WE KIDD YOU NOT.......BQ VAINLY SEARCHES FOR CLINT'S MORAL COMPASS IN "JOE KIDD"......

             Let's be clear.......the BQ bows to no one in our unbridled joy of watching the younger Clint Eastwood squint in annoyance prior to shooting the crap out of multiple people......

               And yes,  we get the idea that post-Sergio Leone, the shifting, unstable moral landscape of the Spaghetti westerns had fully overtaken American westerns as well...........

               Even so, Eastwood's Joe Kidd (1972) a slapped together little quickie star-vehicle, remains the oddest, slightest entry in his western filmography.......

               Senseless in the extreme, the movie's casual nihilistic attitude, typical for 70's westerns, carries over to the filmmakers themselves..........

               In other words.........they simply don't give a shit.

               The plot (crafted by celebrated novelist Elmore Leonard) plops Eastwood in the middle of a shoot 'em up war between the forces of a Mexican revolutionary (John Saxon) and a murderous land baron (Robert Duvall.........(Duvall comes well equipped with thugs wielding high-powered rifles and his own travelling whore....)

                Where does Clint stand in all this mess?   You tell us.

                The storyline has him shift sides......and the opposing sides aren't above shifting on Clint at a moment's notice.........Duvall's an evil scumbag and Saxon's a True Believer who's got no trouble sacrificing his own innocent people........(that is, until the script reverses Saxon's character entirely for the climax.)

                So who do you root for in this?  Who the hell are you supposed to care about?

                Nobody.

               You can clearly see the boredom and indifference in everyone......Eastwood, Duvall, Saxon........the director, John Sturges, was at the time of his career where he watched the clock for the start of Happy Hour......

                Our advice: pay no attention whatsoever to what's going on in this movie and just live for the individual moments........ Clint regularly pounding one of the high-powered rifle guys.......Clint conking another goon with pottery swinging from a rope........Clint driving a train directly into the town saloon for a shootout........and so on and so on......

              But even in the most negligent of movies like this one, you can discover an astounding moment.  In "Joe Kidd", it's John Saxon's withering line to the one female in his bunch....."I do not care what you think......I keep you for cold night and days when there's nothing to do. Not to hear you talk."

               Hmm......sounds like Donald Trump's last words to Melania before she dropped out of sight....

               For that line.....and Clint being Clint by ramming an entire train into the saloon, we'll shoot off at least 2 stars (**).........a few minor pleasures......but don't Kidd yourself into thinking this is any good.......