The Broken Land

Very early Jack Nicholson vehicle that is nothing more than a quick B-western with some exotic Arizona Apache Zone locales. Evil small town sheriff Kent Taylor rules the community with an iron fist and several within the small landscape join forces to change things. Nicholson is way down the list on the credits as a young hothead who has an itchy trigger-finger and likes to solve things with a rifle rather than by talking things out. An extremely wishy-washy film that is shorter than most documentaries these days (the film is only about an hour in length) and sports no real recommendations anywhere across the board. Only memorable to see how Nicholson was before his "Easy Rider" days. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

A young Jack Nicholson is the only reason to watch this film. Jack was 25 years old when he appeared in "The Broken Land." At first, I didn't even recognize him, or even his classic one-of-a kind voice. Jack's the only actor in the cast (veteran Kent Taylor comes in second) who can bring to life the lousy dialogue. With a 60 minute run time (the "director's cut" is 75 minutes, according to IMDb), at least it goes by quickly. Maybe this film was the bottom half of a drive-in double feature (if anyone remembers drive-ins). If one does remember drive-ins, there was undoubtedly more action going on in the back seat of Daddy's Chevy then on the screen. Could be grindhouse material as well.

The story opens up with a drifter stumbling into a town ruled by a sheriff who trusted no one and would make certain that everyone in town lived or died by his rules.

Many people in the town would love to just up and move away but the crazy sheriff would some way convince them to stay.

There was also a woman who recently moved into town and had an affair with the sheriff and held some deep dark secrets about him, which made him want her to leave on the next stagecoach out of town.

Jack Nicholson was very young in this picture but just his appearance in the film makes it worth your while to watch and enjoy.

To Put it in Perspective, Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher put a "New Face" on the Western in the 1950's and Sam Peckinpah put an Amen to it with Ride the High Country (1962) and then Reincarnated the "New" Western with The Wild Bunch (1969). Peckinpah, it Could be Said, Ended the New Wave of Westerns and Started the New New Wave of Westerns. No Mean Feat.

While Hardly in the Mann/Boetticher/Peckinpah Camp, This Little Movie is Indeed a Bit Different from Standard Stuff in its Introspection of Some Off Beat Characters that Include a Brutal Dictatorial Sheriff, a Dim-Witted Likable Stiff, a Good Hearted Drifter, and Jack Nicholson as a Slightly Miscast Bad/Good Guy. Diana Darin is the Damaged Goods still Managing to Look Good and Emote Kindness.

Overall, Worth a Watch for Early Nicholson, a Good but Short Story, and Some Colorful Cinemascope Landscapes.

While I don't watch a steady diet of westerns I watch them from time to time for the cast members and since THE BROKEN LAND has also a score of 5,0 I expected it to be bad but instead it was worth the view.

When the story begins Dave Dunson rides in a small town ruled with an iron fist by a corrupt Sheriff (Kent Taylor) that uses law for controlling everyone, including locking up Will Brocious (Jack Nicholson) only because his father was a crook, insisting that a feeble-minded guy was trying to shoot him and locking up Dunson because he wanted to stop his reign of terror. How it will unfold it's best if you see it for yourselves.

While the plot looked like that of so many other westerns it was still very entertaining and the acting by all no names except Nicholson was decent. Still, if you are a huge fan of westerns or you don't have nothing else to do and you already saw a lot of stuff this is for you.