How bad is it? One of the worst (non-"B") westerns ever.
Should you see it? For the cast and for one fight scene, I give the mildest possible 'yes.'
The story of the making of this mess is more interesting than the film. It was meant to be a TV film, but wasn't deemed good enough to release (!) until "Blazing Saddles" became a hit and new footage was added for a theatrical release. In the process, the tone of the film changed and any sense of continuity was lost. James Caan plays a cowboy that gets framed and he teems up with Stephanie Powers, who plays a Native American who has also been wronged by the townspeople; they proceed to attack bad guy Aldo Ray and his henchmen and escalate until the entire town is burned to the ground (taking about 15 minutes of run time). Sammy Davis Jr. plays an anachronistic modern cowboy. There's some nudity (including Ms. Powers), a tremendous catfight and some truly terrible attempts at humor. At the end, Powers, who hasn't spoken a word of English to this point says, "You've killed everyone but the cameraman!" Then they shoot him, too.
I've been meaning to see this for a while, solely because it's the movie Joy Bang is watching during the amazing theater sequence in "Messiah of Evil."
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's "Gone with the West" shown in "Messiah of Evil" and I think it's the original version without the later additions.
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