Did we suddenly skip to J, you're wondering. No, my friends, I got a Clint Eastwood triple feature set. It includes Joe Kidd, which I had never seen, High Plains Drifter, which I already owned, and Two Mules for Sister Sara, which I have seen but didn't own. I figured that was a pretty good deal.Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood) is in jail for being a general pain in the ass. His court hearing is disrupted by armed Mexicans, led by Luis Chama (John Saxon), who want people to stop trespassing on their land. The local government has conveniently lost all their claims in a fire so Chama is rousing the people to action. This does not sit well with rancher Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall). He hires Kidd to track down Chama. Kidd, believing that Chama's men are responsible for an attack on his ranch, agrees. However, once out on the trail, Kidd starts to wonder if he has chosen the wrong side to back, especially when Harlan and his goons threaten the safety of an entire town.
This is a fairly mild Western but it does allow Eastwood to show a lot of charm, almost a Cool Hand Luke kind of vibe. The only thing that was slightly weird to me was casting Roper from Enter the Dragon as a Mexican. Even though his real name (thanks, IMDb!) is Carmine Orrico, not John Saxon, he still doesn't look Mexican. Robert Duvall is pretty straitforwardly evil but I haven't seen him in anything in a while so it was still refreshing.
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