Vera Cruz

Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster portray western adventurers, who after the American Civil War, are looking to hire out their guns to any cause that is willing to pay a price. At first, the two agree to hire out to the Emperor Maximillan on an escort job, that also involves taking a woman of the court to Vera Cruz. It becomes quite obvious, that something else is going to Vera Cruz, and the something else turns out to be a coach full of gold, which revolutionaries, loyal troops to the emperor, and the two friendly enemies know about, and desire the wealth for themselves. After one double cross after another, Cooper and Lancaster are forced to join the revolutionary forces and attack the French garrison at Vera Cruz in order to stand a chance at the shipment of gold. Ultimately, the two confront each other at the garrison courtyard, and it's clear that Lancaster has a greedier streak in him than Coop.

While it's often difficult (if not downright impossible) to pinpoint an exact moment in movie history when the course of that history began to change, VERA CRUZ looms large as a signpost on the dusty trail from the button-down, spinal-straight, no-nonsense do-gooder to the amoral, grinning anti-hero of the mid-'60s. Director Aldrich gives us both in a single film and, in so doing, heralds the coming New Age of Westerns. It would be hard to imagine two more perfect protagonists: Cooper, all business and tight-lipped, Lancaster dashing and flashing his viper's grin at every opportunity. Lancaster's behind-the-back draw was a favorite trick of mine when we "played guns" as kids; it always worked, because it caught my opponents by surprise. And it works for Lancaster, too. A great western.