Vera Cruz is a 1954 American Western film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.
During the Franco-Mexican War, ex-Confederate soldier Ben Trane (Cooper) travels to Mexico seeking a job as a mercenary. There, he meets Joe Erin (Lancaster), a lethal gunslinger and leader of a gang, and they all are recruited by the French to escort the Countess Duvarre (Denise Darcel) to the seaport city of Veracruz. During a river crossing, Trane and Erin notice that the stagecoach in which the countess is traveling is extremely heavy. Erin later discovers that the stagecoach contains six cases of gold coins. The countess informs them that it is worth $3 million which is being transported to pay for troops for Emperor Maximilian's French army. Trane and Erin form an uneasy alliance to steal and split the gold.
Unfortunately for their plans, the man who hired them, the Marquis de Labordere (Cesar Romero), discovers their scheme, and after a group of Juaristas and the rest of Erin's group also suspect that there is more to the expedition, the different groups, including Juarista secret agent Nina (Sara Montiel), conspire to steal the gold for their own purposes. Alliances are formed, quickly dissolved and others are formed.
Although relatively obscure today, Vera Cruz was a major box office hit in its time, making $11 million on a $1.6 million budget. The movie was a major influence on later Westerns which used its storyline of American outlaws or mercenaries traveling to Mexico: The Magnificent Seven, The Professionals and Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy all owe a heavy stylistic debt to Aldrich, while Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee and The Wild Bunch both feature several overt Shout Outs.
Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, and Charles Bronson (still billing himself as Charles Buchinsky) appear as members of Erin's gang.
This film provides examples of:
- America Saves the Day: In this film set in a war between France and Mexico, while the U.S. Army doesn't appear,note it's the conflict between two Americans that becomes the climatic showdown.
- Arc Words: Ben Trane's "soft spot." It leads him to execute a fatally injured horse to stop him from suffering in the first few minutes of the film. It also leads him to intervene several times to help Mexicans (usually Nina) being abused by his fellow mercenaries, to switch sides from the French colonizers to the Juaristas fighting for Mexico's poor and oppressed... and to either spare or save Joe's life multiple times, until he's finally pushed too far.
- Artistic License – Military: All the French soldiers are depicted in uniforms and helmets that were worn on parades and formal ceremonies, not when deployed out on the field. note The only scene in the movie where such ceremonial uniforms are justified is the protagonists' arrival at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City and the subsequent ball.
- Artistic License – Politics: Ben Trane, a Confederate veteran, ultimately being swayed to join the Juarista cause is a borderline example. In real life, the Juaristas were supported by the Union (with the U.S. Army even arming them under the table once they no longer had The American Civil War to worry about), while Ben's Confederates were aligned with Maximilian's empire. A very rough analogy for Ben Trane would be an American fighting for his country in The Vietnam War, then going on to enlist with socialist insurgents in one of the civil wars in Central America. It certainly isn't impossible, and both things have likely happened to multiple people, but it would still be unusual enough to merit comment and raise everybody's eyebrows... especially if, as in the film, the veteran chooses his side out of belief, not money, after the rebels appealed to him with generic references to the justice of their fight (and referred to his previous loyalties "a worthy cause.")
- Ax-Crazy: Erin shows signs of this throughout the movie, for example when he swipes Little-Bit's loaded revolver from him and threatens him with it while they're inside the monastery. This ultimately culminates in him gunning down one of his henchmen for no reason in the finale.
- Bad Boss: Overall, Erin was a dick to his men, from not letting them in from the beginning about the gold, to gunning down one of his henchmen for no reason in the finale.
