Review of Nevada Smith

A great streak of classic movies by the master Steve McQueen in the turbulent 60's. Just coming off his last picture the Cincinatti Kid, Steve is back on the prairie and in the saddle for another western with revenge as the story line. Vengeance goes to new heights in this picture with a huge portion of savage fierceness. McQueen portrays a half breed White/native American youth (Max Sand) who witnesses the brutal murders of his family by three cutthroats, Martin Landua (Jesse Coe), Arthur Kennedy (Bill Bowdre) and Karl Malden as Tom Finch. Taking place in the remote southwestern United States our uneducated, naive and hungry teen proclaims revenge on each of the killers. As he seeks out the evil three across America. Unprepared, tired and hungry roaming the remote terrain he finds a rusty pistol and seeks out a well stocked traveler named Jonas Cord (Brian Keith). Max has Mr. Cord at gun point but Cord sees that the weapon is old and rusty and doesn't work.Jonas Cord happens top be a gun dealer in those parts and has sold guns and ammunition for close to 15 years. Max tells his traumatic story of his family getting ambushed by the three scoundrels to Mr. Cord and his personal quest to seek revenge by killing each one. Cord advises the half breed to go home and let it go but Sand wants to learn all he can to get retribution and closure in his life by killing each one. Cord takes on the youth and teaches him all about shooting and dirty bar room fighting. To paraphrase, "In order to be a killer you have live like one and think like one!" claims an elder Cord to an impressionable Sand. Cord also suggested that these evil three will go where the money is. The rest of the picture shows Sand in his travels seeking out each one from Brothels, bar rooms and the swamps of the Louisiana bayou. Going to great lengths to seek out each individual who slaughtered his folks with no remorse. Honorable mention to the two female co-stars Janet Margolin as the native American Neesa who nurses Sand back to health after a deadly knife fight. Suzanne Pleshette as Pillar who provides a canoe in the vast and murky regions of the Bayou to help Sand escape from prison. The scenery for the most part is breath taking. The cinementopgraphy is superb with the use of wide open spaces.