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Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy set out into Apache territory in search of Ford’s abducted wife and two children, but we soon discover, in Ford’s long absences from home, Kennedy has fallen in love with and assumed the role of husband and father to Ford’s family . This grim, mean little western pits the two men against each other and every equally mean-spirited, malicious individual they encounter along the way. Thorpe paints a dangerous world full of backstabbers, criminals, vicious American Indians and equally vicious American Soldiers, where no one can be trusted and friendship play no part. Dark, dark stuff.

Grade: B+

The aging cowboy’s slow realization that he no longer fits into a progressive world, hell bent on forward movement, eastern ideals of commercial progress and law and order, is nothing new for Westerns made in and around the 1970′s.  Classically, the true western hero was never meant to and has never belonged to the society in which he protects, a society that has always thought toward the future, but where the great Westerns on the 60′s and 70′s differ lay in the heroes reluctance acceptance and internal contemplation of this fact; in addition to his reluctant desire to rethink his own future options and god forbid get married for as Monte Walsh (Lee Marvin) hesitantly states as he considers the possibility “cowboys are not meant to marry.” 

In the world of Peckinpah, aging cowboys stroll gracefully toward their death, an inevitable journey representing the end of an era, to whom adaptation is not an option when a way of life no longer functions, the self no longer needs to exist.  Pessimistic and narrow minded yet firm in it’s grip on the ideals and moral code a man commits his life to; all inherit qualities of a true western hero, yet William Fraker’s Monte Walsh offers the aging cowboy an alternative to death, being the formation of a new identity, defined through marriage and the creation of a life in town as a contributing member within the developing community. Chet Rollins,in a performance proving Jack Palance an actor capable of subtle grace, does just that and even offers up the possibilty of life change to Monte, who, laughs at the thought, but eventually realizes it may be the only way. Tempted by steady pay as many true cowboys, such as Wild Bill Hickox, have been by fame and travel in a Wild West Show, Monte momentarily considers the possibility along with marriage to a middle age prostitute, played beautifully by Jeanne Moreau.  For a man like Monte, destiny does not allow for such drastic developments, meant to travel the open country, like the wolves he kills for pocket change, unhinged and in the end, alone; the true Western hero. 

Grade: A-