- Beware the Silly Ones: The Marquis and Captain Danette. Neither of them look like the brightest bulbs in the box, but close to the end of the movie, it turns out that they were aware of the countess' plans to betray them all along, and made arrangements to keep the gold safe.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Never the most realistic trope, this is taken up to eleven at the beginning of the movie where we see Ben shooting a French lancer's pistol out of his hands, while both of them are at a full gallop on horseback, and Ben is shooting behind him. Doubles as an Establishing Character Moment for Ben, telling the audience in no uncertain terms that he's the best shot in the movie.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Joe Erin, and how. By the end of the movie, he's betrayed the French, the Juaristas, the countess, his own men, and Ben (whom he'd previously called "the first real friend I ever had.") Since he claims to have murdered the man who raised him, it's not a surprise.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Joe is introduced selling a horse to Ben that he himself just stole from the imperial army, leaving him to face the music, and, when he appears to have been killed, coming back to rifle through his saddle and wallet. This is not the hero of the movie.
- Just before the above, Ben was shown executing a Mercy Kill on his fatally injured previous horse, saying that he didn't want him to suffer. Afterwards, he gets the drop on Joe and leaves him without a horse, but doesn't kill him. Both establish the "soft spot" that sets him apart from Joe and will spend most of the movie guiding him.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Joe. The entire film is about him squandering what's almost certainly the best opportunity he's ever had in his life - a partner who's just as skilled a fighter as him, while also being loyal enough to watch his back and generous enough to give him far more chances than he deserves.Joe: Ben Trane. I don't trust him. He likes people, and you can never count on a man like that.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ben Trane may be an ex-Confederate soldier who went to Mexico to work as a mercenary, but he gets gradually fed up with Erin's violent antics. After Erin guns down one of his henchmen for no reason in the finale, this finally sends Trane over the edge.
- A Father to His Men: General Ramirez leads the Juaristas' assault on Vera Cruz.
- Faux Affably Evil: Erin tries to put on an affable façade, specially with Trane, but by the end of the film it becomes clear that it's just for show and that he truly is a thug.
- French Jerk: Pretty much all them. Captain Danette is pompous, elitist, cruel, and not a particularly competent soldier. Countess Marie is a self-serving opportunist who, despite living in luxury surrounded by men who cater to her every whim, plans to steal three million dollars in gold meant to buy arms for the French troops. The Marquis de Labordère is mostly civil and remains loyal to his cause, but even he shows a sociopathic side early on when he admires one of Joe's more unforgivable tricks (taking children hostage), and allows his lancers to play a sick game with a Juarista prisoner, releasing him in the wild only to run him down on horseback.
- Freudian Excuse: Possibly, if you believe Joe's telling of his own life story. His father was murdered over a game of cards. The killer felt guilty enough about it afterwards to adopt Joe, but also raised him with such principles as "don't trust anybody you don't have to trust" and "don't do any favors you don't have to do." Joe eventually took this advice and murdered him.
- For the Evulz: In the finale, Erin guns down one of his henchmen for no reason.
- Gory Discretion Shot: We only get to see Nina's reaction as the soldiers kill a Juarista off-screen.
- The Horseshoe Effect: A minor example (and unlike most a positive one): other than Ben Trane, the only American in the group with any meaningful amount of decency is Ballard, a black Union veteran who still wears his uniform. The two of them intervene to prevent Nina from being raped.
- I Control My Minions Through...: Fear and power, by Erin. It's increasingly clear as the movie progresses that he controls his men as much through their fear of him and his unpredictable behavior as he does through his leadership skills.
- Also deconstructed. Once his men are motivated enough (discovering that there's a treasure to be had) and angry enough (because Joe is planning to take off with it without cutting them in), they're perfectly willing to turn on him.
- Impoverished Patrician: Ben Trane used to own a plantation in Louisiana, but lost it in the Civil War, and is now reduced to traveling to Mexico to look for work as a hired gun. Part of the reason he's so desperate for money is that all the people who used to work for him are now in poverty and finding enough money to put his estate back on its feet would help all of them make a new start.
- Living Macguffin: Averted. As far as Maximilian tells them, the only thing the American mercenaries are helping escort to Vera Cruz is a countess who happens to be very dear to the imperial court and whose safety must therefore be ensured. In reality, that's just a cover for the real and, to the Americans, far more interesting Macguffin, namely...
