Comes a Horseman

PG 6.3
1978 1 hr 58 min Drama , Western , Romance

Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex-suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her neighbor, Frank Athearn. As Ella and Frank fight back through stampedes, jealousy, betrayal, and sabotage... they eventually find love.

  • Cast:
    James Caan , Jane Fonda , Jason Robards , George Grizzard , Richard Farnsworth , Mark Harmon , Macon McCalman

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Reviews

Hellen
1978/10/25

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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Actuakers
1978/10/26

One of my all time favorites.

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Senteur
1978/10/27

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

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Griff Lees
1978/10/28

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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Maziun
1978/10/29

I strongly suggest to watch something else instead of this crap. It's a total failure considering the talents involved here – director Alan Pakula ("All the presidents men") and stars like James Caan ("Godfather") and Jane Fonda ("On golden pound").The story itself is cliché and has been done many times before – in westerns or action movies. This movie actually doesn't want to be a western or action movie. It wants to be a character driven drama . Unfortunately the characters aren't all that interesting. The movie is also too long and moves too slowly. This is one badly directed movie. The acting isn't bad , but I couldn't really care about any of the characters. The main villain (Jason Robards) is also uninteresting and not scary at all. There is some action near the end , but it's hardly anything memorable.I would rather watch "Nowhere to run" with Van Damme. It was better directed and more entertaining than this. Not amazing , but watchable enough. This ? This is just boring.I give it 1/10.

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Spikeopath
1978/10/30

Comes a Horseman is directed by Alan J. Pakula and written by Dennis Lynton Clark. It stars Jane Fonda, James Caan, Jason Robards and Richard Farnsworth. Music is by Michael Small and cinematography by Gordon Willis. It seems the ideas and willing behind Comes a Horseman are made of sturdy stuff, you sense that the makers wanted to make a reflective post-modern Western set in post World War II times. Tonally they get it mostly right, it is very sombre, both in characterisations and the changing of the times thematic beat. Plot is hardly thrilling as Robards' land baron plots to oust Fonda and Caan out of their respective homesteads in readiness for the oil company to come destroy the magnificent landscape. Ella Connors (Fonda) is a feisty but vulnerable woman, Frank Athearn (Caan) is fresh out of service in the war and carries the emotional scars of said battles. They form an unsteady alliance to ward off Jacob Ewing (Robards), but as past turmoil's come to the surface it's touch and go as to who, if anyone, will win out. With the Colorado landscape beautifully captured by Willis, and the performances (including an Academy Award Nomination for Farnsworth as Ella's sage old ranch hand) solid as a rock, the pic retains interest if you can tolerate the laborious pace favoured by Pakula. There's a couple of action sequences within, but they feel like afterthoughts, so we are left to buy into the rueful characterisations and their respective attempts at post war living out there on the ranges. 6.5/10

