Jodie Foster's Underrated '90s Western Found A Big Fan In Roger Ebert

With a career spanning over 60 years, two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster is unquestionably one of Hollywood's greatest living actresses. Whether you know her as the teenage star of the original 1976 body-switch comedy "Freaky Friday" or as the determined FBI agent Clarice Starling in the grisly 1991 thriller "The Silence of the Lambs," every Jodie Foster movie — from the worst to the best – proves that she is a captivating and unique performer.

Foster has left a slew of critically-acclaimed performances in her wake, and her role in Richard Donner's 1994 Western "Maverick" earned special notice from Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert. The late Ebert gave "Maverick" three stars, writing that it was "the first lighthearted, laugh-oriented family Western in a long time ... It acts like it's the most natural thing in the world to be a Western."

Written by "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" scribe William Goldman, "Maverick" stars Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick, a charming rogue in the American West with designs on becoming the world's greatest poker player. On his way to a high stakes poker tournament on a steamship, Maverick crosses paths with fellow gambler Mrs. Annabelle Bransford (Foster) and the mustachioed lawman Zane Cooper (James Garner), but no one — least of all Maverick — is who they appear to be. "I imagine there were few professional poker players in the old west," wrote Ebert, "and fewer still who looked like Foster, but 'Maverick' is clearly not striving for grim realism."

"Maverick" was based on an ABC series that ran for five seasons from 1957-1962. Despite enjoying the film, Ebert wondered, "Do people remember 'Maverick' on TV well enough to care about the movie? I'm not sure." If the "Maverick" television show seemed a distant memory in 1994, it's arguably even more obscure decades later; however, 1994's "Maverick" is part of an impressive pop culture legacy.

On television, James Garner originated the role of Bret Maverick, the conman who is as fast with a sidearm as he is with a deck of cards. During its first season, ABC changed the  format so that it would feature alternating co-leads, with one episode starring Bret Maverick, and the next starring his brother, Bart Maverick (Jack Kelley). When Garner left the show after Season 3 (for a long and accomplished film career), he was replaced by cousin Beau (a pre-James Bond Roger Moore).

Why mention so many Mavericks? For anyone watching the 1994 "Maverick" who's unfamiliar with the wider Maverick mythos, it explains the presence of Garner, who has lost none of his charm, as well as the running gag of Annabelle calling Maverick every name that starts with "B" but Bret. Then there is the matter of the ending. "The movie doesn't require you to have ever seen a TV 'Maverick' to enjoy this story," concludes Ebert's review. "But there's a twist at the end you'll like more if you were a fan of the series."

Jodie Foster has enjoyed a truly eclectic career — while most audiences today are familiar with her roles in intense, dramatic films like 1976's gritty neo-noir "Taxi Driver," her filmography includes surprises like the 1976 kiddie gangster musical "Bugsy Malone" and the 1997 philosophical science fiction stunner "Contact."

Notably, "Maverick" is one of only two Westerns that Foster has ever starred in, her seductive turn as Annabelle Bransford lighting up movie screens over 20 years after her supporting role in the 1973 Disney film "One Little Indian." By a charming coincidence, both Westerns pair Foster with the same co-star: James Garner.

"One Little Indian" stars Garner as Corporal Clint Keyes, an army deserter who gets mixed up with Mark (Clay O'Brien), a runaway white boy previously raised by the Cheyenne, and a pair of ornery camels named Rosie and Thirsty. Foster plays Martha McIver, the preteen daughter of pioneer widow Doris (Vera Miles), who befriends the wayward foursome on their journey through the Old West. A sentimental family film with rather dated depictions of Native Americans, "One Little Indian" is a minor footnote in the careers of both Foster and Garner. But it's an interesting prologue to "Maverick," which reunites the actors much later in their careers in a film that is all aces.