Highly Overrated But Still Good

Charming and brutal

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

While slavery and Japanese internment has its proper place in the U.S. history books, what does not is the forced deportation of any person who had the misfortune of having a Spanish name (or looked "Mexican) during the Great Depression, when these people were rounded-up by local and federal agents and simply thrown across the border with little more than what they could carry, with no due process rights. It is estimated that 60 percent of these people were U.S. citizens.During the 1950s, several films--Giant, Trial and Man From Del Rio--provided commentary on anti-Hispanic prejudice in this country, and obviously nothing has changed since then. Today the media and Hollywood fear to tread into the topic of this ongoing prejudice (usually disguised under the guise of "immigration" and "crime"), so it is fortunate that films like this still exist to tell us the ugly truth. David Robles (Anthony Quinn) is seen as just a "thug" who is good with a gun after he arrives to find a man who helped shoot-up his town of Del Rio. Even the only other Hispanic in town, Estella (Katy Jurado) is so desperate to "fit-in" with the Anglos that she also wants him gone. The townspeople offer him a job as sheriff, not to enforce the law, but to be a ready gun when needed. They will not socialize with him, they just want him to do their "dirty work." Sound familiar? There are several ugly scenes that manifest this racism, especially ones involving white women.To Estella's credit, she witnesses one of these debasing incidents and changes her tune. As the film progresses we discover that Robles is not the ignorant "Mexican" the townspeople think he is; he is not just good with a gun, but he displays a cunning level of intelligence that even if the townspeople probably still won't socialize with him, they cannot underestimate him, and he wins the only things he wanted since coming to the town, his self-respect and the love of the only person in town capable of giving it to him.

Man From Del Rio (1956) is one of a large number of well directed, nicely written and acted westerns from the 50s, a decade rich in quality westerns, from the small scale, epic and everything in-between. The film's director, Harry Horner, was an old Hollywood hand, used some odd camera angles and made the visual and spatial aspects of this modest production interesting, pleasing to look at, even as the film is itself low budget and in black and white.Anthony Quinn is the Hispanic sheriff of a small western town where he is needed, due to his skill with handguns, but not liked or wanted due to his ethnic background. Even Katy Jurado's token Hispanic woman, playing somewhat against type, would rather Quinn would simply disappear. The supporting cast is outstanding for a film of this sort, with such familiar players as Whit Bissell and Douglas Fowley in roles in which each would seem be a better fit for the the other's.It helps to be a western fan to enjoy this picture. This is not a movie for everyone. The story itself is by the numbers, but it works some nice variations on its familiar themes; and star Anthony Quinn is excellent in the lead. He was on the verge of major stardom when he appeared in the film, and on the basis of his performance it's easy to see why. The film was released the same year as Lust For Life, in which Quinn's supporting performance won him an Academy award. It's difficult for me to imagine two more different films for this actor to have appeared in during the same year.

Dreary melodrama about a drifter (played by Anthony Quinn) who initially gains respect as a fast-draw gunslinger, only to find that it takes more than a quick gun to win respect from the town folk.This obscure western is mostly a character study, and as such, it reminds me of the old Gunsmoke series. The town is predictably drab; the main props are guns and whiskey bottles; and the music and shadows make the atmosphere grim. The acting is adequate. In addition to Quinn, the film features veteran actor Whit Bissell, and the always engaging Katy Jurado.

Good western with Quinn playing a man bent on revenge who lives on the shady side of the law. After coming to a strange town his life is changed completely and he must come to a major decision concerning his future. Lots of good gunplay, bad guys, and, of course, the love interest.