What a waste of my time!!!

Perfectly adorable

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Released in 1976 and directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, "The Last Hard Men" is a Western starring Charlton Heston as Burgade, a retired law enforcement officer in Arizona, 1909. When a vicious half-breed outlaw, Provo (James Coburn), escapes from a Yuma prison with several other thugs Burgade gets back in the saddle, literally, because Provo's coming after him and his daughter (Barbara Hershey). Michael Parks plays the sheriff who initially assists Burgade while Jorge Rivero plays Provo's right hand man.This movie's an interesting cinematic study: It has all the right elements for a great Western, but it's curiously mediocre in execution. The screenplay was taken from Brian Garfield's 1971 novel "Gundown" and Garfield was on set for uncredited rewrites. If you're not familiar with him, he wrote the book that birthed the 1974 hit "Death Wish." Add to this a proved Western director and a great cast (How can you go wrong with Heston and Coburn?). Furthermore, the movie features authentic Arizona locations (where Garfield's from) with much of the story taking place in the rugged wilderness of the high country. Moreover, the film has a quality score. While Leonard Rosenman was supposed to compose an original score, it fell through and so the producers concocted a pastiche from four of Jerry Goldsmith's past compositions: "100 rifles" (1969), "Río Conchos" (1964), "Morituri" (1965) and "Stagecoach" (1966). This explains why the music sounds pleasantly familiar to those who've seen any of these movies. Lastly, this isn't a lame old-fashioned Western, it was shot in the gritty realistic style of Sam Peckinpah, one of Garfield's favorite directors, and, as such, there's a lot of wicked violence, including a rape scene.Unfortunately the movie's only decent. There are some interesting bits interspersed throughout, but the characters come across as dull and the story's strangely un-compelling (your mind frequently wanders). Burgade (Heston) and Provo (Coburn) are two prime examples of the flat characters. The former's just an uninteresting person (the express opposite of Taylor in "Planet of the Apes") while the latter comes across as a one-dimensional vengeful villain whom Ricardo Montalban probably used as a prototype for his cartoony portrayal of Khan in 1982's "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" (which is in contrast to his fascinating portrayal of Khan in the 1966 episode "Space Seed").Garfield complained about the title of the movie on the grounds that it was originally set to be called "Burgade" (again, from his novel "Gundown") and "The Last Hard Men" sounds like a porno flick, he argued. But both "Gundown" and "Burgade" are pretty dang generic sounding to me. At least "The Last Hard Men" ties into the theme of the film, which, incidentally, was nothing new at the time in light of "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968), "The Wild Bunch" (1969), "Big Jake" (1971) and several others, not to mention "The Shootist" (1976), which came out a couple months after "The Last Hard Men." So I don't have a problem with the title. That said, I asked my wife if she wanted to see a Western and she replied "Which one?" I said, "The Last Hard Men." She responded, "Ooh baby, yes!" The film runs 98 minutes and was shot in Arizona (too many places to cite).GRADE: C

Commonplace Western has James Coburn as a half-breed outlaw escaping from a chain gang and setting out for torturous revenge on retired sheriff Charlton Heston, who also was responsible for the death of Coburn's wife. Heston is ready to confront him, so the criminal kidnaps Chuck's daughter (Barbara Hershey) to outsmart him. The two tough guy actors are pretty good, and there is an attempt to make the action live up to its "R" rating with some bloody shots and a rape sequence, but what used to be violent in 1976 is not as strong today and the overall results are pretty standard. Jerry Goldsmith's score is spirited. Also features young Michael Parks as the current new sheriff. **1/2 out of ****

"The Last Hard Men" is a typical western for the 70's. Most of them seem to be inspired by Sam Peckinpah. Also this one, but Director Andrew McLaglan is a John Ford Pupil and this can be obviously shown in many scenes. IMO the beginning is very good. In a certain way McLaglan wanted to show the audience a travel from the civilization to the wilderness. In the third part there are some illogical flaws and I complain a bit about Charlton Heston. He has to play an old ex-lawman named Sam Burgade but he is in a fantastic physical shape. I never got the feeling that he really has problems to climb on a horse or on a rock. For me he didn't looks very motivated as he usual do in most of his epic movies. Same goes to the beautiful Barbara Hershey who is playing the sheriff's daughter. Maybe both had troubles with the director or were unhappy with their roles. Hershey and Coburn are not showing their best but they are still good. If the scriptwriter had John Wayne in their mind as Sam Burgade? Also Michael Parks as modern sheriff is a bit underused in his role. On the other Hand there is James Coburn as outlaw Zach Provo. Coburn is a really great villain in this one. He is portraying the bad guy between maniac hate and cleverness. His role and his acting is the best of the movie.Landscapes and Shootouts are terrific. The shootings scenes are bloody and the violence looks realistic. Zach Provo and his gang had some gory and violent scenes. What I miss is the typical western action in the middle of the movie. I would have appreciated a bank robbery or something similar. Overall it's an entertaining western flick. Not a great movie but above the average because of a great Coburn, a very good beginning and some gory and violent scenes.

The Last Hard Men finds James Coburn an outlaw doing a long sentence breaking free from a chain gang. Do he and his friends head for the Mexican border from jail and safety. No they don't because Coburn has a mission of revenge. To kill the peace officer who brought him in and in the process killed his woman.That peace officer is Charlton Heston who is now retired and he knows what Coburn is after. As he explains it to his daughter, Barbara Hershey, Coburn was holed up in a shack and was involved in a Waco like standoff. His Indian woman was killed in the hail of bullets fired. It's not something he's proud of, she was a collateral casualty in a manhunt.Lest we feel sorry for Coburn he lets us know full well what an evil man he truly is. Heston is his usual stalwart hero, but the acting honors in The Last Hard Men go to James Coburn. He blows everyone else off the screen when he's on. Coburn gets the bright idea of making sure Heston trails him by kidnapping Hershey and taking her to an Indian reservation where the white authorities can't touch him. He knows that Heston has to make it personal then.Coburn's gang includes, Morgan Paull, Thalmus Rasulala, John Quade, Larry Wilcox, and Jorge Rivero. Heston has Chris Mitchum along who is his son-in-law to be.The Last Hard Men is one nasty and brutal western. Andrew McLaglen directed it and I'm thinking it may have been a project originally intended for Sam Peckinpaugh. It sure shows a lot of his influence with the liberal use of slow motion to accentuate the violence. Of which there is a lot. For a little Peckinpaugh lite, The Last Hard Men is your film.