Cinema: Blue

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Among other absurdities, this western has pretty cloud effects, photographed through such dense filters that it is hard to tell whether the scene is day or night. The tired bloodshed of the plot about gringos and greasers—as the script tastefully refers to Texans and Mexicans—is a vehicle for England's Terence Stamp, Cheapside accent and all. Would you believe that he plays a gunman raised from childhood by a band of Mexican brigands?

Joanna Pettet stands by—wholesome in homespun—to bind up his wounds. So does Karl Maiden as her drunken father, the country doctor. But Stamp is perfectly able to take care of himself; it is the movie that ups and dies.