USA
XIX century
John Benedict (William Holden) - a farmer, after the murder of his entire family decided to take revenge on the murderers, for which he assembled a detachment of thugs who were imprisoned in the mines.
The beginning of the film was very encouraging. It was interesting to watch until about the middle, although I came across a version with a beautifully familiar translation from the 90s, when sometimes some words were not possible to make out.
Well, you will agree, the story is really interesting. The death of the whole family, including small children. Total ruin. Vengeance. Criminals acting as vigilantes. What went wrong in the middle of the picture, I don't know. But then there was a frank boredom and a feeling of shortcomings and omissions.
The character who said the phrase that ultimately predetermined the final act of the main character is very blurred. On the one hand, this character had to be bright and memorable: sorry, he, you can say, determined the further life of John. But on the other hand, everything is crumpled, quickly, because the relationship between John and the hero looks strangely implausible. By the way, the hero is actually a heroine (which I am holding here some intrigue). Wanted the creators, perhaps, to make even more melodramatic, and then thought – no, this is the mach, throw this heroine out of the narrative.
It was interesting to watch the criminals, who by fate turned out to be avengers, but not for everyone. In my opinion, there were too many of them to fully reveal the character of each. Everyone was given this character! It’s a shame that only three or four of them have been revealed.
I didn’t really like the movie and won’t be remembered in any way. I’m sure I’ll forget about it in a couple of months, and even a pity, since the plot was intriguing, and the field for the development of the plot is extensive.