X
  • 1978
  • PG
  • United Artists
  • 1 h 58 m
  • 1978
  • PG
  • United Artists
  • 1 h 58 m

Summary Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her neighbor, Frank Athearn. As Ella and Frank fight back through stampedes, jealousy, betrayal, and sabotage, they eventually find love.

Directed By: Alan J. Pakula

Written By: Dennis Lynton Clark

  • 1978
  • PG
  • United Artists
  • 1 h 58 m
  • 1978
  • PG
  • United Artists
  • 1 h 58 m

Comes a Horseman

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
41
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Ella Connors is a single woman who gets pressured to sell her failing cattle farm to her corrupt ex suitor, Jacob Ewing. She asks for help from her neighbor, Frank Athearn. As Ella and Frank fight back through stampedes, jealousy, betrayal, and sabotage, they eventually find love.

Directed By: Alan J. Pakula

Written By: Dennis Lynton Clark

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
41
0% Positive
0 Reviews
100% Mixed
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
41
0% Positive
0 Reviews
100% Mixed
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
50
Handsome but overly studied. [09 Mar 1986, p.5]
By Kevin Thomas FULL REVIEW
50
Visually superb, though: a doomed attempt to make Fordian metaphors speak a language of corrupting, intimate anxiety.
FULL REVIEW
50
So self-conscious about its themes that nothing in the storytelling occurs naturally.
By Pauline Kael FULL REVIEW
40
Each new attempt to revive the Western seems to plunge the patient into a deeper coma. Arriving on the heels of Jack Nicholson's Goin' South, Alan J. Pakula's cataleptic Comes a Horseman suggests a conspiracy to kick the poor old Western while it's down. [25 Oct 1978, p.D13]
By Gary Arnold FULL REVIEW
40
[Pakula] has made the dreary mistake of reducing a half-dead genre to its basic elements, stripping away color, detail, humor--everything that makes it possible to regard a Western as a pleasure rather than an ordeal. [13 Nov 1978, p.128]
FULL REVIEW
40
Alan Pakula’s Comes a Horseman is so lethargic not even Jane Fonda, James Caan and Jason Robards can bring excitement to this artific- ially dramatic story of a stubborn rancher who won’t surrender to the local land baron.
FULL REVIEW
40
Director Alan Pakula's sympathies seem to lie in the landscape, never less than exquisitely framed. But even this mute star can't fill the space left by dour performances.
FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company Chartoff-Winkler Productions
Release Date Oct 25, 1978
Duration 1 h 58 m
Rating PG
Genres
Tagline The West was won by men and challenged by a woman
View All Details

Awards

Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
National Board of Review, USA
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations

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