mark.waltz As far different from Harold Robbins' "The Carpetbaggers" as it can be, this western of revenge lacks the soap opera elements that made its predecessor pure "trash with class". In that film, Alan Ladd played Nevada Smith, the mentor of ruthless Hollywood executive George Peppard, basically playing a disguised version if Howard Hughes. Young Nevada is out for revenge on the three men responsible for his parent's death, something he ironically set up by revealing their location.The three killers are Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy and Karl Malden, meeting up with Steve McQueen's half breed Nevada in ironic ways. It's insinuated that the three tortured his parents before killing them, and a visual of McQueen's Indian mother's back being sliced is horrifying to watch. Miscast but not bad, McQueen is overshadowed by the three actors playing the villains, three of the great character actors of Hollywood's golden age. To tie "The Carpetbaggers" with this, Suzanne Pleshette is cast as an Indian lady who helps McQueen escape from prison, not realizing that it's part of his revenge on fellow prisoner Kennedy.While trying to imagine Pleshette as an Indian maiden is a bit far fetched, she really scores sympathy, especially in her final scene where she curses McQueen for using her in her revenge. Howard da Silva also scores as the brutal prison warden, especially when he arranges for escaped prisoner Kennedy to be whipped and left in the water to drowned. There are many small, tender moments and even a few bonding moments between each of the killers and McQueen's vengeance seeker. The stand off between each of them is filled with tension, basically dividing this into three parts.

gavin6942 A naive half-Indian, half-white teenager (Steve McQueen) evolves into a hardened killer as he tracks down his parents' murderers.In the world of "revenge films", you have many that fall into the category of exploitation. This one rises above that and is much more nuanced, with some memorable characters. It also attempts to make comments on race and gender, though how successful it is on that is up to the viewer to decide.How much does our protagonist rise above the revenge inside him? Well, in some ways he is pretty set in his ways. When presented with the Bible (which, amazingly, he had never heard of), all he takes from it is the "eye for an eye" bit. Maybe he never got to the New Testament.

edwagreen Fabulous western the way they used to make them and the way they should be made currently.Looking to avenge the killers of his parents, his mother was an Indian, the film traces the adventures of Max Sand (Steve McQueen) in hunting out and killing his prey.From a young Indian boy, Max becomes a hardened killer along the way. He even purposely gets caught robbing a bank so that he can be sent to the same prison where killer Arthur Kennedy has been sent.Suzanne Pleshette briefly but memorably appears as a woman inmate who helps Max and Kennedy escape before Max guns the latter down.While being rescued by priest Raf Vallone, Max learns humility but is still determined to hunt out and kill the worst of the offenders, Karl Malden, excellent here as well.The film teaches humility as Max, who has changed his name to Nevada Smith to fool Malden, develops a conscience through bible reading. Though maiming Malden, he doesn't ultimately kill him.A tale of bitterness and ultimate redemption fully realized, this is one film not to miss.

daylecorley What I think is the biggest problem with Nevada Smith is casting a 40 year old blond with blue eyes to play a 16 year old half Native American. It is distracting throughout the whole story. Sometimes it is even ludicrous because a couple of times people seem to recognize on sight that he is Native American. Couldn't they have at least dyed his hair black and give him some contact lenses for Pete's sake? And what was supposed to be a sweet "coming of age" scene with the young Native American girl just looked WRONG. Steve McQueen was a good actor and all, but throughout the whole movie I was using my imagination replacing him with a young Bronson or someone a little more appropriate to the character he was playing.