Bravados it's one those movies to never forget,so powerful and so compelling,Peck is sad laconic and cold guy pursuing remorseless revenge,but the persecution is long and without respite,along the way he became a judge,each bad man has your final day,but in the end he found the awful truth,the killer was nearby the fence,excellent casting as still unknown Lee Van Cleef,Henry Silva and Joe De Rita in weird role,noteworthy is also a beautiful Mexican landscape,atypical western and essential for those love the real cinema!! Resume: First watch: 2007 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8

While Gregory Peck is not the mean outlaw he is in "Duel in the Sun", he is, however, a low-keyed yet mean, cold man who is going to wage an all-out, one-man war against the four men who he knows have killed his wife. Peck does well in the role of Jeff Douglas, the cold, vindictive man who will stop at nothing to accomplish his own purpose. Joan Collins is a very pretty, sweet, caring friend Josefa. Andrew Duggan in one of his few decent roles is convincing as a priest. Stephen Boyd, Henry Silva, Albert Salmi, and Lee Van Cleef are four of the "meanest" men who have ever lived: they definitely portray their roles to a tee. Because of all that I like in a western-beautiful rustic scenery, good action, and actors portraying their characters well, I think this western has not received the acclaim it, I fell, justly deserves.

Pleasant classic Western with magnificent Gregory Peck who steals the show as a merciless revenger gunfighter . He is relentless in his vengeance , deadly in his violence but he learns that he has become no better than those he hunts . A Hollywood production full of action , exaggerated characters , shootouts and lots of violence . For revenge, he doesn't care why he kills or how ¡ ... . An errant Jim Douglas (Gregory Peck) sees the atrocity over his family and executes a single-handedly revenge, as he ravages and murders each person involved in his vendetta . Douglas has been relentlessly pursuing the four outlaws (Albert Salmi , Henry Silva , Stephen Boyd and Lee Van Cleef) who killed his wife, but finds them in prison about to be hanged . But the prisoners escape and villagers enlist Douglas' aid to capture them . The conflict is a simple one between avenger Douglas and oppressors, nasties bandits commanded by cruel Bill Zachary (Stephen Boyd) . Douglas along with a posse set out in pursuit the outlaws and he faces the vicious bandits.It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the protagonist Gregory Peck against four heartless bandits . In the film premiere attained success , nowadays is well valued and I think it turns out to be a good classic Western. The picture is fleshed out with a marvelous cast as Gregory Peck who is excellent as a good father turned revenger . Nice too is Henry Silva as the brash Mexican young gun and Andrew Duggan as the amiable Padre . Joan Collins gives a good performance as Jim's former girlfriend , she does a well measured portrayal of a woman who still loves her previous sweetheart and who promises to leave with him which ultimately can never be . Stephen Boyd as a cruelly baddie role also is terrific . The film packs violence , gun-play , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining. There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shootouts or stunts every few minutes . This is a dark downbeat story of an avenger gunfighter perfectly performed by Gregory Peck told with genuine realism and honesty . Stylishly written by prestigious by Philip Yordan-Johnny Guitar- , the screenplay was based on an original story by Frank O'Rourke. The movie was directed with a positive flair by Henry King . There are many fine technicians and nice assistants as Lyle Wheeler and Walter Scott in charge of Art Direction and Set Direction respectively . Good production design creating an excellent scenario with luminous outdoors, dirty and rocky landscapes under a glimmer sun and a fine sets on the Mexican landscapes . The musician Lionel Newman composes a nice soundtrack and well conducted , being helped by the maestros Hugo Friedhofer and Alfred Newman , tough uncredited ; it's full of agreeable sounds, and a haunting musical leitmotif . Sharply photographed with striking cinematography by Leon Shamroy in Technicolor, Techniscope with negative well processed and outdoor sequences filmed in Jalisco, Mexico Morelia, Michoacán,St Jose Perua mountains, Mexico.Henry King 's direction is well crafted , here he's less thought-provoking and broody and more inclined toward violence and too much action , because he's a expert on compelling Adventure/Western genre . Henry King directed other classic Western as ¨ Jesse James(1939)¨and ¨The gunfighter(1950)¨ with Peck again . Koster was specialist on Adventure genre as proved in ¨Untamed , Captain King , Captain of Castilla , Black Swan , Stanley and Livingstone ¨and many others . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching .

