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Very well executed

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Gregory Peck occasionally played ambiguous, morally conflicted characters in films like "Moby Dick" and "The Bravados", but rarely played outright villains, "The Boys from Brazil" being an exception. It therefore comes as something of a surprise to see Hollywood's Mr Clean here cast as Clay Lomax, a bank robber released from jail after serving his sentence. We quickly realise, however, that despite his murky past Lomax is to be the good guy in this movie. He is out for revenge on Sam Foley, his former partner-in-crime, who double-crossed him and attempted to kill him. He learns that Foley has never been convicted for any of his crimes and is now a wealthy and outwardly respectable rancher. Oddly enough, Foley is not the film's main bad guy either; his is a relatively small role. He has, however, learned of Lomax's release and has hired three young gunslingers to keep an eye on his former associate who he believes (correctly) will come looking for him. It is the leader of this trio, Bobby Jay Jones, who functions as the film's villain-in- chief. He and his fellow-thugs are under strict orders from Foley not to shoot or kill Lomax, but this does not prevent them from killing anyone else who crosses them or gets in their way. The title "Shoot Out" is a bit misleading as, although the film contains plenty of shooting, there is no single climactic "O K Corral"-style gunfight. (The novel on which it was based had a different title, "The Lone Cowboy").Peck's career went into something of a decline in the late sixties and early seventies; few of his films from this period are of top quality; "MacKenna's Gold" is another sub-standard Western from around the same time. Earlier in his career, however, he had made some excellent Westerns, notably "The Big Country" and "The Bravados", both of which can also be characterised as "revenge Westerns", although they deal with the theme in a rather more thoughtful way than "Shoot Out". "The Big Country" deals with a meaningless blood-feud between two families, neither of whom can remember who committed the original wrong which started the cycle of revenge. In "The Bravados", Peck's character might seem to have ample grounds for his campaign of revenge on the bad guys, but he later comes to regret his actions. "Shoot Out", however, is not in the same class. There is a misguided attempt to inject a note of sentimental humour; an important sub-plot involves Lomax becoming the guardian of a six-year-old girl named Decky who turns out to be his illegitimate daughter by his now-deceased mistress, conceived just before he went into jail. (Decky's peculiar forename is never explained; while watching the film I misheard it as "Debbie"). Now young Dawn Lyn was obviously an adorable child, but she was the sort of adorable child who would have been more at home in a sweet family comedy than in a hard-boiled revenge Western, and the scenes in which she appears do not blend in well with the rest of the film. Another thing I disliked was the treatment of Bobby Jay and his sidekicks. They are obviously intended to be evil, but are portrayed in such an exaggerated, cartoonish manner that they come across as simple pantomime villains and never really seem very threatening. This sort of thing was not unusual around this time; "Hannie Caulder" and "Will Penny" are two other examples of otherwise serious Westerns which suffer from a tendency to overplay the bad guys. Perhaps this was done here to try and offset the fact that Lomax, the supposed hero of the film, has himself been far from admirable. At one time the censors might have objected to a hero who was not only an unrepentant bank robber but also the father of an illegitimate child, but by 1971 the Production Code was dead and buried, and the protagonists of Westerns no longer needed to be 100% clean cut. It does, however, seem rather self-defeating to give your film a flawed hero and then to camouflage his flaws by exaggerating the villainy of his enemies. This was the penultimate film directed by Henry Hathaway; I must admit that I have never seen his last, "Hangup", and from what I can gather not too many other people have either. Two years earlier Hathaway had made the highly successful "True Grit" which had given John Wayne's career a new lease of life and had brought him his only Oscar. Tthe two films also shared the same producer (Hal B. Willis) and screenwriter (Marguerite Roberts) and had a similar theme in that they teamed an ageing male star with a young girl, although the character played by Kim Darby is rather older than Decky. The team were obviously hoping that they could do for Peck what they had done for Wayne, but to succeed in this aim they really needed a better vehicle than this one. 5/10

Is this a classic? Well no, but it isn't terrible either. People who love westerns and the west will enjoy this film. Is this Peck's greatest film? No, but Peck being one of the best actors ever to come out of Hollywood never gave a bad performance. This film also co-stars the great character actor James Gregory who also never gave a bad performance. Veteran character actors Paul Fix and Arthur Honnicutt have small roles but give their usual fine performances. These performances makeup for some of the other poor acting by supporting players. This film has beautiful scenery, lots of action and an unusual story line. What more needs to be said? Enjoy!

Shoot Out for all intents and purposes was the last film that Henry Hathaway directed. He did do one more, but from what I'm able to gather very few ever saw it. It's also not a great western for Gregory Peck who in his day has given us classics like The Gunfighter, The Big Country, and The Bravados. Gregory Peck plays a man just out of prison who's looking for his partner from a bank robbery who shot him and took all the loot. Peck's got an understandable mission. But he's also been saddled with another situation. Some wild oats he sowed in the person of little Dawn Lyn arrived by train, a present from her late mother.In the meantime ex-partner James Gregory is now a prosperous rancher, but he can't get any decent help. He hires three punks, Robert F. Lyons, John Davis Chandler, and Pepe Serna to locate Peck and merely keep him informed of his movements. These three are not only punks, but extremely dim bulbs. I can hardly believe Gregory can't do better than these.How Peck deals with both situations is the balance of the film. A lot of the plot scenario has not been well thought out in Shoot Out. The cast struggles, but their hearts are clearly not in it.Best in the cast is Susan Tyrell who plays a prostitute who takes up with the three punks. She's a 19th century version of a Valley Girl and she pays big time for her stupidity and very bad taste in men.Definitely not one of the better films for Henry Hathaway and Gregory Peck. And to think two years earlier, Hathaway and screenwriter Marguerite Roberts were responsible for True Grit.

I always thought Gregory Peck was a competent if wooden actor. He was good where he had to be stiff (Captain Hornblower, for example) but otherwise not one of my favorites. But in this film he shines, not so much that he was so good as much of the rest of the cast was so bad. The little girl even acted circles around much of the adults who were either chewing the scenery or acting in a daze. I had a lot more respect of Peck as a professional after seeing this film.Other than Peck and sometimes the little brat, the film lacked a lot. I don't remember the chief villain in it very well - I saw this when it first came out - but I vaguely recall that he too stood out.