Good and gripping modern western imbued with a deep nostalgia for a vanished world , set in the ranchlands of Montana 1945 , dealing with an old-fashioned cowboy on horseback , an Anzio war veteran resistant to the modern times , called Frank Buck (James Caan) . He is a free-spirited man out of sync with the contemporary age . Buck reluctantly attempts to help and joins forces with a single woman , Ella Connors , (Jane Fonda , who holds an uncanny resemblance to her father Henry as well as her brother Peter and her personality dominates the film) pitting wits against the world progress , oil-rich proprietaries and a nasty land baron (Jason Robards as her previous incestuous cousin) in an attempt to hold their dream of pioneering spirit and freedom . Buck and Connors are supported by a local old timer called Dodger (Richard Fansworth) . Meanwhile , a powerful banker (George Grizzard) attempts to take all the oil rich lands surrounding the wealthy owners . An the end takes place and exciting and moving climax when the main conflicts developing throughout the movie come alive .Romantic , compelling , elegiac and marvelously acted Western with an extreme feel by that time and period . Sorrowfull essay on civilized progress and exploitation of nature , including two main characters out of step with the modern world . The message of Dennis Clark's screenplay is often a little too heavily underlined buttressed by some rather obvious symbols . The film turns out to be rebellious as well as respectful with classic Western mythology , including ordinary set pieces : saloon fights , go riding , rodeo , close range , stampedes and final gun-play , adding some Fordian touches . Although the flick is more interested in the sensitive love story between Fonda and Caan than battles and western action . This ¨Comes a horseman¨ bears certain resemblance to ¨Lonely are the brave¨ by David Miller with Kirk Douglas , Walter Matthaw , Gena Rowlands ; both of them are misfit modern Westerns , share similar issues : ranchers' conflict , open range , confrontations and resistance to the modern ages . ¨Comes the horseman¨ results to be an elaborately designed Western with a slow-moving and persuasive treatment of Western familiar themes such as : brawls in a bar , cattle chase , war range , shootouts , and including a blazing conclusion brings this thrilling picture to a highly satisfactory final . Very good acting from a great cast . As Jane Fonda as the spinster banshee woman who fights off relentlessly cattle baron , she is mercilessly struggling to make it on her own to not have to sell out her lands . James Caan is really convincing as the cowboy who feels empathy and finally love for Fonda . Both of whom are really faced off a villain owner , masterfully played by Jason Robards as a cattle baron attempting to gobble up all Montana land , whose affair with her as a teenager has marked to her father . And special mention for Richard Farnsworth as a Walter Brennan-style old times who steals the show as the veteran who wants to die with boots on .Pakula directs with aplomb and eloquent feeling for landscapes , making magnificent use of outdoors and adding a wonderful cinematography by Gordon Willis who gives a visually superb lighting . Furthermore , it displays a rousing and thrilling musical score by Michael Small . This intriguing picture was compellingly directed by Alan J. Pacula , though being slowly and deliberately realized . Pacula made a lot of nice films , such as : All the president's men , Sophie's choice , The Parallax view , Starting over , Presumed innocent , Pelican brief , The devil's own and this one : Comes a horseman .

"I heard the second living creature say, 'Come!' Then another horse came out, a fiery red one, its rider given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other." - The Book of Revelations"Comes a Horseman" is an intermittently interesting western by Alan J. Pakula, a director mostly known for his conspiracy movies ("Klute", "All The Presidents Men", "The Parallax View" and the underrated, prophetic "Rollover"). It sports a fairly generic script – land barons bully small land owners off their property – but Pakula does several unorthodox things with the material.And so unlike most westerns, Pakula sets his tale in the American West of the 1940s, and mirrors the war raging in Europe with two ranchers (James Caan and Jane Fonda) who must fend off similar expansionist dreams at home. Meanwhile, the "evil land baron" (Jason Robards, a common face in Westerns) who puts the squeeze on our heroes is himself being pressured by big oil corporations. The "oil drillings", "break-ins", "transgressions", and "penetrations" directed at female rancher Jane Fonda's land by ex-lover Robards then take on a psycho-sexual tinge. She's earthly, feminine, of the land, and all her interactions with Robards play like the traumatic confrontations between a rape victim and her tormentor.The film contains two great scenes – a bizarre meal shared over a tiny table, and an early, shocking murder – but is mostly slow and lackadaisically paced. Pakula's visuals are pretty but stiff, and the film's final act is terrible, thanks to last minute rewrites and heavy studio interference.The film features the always likable Richard Farnsworth (most famous for his roles in "The Straight Story" and "The Grey Fox") in a bit part, and some of the best horse riding and wrangling sequences in the genre. A stunt rider was killed during Pakula's production, but the actors do much of the riding themselves. The film offers a fairly low-key, realistic portrait of life on a ranch, but Pakula generic plot too often gets in the way of these more authentic moments.7/10 – Worth one viewing.

It was Easter weekend and I was typing the final draft in Allan's office as he and Dennis were revising. It was an excellent script and, I thought, very Steinbeckian. When I saw the movie I was very disappointed. The ending you saw was not the ending of the script I typed. The original ending was perfect; for me the ending in the release was a cop out. I heard later through the grapevine that the studio didn't like the original ending and said it had to be changed. Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure, but the ending was, indeed, changed. Had the original script been filmed, it would have been a much better movie.

I've rarely been so totally disappointed by a movie as I was by this one. That's because it starts out so well! At the halfway mark, I was thinking I'd discovered one of the great westerns of all time. There's a wonderful sense of realism: the dirt, the sun, the hard work, these come through as in few other westerns I can think of. Jane Fonda does a great job as a weathered cowgirl who just refuses to give up. Caan is a bit out of place, but doesn't let things down, and Farnsworth is perfect as the old cowhand trying to get in just one more roundup. The romance between Caan and Fonda is under-played beautifully... you sense it, but never get the feeling that the writers forced it on the characters.But then it all goes to pieces, with one of the stupidest endings I've ever seen on a major motion picture. Gone is the realism, the logic, the drama... everything, in fact, that you've been enjoying up till that point. All you've got left is cliché and stupidity: Snidely Wiplash twirling his mustachios over a truly moronic murder attempt (why didn't Robards just shoot everybody? or at least tie them up a bit better??), and an abrupt halt (you can't call it an "ending") that fails to resolve ANY of the film's more interesting plot lines. It's like first they ran out of ideas, then they ran out of film.Most of Comes a Horseman is so good, I'd like to say it's worth watching, regardless. But the ultimate sense of frustration overwhelms any possible pleasure. Unless you literally have the discipline to switch off twenty minutes before the end, you definitely shouldn't waste your time on this sad misfire.