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BigWhiskers
1978/10/31

Although this movie came out in 1978 when I was 13 ,I don't remember ever seeing it first run. Tonight on Turner Classic Movies they are doing a Jane Fonda movie night -ho hum. Im not a fan of Ms Fonda rather I enjoy some of the other actors who play alongside her in some of her movies but I do not enjoy watching her ,she is rather annoying in her acting and most times would not surprise me if shes not acting but playing herself.James Caan costars as a cowboy she sells land to and his partner gets killed by Robards henchmen so he joins up with Fonda and Farnsworth. Anyway, the actors who make this movie are Farnsworth and Robards.Two of the sexiest mature stars of that time period ,both of them in their 50's but looking oh so hot. Robards the epitome of evil as a greedy land baron with that killer beard and piercing blue eyes and Farnsworth as Fonda's cowpuncher and friend Dodger-his ruggedly handsome face and western accent just sexy. Farnsworth has some of the best scenes and lines but he is on screen far too short and halfway through the film he dies. The way his death is played out was very upsetting to me and made me wish they hadn't killed him off. The way his death is played out is like this, Earlier in the movie ,Robards greedy oil baron partner starts looking for oil on Fondas land causing an explosion that riles Farnsworths horse causing the horse to fall down the side of a steep hill spilling Farnsworth onto the hard ground breaking several ribs and hurting him badly. In the best scene of the movie ,he is in bed in pain ,Fonda tells him it will be OK and Caan tenderly hands him some chewing tobacco,Farnsworth holds onto Caans hand and tells him what a great cowboy he is ,there is an unspoken bond they share at that moment as if passing the torch. Caan leaves and Farnsworth says to Fonda "Your daddy would be proud "and you know my days of roping and riding are through. She leaves the room upset. Farnsworth rolls over and looks at old pictures of himself and her father ,he looks so sad as if hes about to cry. The next scene has him painfully getting on his horse ,needing a chair to do so - Its obvious he thinks he is no longer useful and is riding off to die.So,He rides off and the next scene shows him lying unconscious on the ground next to a log with 2 riders approaching , fade to a scene of Fonda and Caan filling his grave. This part of the movie really ticked me off, all those years of him playing stunt-men and bit parts and he finally gets an Oscar worthy part and they kill him off. Robards fares better as a sinister man who not only kills his oil baron rival but also tries to kill Fonda and Caan at the end of the movie by tying Fonda up and knocking Caan out and stuffing them in an upstairs closet while he burns the house down. The movie ends abruptly with Caan and Fonda escaping the burning house and facing Robards and his two henchmen. Caan shoots one of the henchmen and Fonda shoots the other leaving Robards. Caan shoots Robards off his horse but his foot catches one of the stirrups,with his life fading and Caan about to finish him off, Robards horse bolts and drags him across the ground viciously slamming him all over the place and then we see the horse fade off into the scenery. The house burns to the ground and then the scene fades out to black then back in to Fonda driving a old truck back to her burned down house. The camera pulls back to where all you can see is her pull into where her house was and you see two figures in the distance hug and the movie ends. It was disappointing ,youd think they would have had some dialog at the end to wrap it up. Im going to miss Mr Farnsworth and Mr Robards who both died in 2000. We will never see actors like that again. I gave the movie a 6 based on the following points - the scenery and Farnsworth/Robards acting rate a 10 but the movies plodding tone,abrupt and unsatisfying ending and Fonda and Caans wooden performances are barely a 2.

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jmh2350
1978/11/01

The title is kind of dumb for this movie that is very good. Dumb title, because it's not about a horseman coming -- it's about 3 cattle ranchers in Montana (though at least some filming was done in Northern Arizona). Jason Robards is the heavy, as the rancher who owns the most and wants to regain control of the other 2 ranches, which his family once owned. One of the other ranches is owned by Jane Fonda, who gained control of it when her father, a cousin of Jason Robards, died, and whose only help running it is an old cowhand played by the late Richard Farnsworth (for which he received an Academy Award nomination). The other cattle spread is owned by James Caan, recently released from the Army near the end of WWII. Inside Fonda burns a deeply rooted and awful hatred of Robards, for which we gradually learn the reasons. She and Caan form what is at first an alliance of need and indebtedness, which as you might correctly assume develops into something deeper (and nicer, I might add). Throw into this mix a rich oilman played by George Grizzard, who wants to get oil out of the land wherever he finds it, regardless of whose land it is, and who exerts some mighty strong leverage against Robards. What makes this movie good is an interesting plot, made more interesting by the actors -- Fonda and Caan in particular play their roles as authentic western ranch types, as people of relatively few words, with easy-going outward appearances, but strong emotions underlying those facades and hard-edged attitudes attained through a rugged life of hard work. This was one of 3 movies in 1978 for Jane Fonda, one of which being "Coming Home" for which she won an Academy Award. A comparison of her acting in that movie vs. this one, is that this role required more nuance and subtlety, to hold her character's emotions in (which of course she in turn must convey to us, the audience), as she had to completely become a stoic western rancher and horsewoman...which also required greater physical (including facial) control and physical agility. Regardless of which of these 2 major starring roles one might prefer her in that year, it seems obvious that she was at the top of her form. Also to be admired in this film are the cattle herding, roping, and round-up sequences, and one major sequence of chasing and gaining control of stampeding cattle -- the scenes look real, and were obviously done by some professional cowboys. There's also the big, open feel of the country provided by the beautiful cinematography of Gordon Willis, whose movies include "The Godfather" films and Woody Allen's fabulous 1979 black-and-white masterpiece "Manhattan". So, plenty of good reasons to watch this one.

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