Critics reviews

The movie is of its moment, which means that the Apaches are stoics—indigenous Poitiers who endure, with smoldering restraint, the racism of the white men who insult them. They're not fully imagined as characters; more conscientiousness has gone into avoiding stereotypes than into writing actual roles for them. But the film is plotted very well (thanks in part to the 1961 source novel by Elmore Leonard), and written with quiet passion straight through to its downbeat ending.

A prime example of the so-called adult western, "Hombre" is talky as well as pictorial. It is also rich in dramatic reversals and features a splendid final shootout. Most impressive, "Hombre" is faithful to its protagonist's absolute alienation — the movie's white authority figures are all thieves of one sort or another — and as such underlines Newman and Ritt's public support for civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War.