Blue (1968 film)

Steven H. Scheuer's Movies on TV gives Blue 1 star (out of 4), stating "[I]t took many celebrated names on both sides of the camera to botch up this western drama", continuing that "[T]he tale... should have been more fascinating than it turns out" and concluding with "[D]irector Silvio Narizzano was responsible for the lovely Georgy Girl so we can't blame him entirely for this no-color no-flavor western". Later editions retained the 1 star rating, but featured a shortened, rewritten review which called Blue a "[W]estern oddity" that exhibited "[A] peculiar blend of sagebrush and psychology". Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide did not have a much higher opinion, giving 11⁄2 stars (out of 4) and denigrating it as an "[U]ndistinguished, poorly written Western". Later editions added the words "See also FADE-IN", which Maltin's review describes as an "[O]dd little film made concurrently with BLUE" and notes that "BLUE actors Terence Stamp, Joanna Pettet, Ricardo Montalbán and Sally Kirkland can be glimpsed here".

As in Maltin, The Motion Picture Guide assigned 1½ stars (out of 5), calling it "a waste of time from the outset" and pointing out "[P]retentious direction by Narizzano with Leone-like close-ups and Peckinpah-like slow-motion". The write-up further states, "[T]his movie cost about five million, more than two million over budget. A waste for everyone concerned." Near the end there is mention that "Giallelis (Manuel) made such a splash in Kazan's AMERICA, AMERICA that great things were expected of him. He never should have taken this role."

Two additional guides also rank Blue at or near bottom. Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever threw the film one bone (out of possible four), describing it as "[A] dull western", while Mick Martin's and Marsha Porter's DVD & Video Guide served its lowest rating, "Turkey", stating "God-awful, pretentious Western with Terence Stamp as a monosyllabic gunman."

Among British references, Leslie Halliwell, in his Film Guide, gave no stars (Halliwell's top rating is 4), dismissing it as a "[P]retentious, self-conscious, literary Western without much zest." A quote from Rex Reed was also included, "I don't know which is worse — bad cowboy movies or bad arty cowboy movies. Blue is both." TimeOut Film Guide founding editor Tom Milne was also dismissive, finding it "[A] grotesque, pretension-ridden Western which falls flat on its face with a ponderous yarn about...", while adding that "Terence Stamp struggles unavailingly against the ludicrous dialogue and some fine landscape photography by Stanley Cortez is wrecked by a penchant for gaudy filters and even gaudier sunsets."

• Blue at IMDb
• Blue at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Blue at the TCM Movie Database (archived version)
• Blue at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blue Archived October 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine at TV Guide (revised form of this 1987 write-up was originally published in The Motion Picture Guide)