Rating: 
Summary: Finally
Review: A western about a relentless, dedicated lawman in pursuit - of compensation for the widow of a man murdered by a wealthy man! Lancaster is just amazing.
Rating:
Summary: They pushed him too far...
Review: An atypical western, with the always-excellent Burt Lancaster giving a nicely understated performance as aging Mexican constable Bob Valdez, whose persistence in seeking recompense for a penniless widow gets him into trouble with a ruthless land baron. After some very nasty treatment, he digs out his old personna and sends the warning that is the film's title. Nice supporting cast contributes much. Many fine scenes and memorable lines, along with rugged location filming, help to lift this movie into the higher grade of western. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Western
Review: An oater with sophistication, this gripping drama is a fiesta of Old West class, cultural, and ethnic conflicts! Burt Lancaster's heartfelt performance gives credibility to his portrayal of a lawman of Mexican heritage, and the supporting characters are well developed and thoroughly watchable. The action is compact and significant to the plot, and the movie never descends into a broad, good-versus-bad shoot-'em-up. Maravilloso!
Rating:
Summary: Best Western
Review: An oater with sophistication, this gripping drama is a fiesta of Old West class, cultural, and ethnic conflicts! Burt Lancaster's heartfelt performance gives credibility to his portrayal of a lawman of Mexican heritage, and the supporting characters are well developed and thoroughly watchable. The action is compact and significant to the plot, and the movie never descends into a broad, good-versus-bad shoot-'em-up. Maravilloso!
Rating:
Summary: Vengeance is Valdez!
Review: Burt Lancaster gives an excellent performance as an ex-Cavalry scout and Indian fighter (until he knew better)who is reduced to the obsequious role of lackey-constable for a cabal of Arizona oligarchs and land barons. Or so it seems(they believe/wish)! VALDEZ is COMING explores in understated, incredibly compact Western-fable, themes of injustice, racism, revenge and ultimate reckoning. Bob Valdez is a gentle, humble lawman. He accepts his place in the "Guerro World" as "a good greaser" until a brutal act of conscienceless vigilante violence pricks his conscience and lights the fuse that explodes into el Guerrero, VALDEZ the WARRIOR. There are mythical qualities to this Western which soon transforms it from Cowboy movie to harsh, morality tale. There is a torture scene...a crucifixion, no less...that resonates through the film to imply what is really going on. There may be no justice for the poor and powerless in this world...depicted as a greed-ridden, self-loving bully-capitalist named Tanner palyed by Jon Cypher...who hires others to kill for him. But there may be "talon" vengeance. The eye-for-an-eye, blood-for-blood, bullet-for-bullet kind. This film reminded me very much of TOMBSTONE. "Justice is Coming!" its oriflamme proclaimed and Wyatt Earp proceeded to massacre the enemies of THE LAW. In this tale another lawman transforms into a merciless...but not quite...angel of wrath. Justice may not be served. There are ambiguities in this story...such as the fate of Susan Clark who plays a woman who murdered her husband for lust of Tanner and his wealth. But vengeance is served and it may be the only honorable substitute. Vengeance, in this stark "cowboy adventure, is the provoked honor of a man named Valdez... Watch it!
Rating:
Summary: Great Burt Lancaster movie, classic revenge story
Review: Burt Lancaster is small town "has been" sheriff who doesn't even use a gun. Once was a great gunfighter year's ago. He is scorned by a cattle barron when he tries to get a small money award for a poor mexican widow.When he asks again he is beaten and left to die in the desert. He makes it back to civilization, opens the old trunk with his gunfighter duds and old buffalo hunting gun, and the fun begins. GREAT ending!!!! If you get into stories of the little guy or the old guy triumphing over powerful men used to getting their own way, this one's worth a watch.
Rating:
Summary: "My name is Bob Valdez"
Review: Burt Lancaster sure had it going on in his latter years. In this film he is absolutely perfectly cast as Bob Valdez, an aging Apache fighter whose past is unknown to all around him. He is employed as a part time marshall (who only works the Mexican part of the county) and a shotgun rider for the local stage. Just an agreeable, old Mexican in the eyes of the powers that be; well liked, never causes any trouble. You know, one of the good ones. Without going into long detail that you can get from the Amazon synopsis, events unfold to reveal the tough, skillful Apache fighter of old. When watching the film, it was thrilling to track the change in reaction to the name "Valdez". In the beginning of the film, the name is a likable joke, said with a grin and a shrug. By the end of the film, men say the name as though some terrible, unknowable force is descending upon them. There are many good performances in the film, notably by Susan Clarke and Richard Jordan, who plays a giggling psychopath. But it is Lancaster who makes the film. Early in the story, his eyes are gentle and tired, revealing a man that knows the wrongs of the world and has learned to live with them. As the film progresses, his eyes turn to blue steel as he makes the decision to correct at least one small wrong in the world. This film comes from the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, and the screenwriters wisely left substantial passages of the classic Leonard dialogue intact. Don't miss this film. Like Lancaster's other Westerns (Ulzuma's Raid and Lawman) Valdez is Coming is unjustly missing in most conversations about classic Westerns. It can be mentioned in the same breath with The Searchers or The Wild Bunch.
Rating:
Summary: Valdez is coming...
Review: I recently saw this movie and enjoyed it greatly. It has all the trappings of a classic Western that one should expect. Furthermore, the plot can be viewed as an allegory of the life of Jesus Christ, except for the guns and shooting, which at one point includes a Sharps .50 caliber rifle (i believe). Definitely worth a viewing or two.
Rating: 
Summary: Edited film
Review: I saw this film when it was originally released in the early '70s. I bought this DVD because I liked the movie and the book so much. I was very disappointed when I viewed this DVD and
found that it had scenes cut out from the original. One missing scene shows Valdez in his room with his girlfriend preparing his
guns and his shells. He asks her for beef tallow to hold the shot pellets together when the shells are fired. This whole 5 minute scene is missing. There are scenes where Valdez is lying in the dirt of an arid region from his pursuers, rises as they
pass and shoots them. These scenes are also gone. I wrote to the
distributors of this film and complained to them about the heavily cut DVD. They did nothing. Not even a reply. The acting is great in this film. The story is well scripted and follows the book by Elmore Leonard very closely. Too bad they chopped it up. When you purchase this DVD, you are buying a heavily cut up film.
Rating:
Summary: To Viewer from Marin County, CA: re: Barton Heyman
Review: I was amazed when I looked up the late Barton Heyman on the Internet Movie Database. I'd always wondered what happened to the El Segundo character in Valdez Is Coming, because I thought he was perfect and should have become a major, charasmatic star. Actually you probably have seen him in a number of films; but his characters are oh, so different. For example, he was the rather wimpy doctor in The Exorcist. Quite a change from his most compelling character in Valdez. Lancaster was excellant, as usual, but this guy could match him.
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