In Nevada Smith Steve McQueen is a half-breed, born
out of an Indian (sorry: Native American) mother and a white father. Blue-eyed
and fair-haired McQueen may seem an odd choice to play a half-breed, but note
that we’re in the Sixties when white actors were often asked to impersonate
biracial characters: Paul Newman would play one in Hombre (1967),
Elvis Presley had played one in Flaming
Star (1960).
The film tells the background story of a character,
Max Sand, created by Harold Robbins in his novel The Carpetbeggers (*1).
Sand is a young man who vows revenge on the three men who have murdered his
parents in gruesome fashion: we’re told (luckily not shown) that his mother - a
‘squaw’ - was skinned alive). A travelling gunsmith (Brian Keith) teaches him
how to use a gun, but also warns him that the desire for vengeance may ruin a
man’s life. Max disregards all good advice and sets out to track the three murderers
down, one by one. The villains have gone separate ways and Max even follows one
of them into a Louisiana prison camp to get even with the piece of
vermin.
Keith's warnings are a first indication that the film wants to
say something about vigilantism, but its message is rather obscure. In The
Bravados (1958, Henry King) Gregory Peck discovers that he has tracked
down and killed the wrong man. In the Italian western Da
Uomo a Uomo (Death
Rides a Horse, Giulio Petroni, 1967) the juvenile avenger discovers that his
mentor was present at the scene of the crime (albeit not as one of the
killers). In both cases the discovery sheds a new light on the avenger and his
obsessions. In Nevada Smith all pleadings to give up his
quest and lead a normal life (not only by his mentor, but also by a priest and
a girl who has developed feelings for him) seem to have little or no effect,
but then, all of a sudden, when he’s about to kill the last murderer he
concludes that the man ‘isn’t worth it’. Isn’t worth what? Max
has shot the man both the arms and legs and he is most probably bleeding to
death. It’s a rather sadistic scene and the effect is opposite to the
redemptive effect the film makers most probably had in mind.
Nevada Smith (*2) was popular among moviegoers but critical
reactions were mixed. At the age of 36, Steve McQueen is too old to play a
teenager at the beginning of the movie and the evolution of the central character
from a young inexperienced boy into a hardened killer isn’t very
convincing. Instead of being epic, the film feels episodic, with some
episodes working better than others. But it remains a fairly exciting revenge
western and McQueen’s screen
presence is so strong that we are (almost) willing to accept all these
complications caused by his casting: he was not called ‘Mr. Cool’ without
reason. And the supporting cast is very fine, notably Brian Keith as his mentor
and Karl Malden as the most vicious of the murderers.
⭐⭐⭐
Dir: Henry Hathaway - Cast: Steve McQueen (Max Sand/Nevada Smith), Karl Malden (Tom Fitch), Brian Keith (Jonas Cord), Suzanne Pleshette (Pilar), Arthur Kennedy (Bill Bowdre), Martin Landau (Jesse Coe), Raf Vallone (Father Zaccardi), Janet Margolin (Neesa), Pat Hingle (Big Foot), Paul Fix (Sheriff Bonnell) - Cinematography: Lucien Ballard - Music: Alfred Newman
Note:
*1) The film describes Max Sands’ first encounter with another character from the novel, Jonas Cord, but the story and script were originally written for the movie. In the 1964 screen adaptation of Robbins’ novel the characters of Max Sands and Jonas Cord were played by Alan Ladd and George Peppard respectively.
*2 Max 'adopts' the name Nevada Smith relatively late into the movie.