Burt Lancaster, J.D. Cannon, Joseph Wiseman

Burt Lancaster is excellent as the title character, a pitiless, unbending marshal out to arrest seven cowhands who left a dead man in the wake of a drunken tear, in this stoic, modern take on a clas...( read more  read more... )sic Western theme. He confronts a rancher baron, trigger-happy gunmen, and the cowardly hypocrites of a frontier town: the usual bunch of Old West types sculpted into intriguing character by a crack cast. Robert Ryan brings a sad dignity to his former gunfighter tamed into a meek town marshal, and Lee J. Cobb is introspective and thoughtful as the aging cattleman weary of his life of violence: "It took guns to take this land, guns to keep it, and guns to make it grow.... Each time we bury the cost." Robert Duvall, Albert Salmi, and a young Richard Jordan (as an idealistic cowpoke whose sense of honor gets a workout in the complex conflicts) also star.

The first American feature by British director Michael Winner (who went on to make numerous tough Charles Bronson pictures, including the first three Death Wish movies) is lean and tough, with a streak of "passing of an era" melancholia, but surprisingly old-fashioned. The hard-edged, unsentimental violence, arid, austere look of the picture, and distracting overuse of zoom shots mark it as an unmistakable product of the early 1970s, but it's not so much cynical as sorrowful in its clash of ideals, and never less than clear-eyed in the presentation of harsh frontier realities. --Sean Axmaker

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43% liked it

1,508 ratings

PG, 95 min.

Directed by: Michael Winner

Release Date: August 4, 1971

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DVD Release Date: September 4, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (43)


  • January 6, 2008
    a classic tale of a lawman out to see justice served with no exceptions. this was a great flick unitl the end where the unexpected happens and not in a good way as a couple of the main characters change colors for no explained reason at all. justice becomes trivial, but the act...( read more)ing was solid and the film had a great feel. overall this was pretty good.
  • September 24, 2007
    average western. entertaining. burt lancaster plays a heartless lawman in town to do justice no matter what the cost! sounds like a charlie bronson movie i know... but it's not! almost as good
  • October 19, 2009
    Pretty good Western flick
  • December 6, 2007
    The original story like in most of the old westerns but it doesn't make it bad. It just doesn't make it that extremely good either. Burt Lancaster is good though.
  • August 21, 2007
    i would like to see this one..
  • July 20, 2007
    Trust Michael Winner to mess up such a great cast
  • February 19, 2007
    ONE OF THE BEST WESTERN OF ALL TIME
  • September 29, 2006
    not my type of movie
  • July 9, 2006
    Subpar western with the great Burt Lancaster.

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