NEVADA SMITH

Nevada Smith was a character in the hit 1964 film ‘The Carpetbaggers’, a former Wild West outlaw who becomes a film star in the 1920s.  Given that the film hints at Smith's early life being an eventful one, including a prison escape, someone had the bright idea of making this film two years later which tells the story of that life.

Who better to play Smith than rising superstar Steve McQueen who had already enjoyed success in both a Western (‘The Magnificent Seven’) and a prison escape film (‘The Great Escape’)?

Given that the whole thing is directed by veteran Henry Hathaway (who knew where to point the camera) and written by John Michael Hayes who had written the screenplay for 'The Carpetbaggers’ (not to mention 'Rear Window’ ten years earlier) what could possibly go wrong?

Well quite a lot as far as the critics were concerned, and I too found this a hard slog.  

For starters McQueen is badly miscast.  It’s not simply that he is about ten years too old, it’s more that the role isn’t a good fit for his limited range of acting skills. He’s playing a young man by the name of Max Sand (the change of name comes later) who is burning up with thoughts of revenge after his parents are horribly tortured and murdered, but McQueen, never the most expressive of actors, struggles to convey this.  He ends up producing a dour performance in which his trademark charm is sadly missing.

At 131 minutes the film is way too long and badly needs pruning.

The three men who murdered Max’s parents then go their different ways, so that the film in effect becomes three mini-stories as Max catches up with each of them in turn, so an obvious way to have shortened the running time would have been to ditch one of the three baddies, probably the first (played by Martin Landau).

Even then there would have been the problem that the characters are two-dimensional and that no dramatic momentum is created by the screenplay or the languorous direction.  Even decent actors such as Arthur Kennedy and Karl Malden as the other two villains struggle to breathe life into their roles.

The end result is a slow moving and overly long series of episodes that ultimately doesn’t add up to very much.

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm