Review of Lawman

Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan head up an extraordinary cast in this solid western from screenwriter Gerald Wilson and producer-director Michael Winner. After whooping it up in a neighboring town and inadvertently killing an innocent civilian, the cowboys employed by a powerful cattle-herder ride away without conscience, but later face retribution from the town's marshal who wants to bring them to justice dead or alive. No surprises, no deviation from proved western formula, but entertaining and well-acted, particularly by Lancaster (as a stoic loner who also plays the flute!). Robert Paynter's zoom-happy cinematography is a minor nuisance, and the western set doesn't quite convince, but the violent finale is well-wrought and satisfying. **1/2 from ****