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| “ | You're dead, priest. When Tomás de la Plata threatens, he means it. Or there's no more Tomás de la Plata. | „ |
| ~ Jurado warning and threatening Father Van Horne. |
| “ | It will be more sport to kill you with my bare hands. | „ |
| ~ Jurado about to fight Emmet. |
| “ | Every half hour, we will kill another! Next, it will be the Indian whore! We wait for you, priest. We wait for you! | „ |
| ~ Jurado after shooting Pablito in cold blood. |
Jurado is the secondary antagonist of the 1972 Western movie, The Wrath of God. He is Don Tomás de la Plata's second-in-command, fighting side-by-side with him in the counter-revolution against Colonel Santilla.
He was played by the late Gregory Sierra, who also played Terence Wheeler in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.
Personality[]
Like his master, Don Tomás de la Plata, Jurado is shown to be mean, stubborn, deceitful, opportunistic, cruel, aggressive, selfish, arrogant, ruthless, merciless, and temperamental. Sharing his master's obsession with killing priests mostly renders him more lustful for blood, death, and revenge up to a point where he proves to be murderous, sacrilegious, sociopathic, sadistic, bloodthirsty, insane, senseless, and psychotic.
However, Jurado has shown some cowardly traits as demonstrated when he ran out of the collapsing silver mine while leaving both his boss's mother; Señora de la Plata, Emmet, Jennings, and Father Van Horne for dead despite Emmet's pleas for help in getting his boss's mother out to safety and later, when fighting an unarmed Emmet with various things. He has also displayed some racism when he constantly insulted Emmet's love interest, Chela, a slightly mute Aymara woman.
Biography[]
For years, as Don Tomás de la Plata's second-in-command, Jurado and the rest of his men have helped their master in creating a reign of terror across South America; especially in the town of Mojada, which eventually sparked a rivalry between de la Plata and a military leader named Colonel Francisco Santilla.
At one point, prior to the events of the movie, his master suffered a family tragedy at the hands of Santilla's men due to his absence during Mojada's partial liberation. To make matters worse, no one, not even the town's priest did anything to stop them due to the latter's corruption involving liquor and laziness (lying all day in bed of the widow who kept house for him). Such betrayal eventually led to a sudden deep, abnormal hatred of priests and anything related to God and religion in de la Plata's mind and soul once he had returned home afterwards. From then on, Jurado carried out de la Plata's orders to ensure there would be no more services, masses, and sacraments provided by the church in town and to kill any priest who would dare set foot in Mojada and try to defy his orders including anyone who so much as helped the former while desecrating the church itself and leaving it in a dilapidated state; much to the horror of de la Plata's kind-hearted, spiritual mother, Señora de la Plata who hadn't lost faith in the Catholic faith. Thus, leaving the people of Mojada heavy with sin, their confessions unheard, many marriages made unholy, both children and babies not baptized, and the dying not having faced the end of their years in peace as well.
Two years later, with his master having received a letter unknowingly forged by Santilla in British gunrunner, Jennings' name, Jurado welcomes both Jennings and Irish political assassin, Emmet Keogh both posing as a mining company representative and engineer having arrived at Mojada to help with the re-opening and financing of a silver mine, which de la Plata has shown some interest in as he is in desperate need of money for wealth and power and also buying guns and ammunition (pistols, rifles, and grenades) from anonymous Jennings through agents for his upcoming counter-revolution against Santilla and his men. Jurado tells the two men that he will inform de la Plata of their arrival and later, direct them to his master's hacienda for dinner once settled at a nearby hotel.
At night, at the hacienda, while some men are placing bets during a cock fight, Jurado is instructed by de la Plata to pay Jennings and search both men for any possible hidden weapons on them; one gun found on Emmet, which de la Plata confiscates, but promises to return when they leave Mojada.
At dinnertime, Jurado informs de la Plata that the two men have brought a priest to Mojada, which angers the latter, ignites his animosity of such people, and causes him to leave the dining room in anger after instructing the two men to inform the priest to leave once they leave Mojada and not to give one service or sacrament in the meantime despite his mother's pleas and protests; not knowing that all this is, in fact, a ruse on Santilla's part to force both Emmet, Jennings, and American Catholic priest, Father Oliver Van Horne to kill de la Plata and his men and liberate Mojada from the latter's tyranny once and for all in exchange for their freedom and an equal share of Father Van Horne's $53,000.
The next day, after Father Van Horne deliberately defies de la Plata's orders by blessing the silver mine, Jurado warns and threatens the priest of his upcoming demise, but not before Señora de la Plata intervenes and tells Jurado to tell her son that she is to blame. Then, Jurado proceeds to escort and show Señora de la Plata and Emmet the mine. During an inspection, the silver mine suddenly collapses, trapping both Jurado, Emmet, Señora de la Plata, and a few miners inside whom Jennings and Father Van Horne manage to free. However, during Señora de la Plata's rescue, Jurado runs out of the collapsing mine like a coward while leaving the others for dead despite Emmet's pleas for his assistance. After Father Van Horne gives the last rites to a dying man, Jurado leaves the mine to inform de la Plata when he learns from the priest that he intends to hold a mass at 4 for the deceased.
