stuff (and thus ignoring the wealthy have already taken a lot more). Matt proved it, Brewster wanted him eliminated as a threat, and then tried using him to eliminate someone else who was a threat. The threats are all things Brewster's either created or made up, they're his own doing for being a terrible person, but suggest this gunfighter "took" Matt's woman, and off he goes.

It was a more interesting movie than I expected. It needed either more time, or a few less threads so it could have let some things play out more naturally.