AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Robert J. Maxwell Charles Coburn and half a dozen other prisoners escape from jail. They're pretty dangerous hombres. The call goes out for the retired territorial law officer Charlton Heston to strap on his guns again, though he's out of practice. The last time he rode a horse was years ago. This is the early 1900s. Teddy Roosevelt is president. There are railroads, telegraph, telephones, autoMObiles, and television sets. Well, not that, but everything has been modernized in the West except Heston and Coburn, sworn enemies of each other in the old-fashioned way.Coburn is a smart bandido. Instead of immediately trying to rob the nearest gold, he kidnaps Heston's daughter, Barbara Hershey, and the gang ride off with her. Coburn realizes that Heston and the posse will be forced to follow them. He plots an ambush.Does all of this sound familiar? It ought to. It's one of those "end-of-the-trail" Westerns that were popular during the 70s. Sam Pekinpah's "The Wild Bunch" was about the end of the old West. So was "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Both were monumental hits, and a number of similar Westerns, "The Shootist", for instance, did well too.Andrew V. McLaglen was an acolyte under John Ford, but Ford's humanity and sentiment were becoming antiquated. The Western -- hell, the world itself -- was becoming cynical and brutalized, as Pekinpah's work demonstrated. McLaglen's heart here is with Ford but the time called for a new and bloodier approach. As a director, McLaglen was never a genius, always a stalwart, but here he seems, like Buridan's ass, to have starved between two haystacks.I didn't find it anything more than routine. Even the violence was routine by this time.

Woodyanders A gang of savage convicts led by vicious half-breed Zach Provo (a marvelously nasty portrayal by James Coburn) escape from custody. Provo plans on exacting revenge on crafty retired lawman Sam Burgade (an excellent performance by Charlton Heston), who's the man responsible for putting him in jail. Provo kidnaps Burgade's sweet and fetching daughter Susan (a charming turn by the lovely Barbara Hershey) in order to ensure that Burgade will come after him. Director Andrew V. McLaglen relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, stages the shoot-outs with skill and flair (the big climactic confrontation between Provo and Burgade is especially tense and exciting), maintains an appropriately gritty no-nonsense tone throughout, and doesn't hold back on the often jolting moments of bloody'n'brutal violence. Guerdon Trueblood's tough, yet thoughtful script uses the early 20th century period setting to offer some interesting commentary about changing times and the passing of the Old West. Moreover, the villains are a truly hateful and dangerous bunch, with Provo in particular standing out as a supremely cruel and cunning main villain. The sound acting from the capable cast rates as another substantial asset: Coburn and Heston both do sterling work in their meaty roles, with sturdy support from Jorge Rivero as Provo's loyal partner Menendez, Michael Parks as the laid-back and ineffectual Sheriff Noel Nye, Larry Wilcox as soft wimp Shelby, Christopher Mitchum as gutsy greenhorn Hal Brickman, John Quade as the vile Gant, and Robert Donner as ornery racist troublemaker Lee Roy. Duke Callaghan's handsome widescreen cinematography gives the picture a sumptuous look. Jerry Goldsmith's robust and flavorsome score hits the stirring spot. A worthwhile and satisfying sagebrush saga.

xredgarnetx TLHM is a gritty turn-of-the-century western pitting aging lawman Chuck Heston against escaped con James Coburn, who has kidnapped Heston's luscious daughter (the ever fetching Barbara Hershey). The shootouts and death scenes are almost G-rated by today's standards, but you can tell they were trying. Also, by 1976, there had been a lot more violent and bloody flicks, like THE WILD BUNCH and SOLDIER BLUE. So we must make do with the characters, and Heston and Coburn prove why they don't make them like this any longer. If this were remade, you might cast Mel Gibson or Tommy Lee Jones as the worn out cop and Stuart Wilson or Gary Busey as the obsessive bad buy, but it just wouldn't be the same. Heston and Coburn were legends. There are no legends today. Worth a look.

renau-1 This movie's not so bad, but I went into it with really low expectations. Yes, it's violent...no big deal. The movie's flaws are many, but it's heart is in the right place in trying to play around with the concept of a traditional western. Only problem with this is that by the mid 70s when it was made, everybody was doing the same thing, with better results I might add. What I mean by that is the script and story just copy some of the innovations of other new-style westerns -- the casual violence, the moral ambiguity, etc. -- but doesn't seem to really appreciate the full import of what it's doing in terms of the narrative and the characters. So what you get is the packaging of a new-style western draped across the same old saccharine BS that westerns typically have; hence the ending, when 'hero' and 'villain' shoot each other, the villain dies, and then the hero's daughter and fiancé attend to the hero's wounds...fade and cut. So it goes. All in all, better than I would have thought, but far from good.