When de la Plata returns with his men to Mojada in the afternoon after a failed attempt to kill Colonel Santilla earlier in the day whom he had suspected might take advantage of Emmet and Jennings' visit as a diversion to allow the latter's revolutionary forces to invade and liberate Mojada, both he, Jurado, and his men arrive at the church where de la Plata intends to murder Father Van Horne until he find his mother entering as well; not knowing that the priest's defiance is merely bait to lure de la Plata to his demise with Emmet and Jennings taking up firing positions at the church. After de la Plata decides to spare the priest at his mother's request for saving her life earlier in the day and gives him a final warning, he, Jurado, and the others leave, but not before de la Plata recounts his family tragedy to Father Van Horne when the latter mentions "God's will" that had led to his hatred of priests and other God related things in the first place whereas de la Plata's mother stays behind to have her confession heard and warns Father Van Horne about her son's intentions, thus, making the three men abandon their first attempt on de la Plata.
Later, at night, at the hotel, noticing Emmet having brought two Aymara Indians into a canteen: Chief Nacho and Emmet's love interest, Chela for drinks to celebrate their love, Jurado doesn't hesitate to insult Chela and tell Emmet to get rid of her since Aymara Indians aren't allowed in a canteen. He even drunkenly suggests to take her out himself and possibly rape her. When Emmet defiantly talks back to him about his cowardice earlier in the day, Jurado aims to shoot him, but not before being warned by Nacho with his rifle. Not wanting to prove Emmet's point further in front of everyone else, Jurado decides to fight him with his bare hands. However, during the fight, Jurado cheats by using various objects: a chair, a pair of jugs, a blade, and later, his dagger against an unarmed Emmet. Nevertheless, Emmet wins the fight by knocking Jurado out even after Chela finally speaks out loud to warn him about Jurado's final attempt with his dagger and after Father Van Horne and Jennings stop another one of de la Plata's men from finishing him off.
The next morning at 9 precisely, de la Plata, Jurado, and the rest of his men return to kill Father Van Horne during a procession at the square outside the church, only to find themselves ambushed with de la Plata wounded mainly on his right arm and some of his men killed by Father Van Horne's automatic machine gun and the other two men with guns and grenades before he, Jurado, and the rest of his remaining men flee and retreat.
Later, de la Plata has Jurado and some of his men kidnap a few men, women, and even children including Chela to be held as hostages in exchange for Father Van Horne while sending out Nacho as his "messenger". To prove his point further and coerce Father Van Horne into coming to him, Jurado and some of his men are sent by de la Plata along with a hostage, a young choir boy named Pablito recently adopted by Father Van Horne whom de la Plata had orphaned years ago back to town where Jurado proceeds to murder him in cold blood before Father Van Horne, his friends, and everyone else's eyes when trying to rejoin them; informing them that every half hour, they will proceed to kill another hostage and the next one being Chela unless Father Van Horne heeds to de la Plata's demands.
Once Father Van Horne arrives at the hacienda, de la Plata releases the hostages, but still keeps Chela prisoner, intending to use her as bait for his friends. Jurado instructs the men to search him if he's armed, but to no avail when all he has brought is his Bible and crucifix. Then, Jurado is instructed by de la Plata to seize Father Van Horne's Bible, only to find a gun hidden within it, having suspected the latter would have a few tricks up his sleeves.
After de la Plata tricks Father Van Horne into killing a double posing as him with his crucifix (which is really a switchblade) and one of his men non-fatally shoots him when trying to seize a gun from the corpse, Jurado is told to tie the priest up tightly to a stone cross. When one of his men informs him of the priest's friends and the other villagers' arrival, de la Plata, Jurado, and his men take up firing positions.
After the plan to use Chela as bait fails and most of de la Plata's men are killed by Emmet, the Aymaras, and Jennings (some taken prisoners by the Aymaras), Jurado fatally shoots Jennings after the latter had been shot fatally by de la Plata first until Jurado himself is shot fatally by Nacho. When Jurado attempts to finish Jennings off with his dagger, Jennings disarms him with his sword hidden within his cane and both men are killed by a grenade deliberately set off by a dying Jennings.
With Jurado and all of de la Plata's men either dead or captured, de la Plata is the only one left alive who is eventually killed by both his own mother and Father Van Horne, thus, putting an end to his tyranny once and for all.
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- Despite his dead eye, Jurado can still shoot well anyone in sight. Also, he appears to be the only one of de la Plata's men with a certain disability.
- It is unknown whether Jurado was born with a dead eye or he lost it in a fight years ago.