Nevada Smith

Brian Keith, Karl Malden & Steve McQween are at their best in this well told story.

Nevada Smith (1966)Directed by Henry Hathaway.A "young" Steven McQueen, in one of his better vehicles. The story of revenge is lengthy but it rewards your patience. McQueen plays a half-breed, Max Sand, whose parents are murdered by a gang of outlaws, led by Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy and Martin Landau. He goes after them, but he is a plain country bumpkin who doesn't even know how to fire a gun--let alone track down and catch the three murderers. But he stumbles upon a gun trader (Brian Keith) who schools him in the art of shooting and looking cool when pursuing seasoned killers. He learns fast and uses all kinds of ruses before he gets too the pursuit of the villains. After a lengthy search he finds Landau in a saloon, and though the latter is an expert with the knife, he manages to kill him after a lengthy brawl. He imprisons himself doing hard labor in the Louisiana swamps after he has tracked down the Kennedy character, plans an escape, with the help of a local girl played by the late Susanne Pleshette, during which he kills him after the latter recognizes him. The last task, finding and killing Malden, requires unusual guile, but Sand is up to the task; he is been recruited by Malden himself for a bullion heist, isolates him, and shoots him in the hands and knees, immobilizing him but leaving him alive in the river, shouting at him--"Kill me! You are yellow!" Sand throws the gun into the river, and leaves him there to die alone. That is his revenge.This is one of the strongest vehicles for McQueen, with a cluster of outstanding character actors building up an exciting, though slow-paced, climax. Max is in a moral quandary: He takes upon himself to be the pursuer--who learns on the job--the captor, the judge, and the executioner. It's a story of frontier justice--usually delivered by individuals, and not the law--which stays a secondary factor in the story. Max Sand has scuffles with the law, but his revenge is an individual act, not one that fulfils any moral law--or the justice system. When confronted by a priest living in the desert--Ralph Valone in a brilliant vignette--he brushes off his counsel of "forgiveness," and makes a joke when the priest points to a statuette of the crucifixion who "came to save mankind." "He must have missed some," cracks Sand in bitterness.As always, McQueen is super-cool, and a bit enigmatic. Nothing fazes him, nothing can stop him, but what does not know exactly what drives him. He is a world apart from the sadistic, casual killers that populate the Wild West--for the kill for greed and profit, with no regard whatsoever for human life, property, or one's rights. The villains are the blackest characters one sees in the typical western; they utterly lack moral consciousness. Sand refrains from killing anyone else except those that killed his parents. He possesses a moral code--one suited to McQueen persona to a tee. Undeterred, he proceeds until he succeeds. And when he finally has Malden where he wants him, wounded, and incapable of fighting back, he contemptuously refrains from finishing him off: "You are not worth killing," he says, and tosses his gun into the river, only a few feet away, perhaps thinking that Malden could somehow reach the gun and kill himself. Tossing the gun is an ironic gesture, for it may imply that Valone's sermonizing may not have been in vain. "An eye for an eye," is what collects from the Bible the priest gave him to read--but once this is accomplished, he wants no more blood. He will probably return to the farm and live the rest of his live a quiet and harmless man--rather than as one of the criminals around him. A very entertaining movie, aside from carrying on a not so well masked moral tag to it. Vintage McQueen, for the love of him--in this day and age of 2011.

One great western movie with as good a cast as you could ever wish to be. Each location is a fulfilling quest. The finale is an example of a way to leave a message that really makes the best judgement imaginable

Great cast, especially; Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, and Martin Landau.

