Complete credited cast: | |||
Gregory Peck | ... | Sam Varner | |
Eva Marie Saint | ... | Sarah Carver | |
Robert Forster | ... | Nick Tana | |
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Noland Clay | ... | Boy |
Russell Thorson | ... | Ned | |
Frank Silvera | ... | Major | |
Lonny Chapman | ... | Purdue | |
Lou Frizzell | ... | Stationmaster (as Lou Frizell) | |
Henry Beckman | ... | Sgt. Rudabaugh | |
Charles Tyner | ... | Dace | |
Richard Bull | ... | Doctor | |
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Sandy Brown Wyeth | ... | Rachel (as Sandy Wyeth) |
Joaquín Martínez | ... | Julio (as Joaquin Martinez) | |
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Boyd 'Red' Morgan | ... | Stage Driver Shelby (as Red Morgan) |
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Nathaniel Narcisco | ... | Salvaje |
When an army scout retires to a farm in New Mexico he takes pity on a white woman and her "half-breed" son recently rescued from Indians, and invites them to join him. He does this even knowing the child's father is a feared and murderous Apache and that sooner or later a showdown is almost inevitable. Written by Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
A tense, fairly realistic, and mature western from 1968, when the genre was on the way to near oblivion, only to be saved now and then by the likes of Peckinpah and Eastwood. Unfortunately, this film is not so well known and has been unfairly characterized as plodding and slow. It definitely has a degree of introspectiveness to it, but their is a gem of a pursuit story. The film does its best not to sugarcoat the west. The locales and people are pretty impressive for their gritty primitiveness and overall authenticity. The central story about a fierce Apache warrior who's waging his own brutal campaign to kill as many whites as he can, chasing the white woman who was his wife and the mother of his son, while an ageing army scout does his best to protect them is framed by some pretty awesome photography of blinding sandstorms, thick vegetation, and lots of rocky cliffs and a fine score.