James Coburnplayed roles in all types of movies over the course of his 45-year career, but might be most associated with Westerns, a genre ideally suited to his hard-edged brand of cool. With his sharp features, intense blue eyes, and mischievously crooked mouth, he looked like he was born to wear a dirty cowboy hat and wield a six-shooter.
Arriving just in time for the era ofSpaghetti and revisionist Westerns, Coburn often played complex characters, his relaxed exterior masking a roil of internal conflict. He is not in the first tier of great Western stars alongside the likes of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Randolph Scott, but Coburn is a familiar face to most fans of the genre, having added his talents to severalall-time great Westerns.
10A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die! (AKA Massacre At Fort Holman)
Coburn Plays A Vengeful Union Colonel
A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die!is a Spaghetti Western take onThe Dirty Dozen. The cast is not exactly in the all-star range, Telly Savalas being the only recognizable star besides Coburn, who brings a sense of wounded dignity to his vengeance-seeking character. Predictably, the movie’s two biggest names do not come face-to-face until the very end, but their delayed showdown is the movie’s highlight.
A decidedly minor work in the vein of Leone, bearing all the Spaghetti Western hallmarks (Coburn’s craggy face in close-up being one of the big ones), but bringing nothing new to the table. There’s enough action to keep it from becoming entirely dull, but to get over the hump, it would’ve needed a couple more solid character actors, a few clever plot twists, and a little more visual wow-factor.A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die!is readily available on streaming, for the Coburn completists.
9Young Guns II
Coburn Plays John Chisum, A Ruthless Cattle Baron
Coburn played Pat Garrett in Sam Peckinpah’sPat Garrett and Billy the Kid, opposite Kris Kristofferson as The Kid. InYoung Guns II, a much older Coburn plays cattle baron John Chisum, who throws in with the group hiring Garrett (William Petersen) to hunt down Emilio Estevez’s Billy. Coburn had aged into elder statesman mode by the time he madeYoung Guns II.Producers would plug him into Westerns and score some instant genre credibility, his grizzled, steely presence having become iconic.
Coburn’s character John Chisum is based on a real person, whom John Wayne had previously played in the movieChisum
A $59 million box-office hit in 1988,Young Guns IIis perhaps best remembered for its Oscar-nominated Bon Jovi song “Blaze of Glory.” It has a lowRotten Tomatoesfresh rating of just 31%, several critics having characterized it as a missed opportunity, due to a weak script.
Coburn did supporting turns on just about every classic Western TV show ever made before movie stardom allowed him to focus solely on the big screen. But somehow he never appeared alongsideJames Garner inMaverick. He did, however, appear in 1994’s movie version ofMaverick, sharing the screen with Garner, who played the father of Mel Gibson’s cardsharp.
Maverickcasts Coburn as Commodore Duvall, a rich man who runs the big card tournament Gibson spends most of the movie trying to get enough money to play in. As withYoung Guns II, the movie wants Coburn’s presence as a signifier of Western authenticity as much as it wants him as an actor. Released when Gibson’s name alone could open a film,Maverickgrossed $183 million, getting good reviews from critics like Roger Ebert, who praised its family-friendly tone.
Richard Brooks’ revisionist Western casts Coburn as one of the participants in a grueling 700-mile cross-country horse race. His Luke Mathews is pitted against his fellow former Rough Rider and friend Sam Clayton, played by the great Gene Hackman. Producers wanted bigger stars in those roles, specifically Paul Newman and Burt Reynolds,but Hackman and Coburn are arguably more believable as Western tough guys than the producers’ first choices would’ve been.
One of onlyseven Westerns to feature Gene Hackman,Bite the Bulletwas a major Columbia production in 1975, earning $11 million on a budget of around $4 million. It was Oscar-nominated for Best Sound and Best Score, and currently holds a 75% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Nearly every positive review mentions the Harry Stradling cinematography as a huge plus. Its cast is also strong, and director Brooks gives it some thematic heft.
Coburn’s unique blend of toughness and affability serves him well as a rodeo rider on the downslope of his career, who blows back into town to disrupt the lives of his wife, son, and rodeo clown best friend. His Lew Lathrop is reminiscent of Paul Newman’s Hud, outwardly likable but completely self-centered, and bound to emotionally damage everyone who gets close to him.
The neo-WesternThe Honkersis set in the same small-town Texas milieu asThe Last Picture Show, but is rowdy and lyrical instead of stark and existential. Coburn fits into this world with ease, delivering a complex, affecting performance as a narcissistic man of insatiable appetites. The film received some good reviews upon its release, but has no particular critical reputation today.