Nevada Smith was made at the heights of McQueen's short, but terrific career. This film, along with Love With The Proper Stranger, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Cincinnati Kid and Bullitt, proves just why McQueen was a star. Although the film is your average revenge-story, McQueen's performance along with Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Brian Keith and Susanne Pleshette, make it worth watching. McQueen stars as a young man (the script mentions that he's a boy and half-Indian, but so what?)who witnesess his parents' murder at the hands of Karl Malden's blood-thirsty gang. From there he goes on a year's long quest to hunt down each and every one of the killers, until his parents' death is avenged. He even goes so far as to land himself in a Louisianan chain gang to get one of them. What makes this movie stand out from other films in this genre, is McQueen's maturation during this process. He goes from young boy, to seasoned, cool killer by the time he reaches Karl Malden. McQueen, known for extensively underplaying a scene, gives away all kinds of subtlelties that most people missed (indeed this is why some in Hollywood didn't consider him a good actor), but that upon closer inspection one would see that he's "in character" every step of the way. The scene when he's in the swamp with one of his parents' killers and Susann Pleshette is chilling, because you see all of his rage at finally finding this man and exacting his revenge. What is more poignant is when he, at long last, has Karl Malden, and instead of killing him, leaves him there to die. You see in McQueen's eyes all of the pain, and sorrow, at his parents' loss, but you also see the pity that he has for this weak, pathetic man who is nothing without a gun on his belt. McQueen simply looks at the man, shrugs and walks away. In the hands of another actor this scene would've been overplayed to the point of melodrama, but McQueen said everything that needed to be said in a few simple gestures. That's what makes a star.

This movie is based on a character from Harold Robbins' THE CARPETBAGGERS, but not to worry if you don't remember Nevada Smith as no one should be criticized for not remembering anything about that book. As I remember it was not the great American novel. I kept trying to figure out why the movie was so named since McQueen who is Nevada Smith doesn't take that name until near the end of the movie.Steve McQueen, who is cast as the son of a white man and American Indian, is by far the best thing about this movie. I know: Steve has light eyes and brown hair but none of the other characters in the movie know he is half Indian so it shouldn't bother us, I suppose.The plot is simple. Mcqueen sets out to kill the three men who have brutally murdered his parents. In practically every frame of this movie, he does a fine job of acting. Even though McQueen was 36 when this movie was released in 1966, he looks all of 20. If you require that a character grow and change in order to make a movie good, then McQueen does that.The movie is somewhat dated, and some of the buildings look too much like movie sets. The photography of the American West, however, is very beautiful.It's good to remember just how good an actor Steve McQueen was. This movie is certainly worth watching.

Fabulous movie. Why don’t they make movies like this now?

I got this confused with the McQueen film 'Tom Horn'. I watched both films 20 years ago, ergo my memory is not too fresh regarding McQueen western films. Henry Hathaway directed an unwatchable film here where McQueen looks bored. McQueen was brilliant in Bullitt, The Magnificent Seven, The Sand Pebbles, The Getaway, Tom Horn etc. In this film, however, I'm afraid he left his charisma at the door. He seemed to be a complete dork throughout most of the film; with a dumb look on his face most of the time. Why the women in the film would shamelessly throw themselves at him seems implausible; women generally don't go for confused, nonverbal, deficient-looking guys.The action sequences were extremely weak. The scene where he fights Martin Landau in the coral was laugh-out-loud bad. Casting McQueen as a very young half-Indian where everybody calls him "Boy".... And casting this white skin mid-30s actor as a young man that's half-Indian...……….they should have cast Charles Bronson.

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.

This is not at all a typical Western movie, despite the occasional gunshots. The plot is simple but still one wonders what is going to happened at various points along the (long) movie, which is good as in fact several developments could be possible. Eventually the most obvious is the one, with the full revenge being achieved. SMcQ does not seem to suit the age expected for his character, but this is compensate by his impeccable play (and display of youth agility ...). The end - which is eventually expected - is quite abrupt. But one can cope with that. An additional bonus, not negligible, is the magnificent views of the some USA landscapes I personally love (Nevada, South West)

I give this film 3.5 out of 5 as I really would like to give it 4 and think its better than 3. The film looks great and has a brilliant supporting cast, especially Martin Landau. The film has a strong structure, a nasty beginning and then McQueen goes through three seperate chapters in each catching up with the a man he's after. However what lets it down is Mcqueen is too old for the character hes playing(although his good acting makes him come across younger than he is) and at over two hours there isn't that much original plot, its your basic solid revenge film. I also would like to have seen some kind of epilogue, it ends rather suddenly.