The Bounty Killer
The film stars Richard Wyler as Luke Chilson, the bounty killer of the title. He always gets his man, as seen in the opening credits, as he tracks two men across the Arizona desert. One of them gets away long enough to tell a beautiful young woman (Halina Zalewska), that her childhood boyfriend has escaped from jail, but was recaptured and being sent to a maximum-security prison in Yuma, where no one ever returns from.
She helps her boyfriend (Tomas Milian) escape, and he holes up with his gang in her hotel in a dusty little town. The people of the town love Milian, and will do anything to keep Wyler from capturing him. This, even though Milian has now become a hardened thief and killer. Wyler compares him to Jesse James, and the townspeople remind Wyler that James was protected by his people, who were good and decent people.
But the townspeople, particularly Zalewska, see that Milian has indeed changed, and his gang are a bunch of rowdies. Milian plays the outlaw like a rock star, and give the year of release, it could be seen as a parallel to the establishment/counter-culture clashes of the '60s. In this instance, we are led to finally agree with the side of law and order, as the townspeople eventually help Wyler bring in his man.
I found the dynamic between the two men, Wyler and Milian, interesting, as neither are heroic. Wyler is only interested in money--unlike other films of the period, he never has a moment where he is doing what he is doing to help people. The film portrays Milian as charismatic, until we finally see he's a lazy good for nothing, lying in bed and drinking.
Martin has some interesting touches that resonated. In the final shootout, Wyler shoots Milian in both wrists so he can't shoot, but Milian, rather than giving up and lying in the dust, tries to work the gun with his mouth, a fitting comment on the culture of the gun.
The Bounty Killer is worth a look.
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