Review: Nevada Smith

Although he later takes on the title name, Steve McQueen stars as a teenager whose real name is Max Sand. Max, of mixed heritage, watches his parents killed by a rotten trio of scumbag bandits (Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, and Martin Landau) and spends the rest of the film on a single-minded revenge mission. Brian Keith plays a paternal gunman who teaches the kid how to shoot, Iron Eyes Cody and Janet Margolin play native Americans (neither actor being native American), Pat Hingle is a prisoner, Suzanne Pleshette plays a potential love interest, and Raf Vallone turns up late as a priest who tries to get through to the vengeful title character.

 

A lot of people can’t get past the casting of 35 year-old Steve McQueen playing a supposed 16 year-old in this 1966 western from director Henry Hathaway (“True Grit”). Having grown up watching “Beverly Hills 90210” I’m kind of an old hand at suspending disbelief with the ages of actors and their characters (Bit of a strange reference, just go with it). If the film is good, if the performance is good, it won’t matter. It didn’t matter to me here, because this is one of the most underrated westerns of all-time. Scripted by John Michael Hayes (“To Catch a Thief”, “The Carpetbaggers”), if you’ve seen “The Carpetbaggers” the title character here turns up in that film too (as does another character), based on a Harold Robbins novel. This is much the better film, and deserving of having a lot more eyes on it. An enthralling, brooding story, I think it’s one of the best revenge-themed films ever made.

 

In spite of basically being miscast (it can be overlooked but can’t be denied), Steve McQueen gives one of his best-ever performances as the ruthless, single-minded title character (despite that titular name only being uttered near the end). Martin Landau, Karl Malden, and Arthur Kennedy make for an immediately evil trio (Landau especially), whilst Brian Keith is spot-on in a John Wayne-ish turn as a kind of father figure for the title character. He comes close to stealing the film, actually. The underrated Howard da Silva also makes an instant impression as a warden. I don’t think there’s any flaws here, but Raf Vallone’s character seems to turn up a bit late. The scenery as captured by cinematographer Lucien Ballard (“The Wild Bunch”, “The Getaway”) is likely a lot of the same locations as usual in westerns but it seemed to really pop for me in this one.

 

There’s really not a whole lot else to say here, while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel (precious few westerns could claim that), what it did do it does to a more effective degree than a heck of a lot of other films of this type. It’s a somewhat familiar story expertly told. Put it out of your mind that Steve McQueen was looking awfully mature here if you can, because this revenge western is one of the really fine ones in the subgenre and one of the star’s best films. It just goes to show what a magnetic star and solid actor he was that he could get me to look past his ill-fit and convince with his actual performance. I usually find that a bit of a sticking point, but such is the charisma and presence of McQueen. I seem to be on a bit of a lonely island of my own on this one but I’m happy to be there. This is a terrifically effective, quite grim mixture of coming-of-age film and revenge western. I think it deserves a much better reputation.

 

Rating: B+