La rossa ombra di Riata

An opening scene is one that will make the anti-gun group proud. The sheriff (a sober Richard Harris) explains that guns beget guns, etc. But when a group of super-nasties kill his school marm wife, and young son, it's a whole different story.

It's vengeance time and the next hour or so has to do with the sheriff on a one-man quest to find the head baddie (Rod Taylor relishing the role) and the chase takes us into Mexico and a small village where, usually, nothing much happens.

What happens in this flick is brutality piled on brutality, and violence up the ying-yang. Look at someone cross-eyed and you've had it mister.

There is the requisite prostitute with the requisite heart of gold and, by the way, some of the best acting comes from her little girl who was fathered by Taylor. She really looks scared --- well, you know the phrase.

So, the story is standard stuff, but it will hold your attention. The scenery is neat, the 'borrowed' music is neat and, for you lovers of violence, this is heaven on film although, to be honest, it is not as gross as you may have expected, since the films of Fuller are 'full-er' violence.

The moral to the story? Revenge is not always sweet. Would the Lone Ranger have done it this way?

"The Deadly Trackers" has a terrific cast. Put them in any other western and it would be great. For some reason this movie isn't so good. The most annoying thing in the movie, hands down, is Neville Brand's metal hand. It's just so stupid that it's wildly distracting. That's not the only problem with "The Deadly Trackers". This movie suffers from a cheapness to the production. It looks like a low budget spaghetti western. That may have been the type of western that they were trying to make but it just doesn't work. What a shame. "The Deadly Trackers" could have been great. (Just for the record, I enjoyed this movie tonight more than I did the last time I saw it. I'll give it another go in a few months. See what happens.)

This is one of those films that lovers of the Western genre ought to rent on video. They will discover a treasure of the past that is well worth a watch. Like most Westerns, this film is set in the 1870s American southwest. The story of vengence is common in Western films, and this particular tale is extremely brutal. The post civil war Southwest was a violent place full of vigilantism and crime. Men of the West with morals and a sense of social responsibility always served as easy prey for bushwackers.

The Deadly Trackers is focused on two men who share an over-developed sense of justice. They are both sheriffs, and they both embraced the importance of the law. One of the sheriffs loses his family, however, and his ideals die with them. The best part of this film is the relationship that builds between the two sheriffs as they hunt a small band of bushwackers. Richard Harris's character is the embittered sheriff bent on vengence. His character sinks into being as cruel and violent as the men he hunts. The Mexican sheriff, who lacks personal loss, maintains an ideal sense of keeping law and order. In the end, Harris's character regains his values for upholding the law only to see justice slip out of his grasp. The Mexican sheriff remains constant in his efforts to enforce the law only to provide for a lack of justice. The result is a dark tale about the nature of mankind on the frontier.

Considering what a mess this film was...Sam Fuller fired as writer/director, along with all the co stars, by star Richard Harris who then hires friend/drinking companion Rod Taylor to be his co star and re-write Fuller...I suppose we should be thankful that there are any points of interest remaining. Actually there are several, most notably making one of the bad guys an African American, certainly a most un PC move for a 70s, non Blaxploitation pic. Also there is the usual fine acting of Neville Brand as a scumbag with the ability to be shocked by the greater evil of his boss, and finally Al Lettieri, the symbol of late 60s/early 70s villainy, playing an upholder of the law and doing a convincing job of it.

But mostly, this extremely violent film, shot in Mexico, with Isela Vega, is Peckinpah wannabe stuff. Give it a C plus.

PS...After "Lawrence Of Arabia" they shoulda banned all quicksand death scenes.

A very uneven film, filled with a "a bit of the olé' ultra-violence", shows its troubled production and finally emerges as a curios and a signpost of the changes in Hollywood that were still evolving and not without pains.

There is a vastness to the production with a gritty feel, children in distress and some really despicable characters. The Hero's change of heart from pacifist to killer is abrupt as are some of the other plot devices that take a backseat to the carnage and and mayhem.

It does have a memorable feeling to it that seems to stem from the movie's outrageous flourishes and one wonders if this was probably the best they could cobble from all the changes in Directors and other on the set strife. The good cast, however, are all in top form.

After all, it is recommended for fans of Westerns and movie chronology. It is a definite piece of postmodern cinema that is having difficulty (although not always aware) finding its niche and as a lot of seventies films show, it was not an easy transition as the art-form was released from over thirty years of repression.