The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is a solid western story, although set later than most in the genre, during WWII. There is plenty to enjoy, including gorgeous vistas, fine performances by the leads, and in particular Richard Farnsworth and Jane Fonda and beautiful wide angle photography by the master cinematographer Gordon Willis. On the downside there are some editing issues. The ending especially feels somewhat rushed and could have benefited greatly from an extra five minutes to jack up the suspense. One gets the feeling that the film was already running long and they had to wrap it up. Also, I had some trouble 'buying' James Caan as a cowboy, mostly because I am so used to seeing him in very urban settings. Not that he doesn't acquit himself well as he makes a lot of out a slightly underwritten role. These are minor quibbles and rest assured you will not be wasting your time with this one, it's a very solid effort and ticks many of the boxes you'd want in a movie of this nature. And especially if you're a fan of Jane Fonda, as I am, it's not to be missed. Look out for a very young Mark Harmon of NCIS fame.

This here pitcher is about cowboys, riding the range. They don't talk words too much. Neither the men (James Caan, Richard Farnsworth, and Jason Robards, Jr., as the archvillain trying to take over all the cattle land) nor the woman (Jane Fonda, kind of dusted up, like). Truth be told, Robards don't say much at all. Sometimes he don't even move, jest stands there backlighted, looking kind of like a menace.Fonda owns an old two-story prairie house and a small piece of land where she raises cattle, a sty in the eye of Jason Robards, Jr. The elderly, agreeable Richard Farnsworth is her helpmate. Any experienced viewer, once grasping the relationship between Fonda, Farnsworth, and increasing age, knows at once that he is dead meat, up for sacrifice to keep us on the side of the angels. Down from the mountains comes cowboy Caan, wounded by Robards' men, his partner shot to death. He quietly pitches in to help run the ranch despite Fonda's fierce independence.Together they get the ranch humming again, also their private parts, probably in a cowgirl position. The murderous Robards traps both of them, locks them in the closet of that weathered two-story house, and sets fire to it. Why he doesn't just shoot both of them -- as he's just shot another household guest -- is a mystery. In any case, both Fonda and Caan escape magically from the locked closet, leap out of the window to safety, and are at once attacked by Robards and two of his worst henchman. The heavies manage to wound Caan in the leg but he dispatches two of them -- one shot apiece -- and Fonda robs Robards of a peaceful old age -- one shot. Ninety-five percent of the movie is sluggish and a little dull. The final five percent is finished with in one big jiffy. I like Alan Pakula generally, as actor or director, but this is a torpid script.Best performance is by rickety Richard Farnsworth, who still knows how to handle a horse and whose candor is pithy, very pithy. Next best: Robards, who seems to be posing for a sculptor. Caan sounds as if he's reciting lines from an idiot board and Fonda can't help sounding like a graduate of Vassar. But make up has successfully changed her from the hieratic to a demotic working woman with weathered features.You want to watch a mysterious man ride down out of the mountains and save the day for a farmer whose land is coveted by the local cattle tycoon? Have you seen "Shane"?

Superbly photographed against starkly impressive natural locations, this movie also boasts some effective action and stunt-work, but is undermined by the director's merciless TV style with its sluggish pacing and endless close-ups, plus a very talky script that still manages to skimp on charisma and characterization. The presence of character stereotypes like Farnsworth (a Walter Brennan clone) and even Robards himself does not help. And while George Grizzard is given a lot of footage in which to build up an interesting character, said character is then casually dismissed! All that build-up footage is virtually wasted and patrons will naturally feel cheated! Even the climax is short-winded, despite the fire. (An obvious dummy does duty for Robards). Jane Fonda's fans are also likely to feel cheated as she is not only unglamorously made up and photographed, but her acting is somewhat artificial. Caan walks through his role with his usual blankness. The movie does have a nice music score – what little can be hard of it through all the cattle stampedes and other sound effects!

"I heard the second living creature say, 'Come!' Then another horse came out, a fiery red one, its rider given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other." - The Book of Revelations"Comes a Horseman" is an intermittently interesting western by Alan J. Pakula, a director mostly known for his conspiracy movies ("Klute", "All The Presidents Men", "The Parallax View" and the underrated, prophetic "Rollover"). It sports a fairly generic script – land barons bully small land owners off their property – but Pakula does several unorthodox things with the material.And so unlike most westerns, Pakula sets his tale in the American West of the 1940s, and mirrors the war raging in Europe with two ranchers (James Caan and Jane Fonda) who must fend off similar expansionist dreams at home. Meanwhile, the "evil land baron" (Jason Robards, a common face in Westerns) who puts the squeeze on our heroes is himself being pressured by big oil corporations. The "oil drillings", "break-ins", "transgressions", and "penetrations" directed at female rancher Jane Fonda's land by ex-lover Robards then take on a psycho-sexual tinge. She's earthly, feminine, of the land, and all her interactions with Robards play like the traumatic confrontations between a rape victim and her tormentor.The film contains two great scenes – a bizarre meal shared over a tiny table, and an early, shocking murder – but is mostly slow and lackadaisically paced. Pakula's visuals are pretty but stiff, and the film's final act is terrible, thanks to last minute rewrites and heavy studio interference.The film features the always likable Richard Farnsworth (most famous for his roles in "The Straight Story" and "The Grey Fox") in a bit part, and some of the best horse riding and wrangling sequences in the genre. A stunt rider was killed during Pakula's production, but the actors do much of the riding themselves. The film offers a fairly low-key, realistic portrait of life on a ranch, but Pakula generic plot too often gets in the way of these more authentic moments.7/10 – Worth one viewing.