Vera Cruz

Robert Aldrich: Vera Cruz (US 1954) with Burt Lancaster (Joe) and Gary Cooper (Ben). La Cinémathèque française.

Vera Cruz (title in France, Finland, Sweden).

US © 1954 Flora Productions. PC: Flora Productions / Hecht-Lancaster Productions. Distr: United Artists Corp.

Robert Aldrich / États-Unis / 1954 / 93 min / 35 mm / VOSTF

d'après une histoire originale de Borden Chase

The first film released in SuperScope 2:00:1.

Avec Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Sarita Montiel

Filmed entirely in Mexico.

    Estudios Churubusco.

    Loc: – Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán, San Juan Teotihuacán, Estado de México (Caravan Scene) 

– Texcoco, El Molino de las Flores Estado de Mexico – Chapultepec Castle – Chapultepec Park – C. Atletas 2, Country Club Churubusco, Coyoacán – Cuernavaca, Morelos – Mexico City

    US premiere: 25 Dec 1954.

    Finnish premiere: 27 Jan 1956 – Adams Filmi Oy.

    Copie avec sous-titres français n.c.

    Vu samedi, le 19 avril 2025 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Avec Vera Cruz, Aldrich annonce la noirceur et le cynisme du western spaghetti avec un film d'aventures nihiliste et anti-héroïque, qui sera l'une des inspirations avouées de Sergio Leone. Tout au long d'un récit sombre et violent, il livre une vision pessimiste de la nature humaine à travers une galerie de personnages ambigus à l'insolence affirmée."

AA: Robert Aldrich's Vera Cruz, set in 1866, is an epic Mexican Western that takes places during the Second Mexican Empire. 

The cast of characters includes George Macready as Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico, who reigned in 1864–1867. Benito Juárez, his predecessor and successor as President of the Republic of Mexico, is not on display, but his army, led by General Ramirez (Morris Ankrum), figures formidably. 

Brutalized in the American Civil War (1861–1865), two mercenaries, Ben (Gary Cooper) and Burt Lancaster (Joe), continue on the warpath in another country. It does not matter on which side: they are only in it for the loot. The United States supports the Republican Juaristas. The Emperor is supported by the Second French Empire.

Industrial scale slaughter drew attention in the American Civil War, and in Vera Cruz we witness it in a Mexican civil war. The weapons on display – a Colt Model 1883 Gatling Gun, 1872 Colt single-action army revolvers and 1894 Winchester rifles – are anachronistic, but the key idea is accurate: this is a new era of mechanical destruction in warfare. No chivalry, gallantry or glory is possible.

Last year was the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, a current that turned its back to history, heroism and big subjects. I sense in it a momentous reaction to the Franco-Prussian War and the preceding American and Mexican civil wars – Édouard Manet made a formidable series of paintings of the execution of Maximilian I by the Republicans.

I have been impressed by Tony Kaes's interpretation of Weimar cinema as "shell shock cinema" in reaction to the First World War. Watching the French Cinémathèque's Western retrospective I have started to think: might the Western be seen as a "shell shock cinema" reaction to the American Civil War? It's been 160 years now, and the wounds are still unhealed.

...

After Apache (1954), Vera Cruz was the second film by Aldrich for Hecht-Lancaster Productions. They established Aldrich as a big leaguer. Aldrich directed Burt Lancaster four times (also in Ulzana's Raid and Twilight's Last Gleaming). Only John Frankenheimer directed him more often.

Vera Cruz is a pioneering work in the cynical lineage leading to The Dirty Dozen (also by Aldrich) and The Wild Bunch. It precedes the 1960s trend of the antihero (James Bond and Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name).

Strong female agency is represented by the Monarchist, Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel) and the Juarista, Nina (Sara Montiel).

The authentic landscapes have been caught magnificently by Aldrich's cinematographer Ernest Laszlo in SuperScope. The epic battles are impressive and electrifying. The visions of the slaughter are devastating, horrifying and depressing. 

The SuperScope presentation is impressive. The print is clean but blurry. The Technicolor experience is uneven.