- Macguffin: Three million dollars in gold being transported to Vera Cruz in the countess' carriage. The French want to use it to buy weapons for their soldiers. The Juaristas want to steal it so they can do the same. The countess, Joe, and Ben all want to steal it for their own use.
- Mighty Whitey: Trane eventually decides to become the all-powerful champion of Juarez's cause.
- The Mole: Nina, a Juarista pretending to be a wandering pickpocket. Trane cottons on to her soon enough, though.
- Noble Confederate Soldier: Best not think too hard about what most of Ben's former "employees" on that plantation were.
- Not So Above It All: Compared to Joe and the mostly rowdy and extroverted people in his posse, Ben tends to be quiet, reserved, and respectful. Faced with an officer as pompous and repeatedly insulting as Captain Danette, however, even he can't resist making a crack.Ben: When l was no higher than a hound dog's tail on point, l had a little tin soldier, about so high. And one day l lost him... and l cried. My mother said "Stop bawlin'. Someday that soldier's bound to show up." And she was right. You're back!
- Red Shirt Army: The French.
- Shades of Conflict: The movie starts out in Black-and-Gray Morality. The American mercenaries are largely an Army of Thieves and Whores with no morality and few goals other than money. Their leader Joe Erin is an all-around sociopath. Ben Trane holds up the "gray" end of things - he's still got enough basic morals (or as Joe calls it, "a soft spot") to be troubled by the people he's fallen in with, but losing the Civil War has also left him broke and his home plantation totally ruined, so he can't afford to care too much about anything but money and has become fairly disillusioned with fighting for a cause. The French, for their part, don't even make a pretense of morality, only telling the Americans they can pay them better. However, we then encounter the Juaristas, and especially General Ramirez and Nina, both of whom turn out to be patriots who really do want the gold for their cause/country and have no interest in enriching themselves at its expense. Encountering honest believers for what is probably the first time since he left the military resonates deeply enough with Ben to ultimately cause a Heel–Face Turn.
- Spotting the Thread: So far as the Americans are told, the only thing in the carriage is the countess. The game's up as soon as they have to cross some muddy terrain, and Ben realizes the carriage's tracks are much too deep for the weight of one passenger.
- Southern Gentleman: Ben Trane. Apart from the accent (Gary Cooper was raised in Montana), embodies this trope in its positive version. Also has strong vibes of Officer and a Gentleman, but his military status no longer applies since his army's dissolution.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: The scruffy guerrilla army of the Juaristas vs the impeccably dressed troops of the Imperial Mexican Army and their French contingent.
- The American hired guns versus their Imperial Mexican/French employers also apply. The Americans are more practical than showy, being generally better fighters, but also unreliable due to their self-interest and prone to dropping the cause at a moment's notice when a treasure is waved under their noses. The Imperial lancers and regulars are more trustworthy, but inferior fighters. Pick your poison.
- South of the Border: The film manages to pack just about every feature of this trope in the Second Mexican Empire.
- Spicy Latina: Nina is a sultry Latin woman with a fierce temper and a rough background, what with being in the Franco-Mexican War and all.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- Trane and Erin form an uneasy alliance through the film, especially from Trane's side, due to him objecting to Erin's methods.
- The other groups looking for the gold form quite perishable alliances.
- "Ugly American" Stereotype: Almost all of the American mercenaries fit this. Loud, rude, greedy, ignorant, and abusive. Justified Trope, however, in that their French employers actually want people like them, largely because of their worst qualities. They're looking for hired thugs: America just happens to be the nearest country with a surplus of disaffected soldiers and gunfighters. They also repeatedly underestimate them as nothing but Dumb Muscle, despite having plenty of evidence that Joe and Ben at the very least are a lot smarter than the stereotype.
- What's Up, King Dude?: Emperor Maximilian the First. As addressed properly under his full title: "His Imperial Majesty Don Maximiliano the First, by the grace of God and the will of the people, Emperor of Mexico." As addressed by Joe Erin: "Max."
- Would Hurt a Child: At one point, Erin threatens to murder some child hostages.
