Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid revenge Western, 3 May 2007
Despite being curiously banned from British TV screens for many years in the wake of the entirely unconnected Hungerford massacre, Nevada Smith is a solid and petty lavishly mounted revenge western culled from the backstory of Alan Ladd's ageing cowboy star in The Carpetbaggers. With Steve McQueen heading an impressive cast (Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, Martin Landau, Brian Keith, Suzanne Pleshette, Janet Margolin, etc) you could almost see it as a last-gasp attempt to be the classic American Western as its narrative sends its hero from Texas to California via a chain gang in the Louisiana bayous. It could have been tighter and you have to question how merciful his final act is after putting that many holes in someone, but its an entertaining ride and the eternally under-appreciated Henry Hathaway makes it look particularly great in Scope. No extras, but at least the 2.35:1 widescreen transfer is good.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
These Three Westerns where my all time favourites: because they each starred KARL MALDEN in leading roles. , 2 Sep 2007
Reviewing Hollywood Westerns is a difficult task unless you catergories them into the niche of your favourite Actor who portrayed a Cowboy in a specific movie ! or movies that you as an individual enjoyed.
There where vast numbers of absolute CLASSICs produced that I could sing their praises about: but my reviews would go on for pages.
The actor KARL MALDEN for me was the penultimate of post war Stars,
Hollywood did not know what to put this actor in next as movies go:
every thing he starred in was superb for me anyhow: thats only me talking.
His career has spanned 60 years in the industry and it covered every walk of life character "Joe public can Name"
As a Cowboy he was SUPERB in all Westerns : top of my list is NEVADA SMITH. a film I seen when it was first released, The story was flawless
from the opening titles when we see this gang of obvious villans ride up to an outlandish settlers small holding in search of its owner, played by another under-rated actor GENE EVANS, after a confrontation which was disasterous for all the ranch family, which was perputrated by KARL MALDEN and his men; the movie kicks into top gear and follows the exploites of the masacred families son, played by another great star, STEVE McQUEEN, his ventures in search of this gang, twist and turn like a rattlesnake and keep the audience on its seat edge: up untill it fantastic show down. If you havent seen this I urge you to buy it.
When I meet up with Karl Malden on a visit to his home in 2003, we relived this movies dialoge together in our conversation, he told me many stories concerning the shooting of the film, and discribed to me his awfull final moments sreaming " FINISH ME KID " YOUR YELLA as McQueens character NEVADA SMITH extracts his revenge on this villianous outlaw
as he lays mortally shot to pieces in a fast flowing Colorado River.
We shot this scene in the winter months up at BIG PINE. California he told me, and the director HENRY HATHAWAY asked me if I needed a wet suit under my cowboy outfit !!!! I said NO I'll be OKAY.. but boy was I sorry
it sure was freezing cold on that morning.
Another two movies that deserve my praises are "ONE EYED JACKS " in which he playes a bandit on the run: then supposedly reforms untill his past catches up with him; in the shape of MARLON BRANDO.
KARL MALDEN portrays a town law man: DAD LONGWORTH and the content of this film is electrifing from being to its end.
"HOW THE WEST WAS WON " encompased a several generations of familys
all pioneers seaching the wild west to establish roots their.
KARL MALDEN & his Family feature in a segment of this movies, which is
in a class of its own: and the RIDING THE RAPIDS on a log raft is a master piece of cinema photography.
GET THESE MOVIES ON AMAZON and enjoy what CLASSIC WESTERN are all about
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forsaking Revenge, 2 Oct 2008
This is an excellent western and a marvelous exposé of the bigotry of an era when many regarded Indians with the same contempt that unborn babies are seen today. To kill one, even as brutally and violently as Max Sand/Steve McQueen's mother's dies, is to do nothing wrong. As the son of an Indian mother and a white father, McQueen bridges the gap between the less-than-human Indian and the fully human white, when he seeks revenge for his mother and father's slaying.
Because Max has been reared in the wilderness, at the beginning of this film he's a blank slate, understanding nothing about either violence or the evil that violence can do to a man's soul, even when undertaken to revenge a wrong. Through most of the film, he uses and discards good people in the pursuit of his revenge. Only with a Cajun woman, who dies because of him, does he begin to change and become the man he is in the climatic last scene.
Well worth watching, particularly while asking the question, "What would I have done if I'd been in his shoes?"
--Michael W. Perry, Across Asia on a Bicycle: The Journey of Two American Students from Constantinople to Peking
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