Review: Maverick

Loosely based on the 1950s Western TV series, Mel Gibson stars as Bret Maverick, a charming but not especially brave gambler who needs to find the funds to make the entrance fee at an upcoming riverboat poker tournament. Unfortunately, a pretty but crafty thief named Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) keeps trying to steal his hard won money at every opportunity. It seems she too needs money for the entrance fee to the poker tournament. Accompanying them throughout the film is straight-arrow, chivalrous lawman Zane Cooper (James Garner, the original Bret Maverick), who doesn’t take kindly to Maverick’s treatment of Annabelle, nor his lack of intestinal fortitude. Also after Maverick is an angry (but dumb) bandit named Angel. James Coburn turns up towards the end as The Commodore, the man behind the poker tournament.

 

Never a great film, but a wholly entertaining and highly underrated 1994 big-screen treatment of the classic TV show from director Richard Donner (“The Omen”, “Superman”, “The Goonies”, “Lethal Weapon”) and screenwriter William Goldman (“Harper”, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, “All the President’s Men”). Although Goldman scripted “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, the film it most closely resembles in tone (and to an extent plot) is that other Newman/Redford teaming, “The Sting”. It’s a comedy/western, but at heart it’s a laidback con artist movie, and a pretty good one at that, with just a hint of romance. If it weren’t more than two hours long, it’d be even better.

 

It certainly has a perfectly chosen cast, including a surprisingly light and funny Jodie Foster, and of course James Garner from the original TV series, recast here as a lawman named Zane Cooper. Star Mel Gibson is the main show here, though, and in the title role he hasn’t been this fun and charming since. He’s perfect as the likeable, charismatic, but not very brave title gambler. I love the fact that he’s the fastest draw in the West but can’t aim for shit, so he needs every bullet in every gun in order to be truly effective. Whether it’s his hilarious needling of nervy gunman ‘Johnny Hardin’ (Max Perlich, who may or may not be playing a character based on famed gunslinger John Wesley Hardin) or his romantic comedy teasing of Jodie Foster’s affected Annabelle, Gibson shows himself to be a damn fine light comedian. He and Foster (perhaps as unlikely a real-life friendship as you might find) are clearly enjoying being together on screen, and have good, unforced chemistry. It’s particularly nice seeing the intelligent, usually very serious-minded Foster pretty much letting her hair down (at least figuratively) here as a possibly phony Southern belle and gambler.

 

James Garner probably had to be here, but even so he’s really good as always. Probably one of the more underrated actors of his generation and certainly a great star, he’s well-cast as the outwardly respectable (and respectful) lawman, who doesn’t take well to admitted cowards like Maverick. Alfred Molina, in the first film I can recall ever seeing him in, is good fun as well as an entirely humourless, not especially intelligent bandit. Think of him as a George Kennedy or Neville Brand type, though a little dumber, but with the most menacing glowering stare I’ve seen in a long time. The Native-American who happens to be in cahoots with the roguish hero is a staple of light-hearted westerns, but the underrated Graham Greene is, as usual, really good here playing that cliché. In smaller roles, you’ll see Paul L. Smith as the least convincing Russian Archduke you’ll ever hear, but it’s still good to see him, ditto with one of my all-time favourite actors James Coburn as the Commodore. Coburn was irrepressibly cool in his early years and carried a magnetic and authoritative charisma to him in his later years, which served him well in authority figures such as the one he plays here. It’s a shame more screen time wasn’t afforded to him, but any film was lucky to have his mere presence if you ask me. Clint Eastwood regular Geoffrey Lewis, meanwhile, is always good value, here playing an Irish bank manager who owes Maverick money. It’s a typical western ‘townie’ character, and previously would’ve likely been played by Elisha Cook Jr. or John Qualen. There’s also a shitload of cameo players on show here, some billed, others uncredited; Danny Glover and Corey Feldman are on hand as bank robbers to give us a couple of Donner in-jokes (Yes, Glover does ‘the line’). Great cameos there. Margot Kidder, also uncredited (and not looking so great) is almost unrecognisable as a spinster named Mary Margaret. Other actors turn up as mere faces, particularly in the riverboat poker game sequence where you’ll find Bert Remsen, country star Clint Black (who gets thrown overboard for cheating), the great Denver Pyle (who throws himself overboard for cheating, in his last film role), Bill Henderson, an ancient-looking William “Blacula” Marshall (in his final film), Robert Fuller, Dan Hedaya, and a pony-tailed Charles Dierkop (Lonnegan’s chief goon from “The Sting”, no less) among others. Western fans will also spot the great Dub Taylor in the film’s first poker scene (it was his final film as well). Definitely not for serious poker buffs, as the final hand is utterly ridiculous (SPOILER WARNING): Everyone makes their hand, goes all-in, and Maverick wins with a Royal Fucking Flush. Yeah, I think that’s how Johnny Chan and Phil Helmuth won their WSOP Final Table bracelets, too. Or not. It’s a movie, though, so it’s best not to take it too seriously, there’s not much seriousness going on here (END SPOILER). The film does, however, contain easily one of the best music scores in the entire overrated career of Randy Newman (“Ragtime”, “Three Amigos!”, “Toy Story”).

 

A whole lotta fun, if perhaps too much movie, if you don’t enjoy this romp, I’m afraid it’s probably on you. The cons and twists and turns aren’t as much fun as in “The Sting”, but it’s definitely a film that owes a lot to that classic. Great stars, some wit, and fine entertainment all round. I just wish it weren’t so damn long!

 

Rating: B+