I'm not sure the title makes much sense. "The Bravados." I guess you can have a couple of people called the bravados in the same way that you can have desperadoes, but while people can be collectively desperate, few collectivities would exhibit "bravado," which means "boldness intended to impress or intimidate." Certainly nobody in this movies does. I take it that someone was assigned the task of coming up with a properly Western-sounding title and said, "Well, what the hell. It's better than 'The Guns of Darkness'." In the quiet little Western town of Rio Arriba or whatever it is, four men are to be hanged in the morning for felony murder -- the rapacious Steven Boyd, the bullock-like Albert Salmi, the nervous and ratty Lee Van Cleef, and the canny Indian, Henry Silva. Into the town rides the mysterious figure of Gregory Peck, looking grim and determined, waiting for the hanging.But it never happens! The four felons escape, taking a pretty young woman hostage. The posse takes off after them, except for Peck, the most resolved of the hunters, who -- knowing that they will hold the posse off at the pass until daylight -- goes to sleep in his hotel room, ready for a fresh start with a rested horse in the morning.That's the first hint of John Ford's "The Searchers," which appeared two years earlier. Both are revenge Westerns in which the protagonist will simply not be put off but keeps coming, filled with hatred, only to find at the end that his rage has misled him."The Searchers" is a superior film, more subtle in many ways, more fully fleshed out with character and humor, but "The Bravados" is a rattling good tale too. You will never be bored.The excitement is due chiefly to some of the performances and to the direction and the plot takes some of the sheen from Peck's usually unimpeachable rectitude. He catches up with the four men, one by one. The first is Van Cleef. When Peck disarms him and has him on his knees, he shows Van Cleef a photo of his wife, whom he claims Van Cleef and the rest raped and killed at his ranch. Van Cleef, in one of his best scenes, confesses to past crimes but insists he's never seen Peck's wife. He begs for his life. In return, Peck kicks him in the face once or twice and shoots him in the back of the head. We don't know what Peck does to the next miscreant, Salmi, but it was probably pretty savage. The posse find Salmi hanging by his feet from a tree. The third man, Boyd, is shot in the chest before he has a chance to draw his pistol. No doubt Boyd deserved it. He has a "weakness" for women. When left alone with the sexy hostage, he turns utterly slimy, feeling the hem of her long dress and petticoats and beginning his planned assault by asking, "Is that silk?" The Indian's case is a little more complicated and it requires Peck to register first disbelief, then guilt. He handles it okay. It's well within his range as an actor.Henry King directed it and did a good job too. The movie lacks a sense of place though. Lots of Mexicans around -- this is only a two- or three-day ride from the border -- but otherwise the settings are generic and functional. Rio Arriba is a typical dusty town with a hotel, an adjoining saloon, a jail house, a mercantile store, and a great big church. That's it for the community. Oh, Joan Collins is around mainly to provide Peck with a substitute for his ravaged wife, and when she goes to church she's given one of those tall black mantillas that come from Spain. Her performance is less than convincing. The script and performances, however, nicely individualize the four escapees. The locations -- around Jalisco and in Michoacan, where my barber and guru Luis comes from -- are pretty without being distinctive: rolling hills of pine forest with jagged sawtooth mountains on the horizon. Some clichés are avoided. Nobody's life depends on a fast draw, and when we first see Peck's little daughter she looks like an unkempt street urchin. Some clichés are eagerly welcomed. Peck removes his hat after riding a hundred miles and his 1950s haircut looks freshly done and moussed by the studio barber. He is clean shaven -- and I mean void of any hint of stubble.I swear that, at times, some of the incidents are so nearly original that I began to wonder if maybe Henry King hadn't caught them by mistake or maybe the editor had chosen the wrong take. When Peck confronts Boyd in the Mexican cantina, for instance, we don't expect Peck to interrupt the conversation by suddenly drawing his pistol and firing it -- and neither, it appears, does Boyd the actor. He looks surprised, as if a mistake had been made. A less imaginative director would have handled it much differently.