Vera Cruz (1954)

Directed by

Robert Aldrich

Genre

Western film, buddy film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 34m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 271 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

During the Franco-Mexican War, two American mercenaries agree to escort a shipment of gold to Veracruz. They quickly realize their employers are not trustworthy and start to question where their loyalties really lie.

savagecynicalgrittytensemorally ambiguousslow-burnvisually starkruthless

What happens

Vera Cruz is a 1954 American Western film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, featuring Denise Darcel, Sara Montiel, Cesar Romero, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and Jack Elam. Set during the Franco-Mexican War, the film centers on a group of American mercenaries tasked with transporting a large shipment of Imperial gold to the port of Veracruz, but begin to have second thoughts about their allegiances. It was produced by Hecht-Lancaster Productions and released by United Artists on 25 December 1954. The picture's amoral characters and cynical attitude towards violence (including a scene where Lancaster's character threatens to murder child hostages) were considered shocking at the time and influenced future Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Professionals (1966), Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), and the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone, which often featured supporting cast members from Vera Cruz in similar roles. Its influence on Leone's work led some critics to label it "the proto-Spaghetti Western." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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