Sam Peckinpah’s 1965 Western was heavily cut by Columbia, and was not restored to something like its intended form until a 2005 re-release. Coburn plays a scout attached to a ragtag force led by Charlton Heston’s Dundee, a complex protagonist charged with hunting down Apaches responsible for a massacre.
Coburn was one of Peckinpah’s favorite actors, but for the role of Potts, Columbia originally soughtWestern icon Lee Marvin, one of Coburn’s major competitors for tough-guy parts. Production onMajor Dundeewas a complete mess, due in large part to script problems. The chopped-up theatrical cut lost money, taking just $2.5 million in theater rentals on a budget of up to $4.5 million. The movie currently holds a high 97% fresh rating on RT, but that’s due in large part to the 2005 restored version, as well as the overall re-assessment of the film in light of Peckinpah’s huge reputation.
Sergio Leone’s “forgotten” Spaghetti Western is not on the same level as the Dollars Trilogy orOnce Upon a Time In the West. Coburn and Rod Steiger generate a small buddy-movie spark in the early scenes, which lean hard into satire, in a way that frankly does not always work very well, due to some lapses in taste.
Coburn’s Irish accent goes in and out, but he’s a good-humored, though slightly melancholy, presence as Mallory, a 1910s Irish terrorist who has fled to Mexico, and hooks up with Steiger’s bandit Juan to become a revolutionary. The story is an escalating series of semi-comical exploits, each climaxing with something getting blown up using Mallory’s seemingly infinite supply of dynamite. Overlooked by critics in its day,the film has been embraced over the years, and has a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
3Ride Lonesome
Coburn Makes His Film Debut As Whit
Its depiction of Indigenous people placesRide Lonesomefirmly in the “hasn’t aged well” category. Coburn scored his first ever screen role in Budd Boetticher’s CinemaScope Western, starring Randolph Scott as a bounty hunter. Scott was indeed one of the first to spot Coburn’s talent, as Boetticher related in a2000 Q&Afollowing a screening of two of his films:
[Scott] said one day to us, “Who is that fellow in the red underwear I played the scene with this morning?” And I said, “His name’s Coburn. James Coburn. This is his first picture.” He said, “I like that boy. Let’s write some more lyrics for him.” And we wrote a scene in our mind and shot it, and if you’ve seen Ride [Lonesome], it’s my favorite thing in the picture.
Boetticher was regarded as nothing more than a competent hand behind the camera until the auteurists elevated his status. Today,Ride Lonesomehas a strong critical reputation, scoring 90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is light on action, but heavy on psychological tension, with a script by Burt Kennedy that emphasizes its characters’ ever-shifting dynamic.
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Cast
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is a Western film released in 1973, directed by Sam Peckinpah. It stars James Coburn as Pat Garrett, a lawman tasked by New Mexico cattle barons to capture his former friend, the outlaw Billy the Kid, played by Kris Kristofferson.
Another Peckinpah Western that exists in multiple versions, due to clashes between studio and director. LikeMajor Dundee, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid was dismissed in its day, but has grown in reputation. It’s currently available in both a restored version, and a preview version that Peckinpah would show to friends (that excised Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” which the director hated).
Coburn has maybe his most iconic Western role as Pat Garrett, former ally of Kris Kristofferson’s Billy the Kid, who now must hunt his friend. Both leads give great performances, Kristofferson creating a definitive Billy, and Coburn matching him. The film’s current Rotten Tomatoes 59% fresh rating is the result of older reviews slamming the theatrical cut mixing with newer reviews embracing the restoration. Audiences liked it enough in 1973 to make it a modest hit, grossing $11 million on a budget of $4.6 million.
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is a Western film directed by John Sturges. Released in 1960, it follows a group of seven gunfighters, led by Chris Adams, hired to protect a defenseless Mexican village from marauding bandits. The ensemble cast includes Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson.
James Coburn had a heavy hand inone of the most influential Westerns of all time. Taking inspiration from Kurosawa’s masterpieceSeven Samurai, John Sturges’ film is the ultimate action team-up, with a cast that includes Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson. Coburn plays the knife-wielding Britt, one of his coolest Western characters. Also cool is the movie’s Oscar-nominated Elmer Bernstein score.
There are conflicting reports as to Kurosawa’s opinion ofThe Magnificent Seven, one account saying he was disappointed by the movie, but another saying he liked it so much he presented its director with a sword
Given the film’s status as an all-time great Western, it’s perhaps surprising that it was panned by many critics in its original run, and was considered a borderline box-office flop. Its 89% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes reflects its current status as a granddad-movie classic. The 2016 remake was a solid enough film,but came nowhere near matching the original, which in 2013 was chosen for preservation by the National Film Registry.
