The Deadly Trackers (1973)

Director: Barry Shear

Starring: Richard Harris, Rod Taylor, Neville Brand

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The sheriff fought for peace. Now he would kill for vengeance.

Plot Outline: Sheriff Sean Kilpatrick (Harris) is a pacifist. Frank Brand (Taylor) is the leader of a band of killers. When their paths cross Kilpatrick is compelled to go against everything he has stood for to bring death to Brand and his gang. Through his hunt into Mexico he is challenged by a noble Mexican Sheriff (Lettieri) interested only in carrying out the law - not vengeance.

My Rating: 6/10

Would I watch it again? Nope.

Richard Harris CAN be a good actor...when he's not he's over-doing it. It's either pitch-perfect or over-the-top. Here he's the latter.

The four minutes give us nothing but stills with a burlap texture and audio from scenes being depicted. It's odd at first but it's a neat way of giving us the necessary background on Harris as to his view of violence and guns. When we get to the "moving pictures" portion of the film (which is a fantastic transition, btw) it's for the bank raid by Taylor. Harris, before he goes apeshit for vengeance, is great. He's rather like his character years later in UNFORGIVEN (1992). He's cool. HAVE SPOILERS WILL TRAVEL...once Taylor kills his wife and young boy he abandons his passive ways and starts a decent into pure revenge which, at times, goes over the top. END OF SPOILERS...YARRRR.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

That's Harris. He's fun to watch for the most part. In his westerns he always seem to get his ass kicked all over the place. There's no shortage of that here. Rod Taylor is a total badass. He's THE reason to watch this. I discovered afterward that he's an Australian. You'd never know it. He NAILS the Southern accent to the back wall and he plays the part so well it feels real. Neville Brand does a fine job as Choo Choo (he's called that because he as a footlong piece of railroad track for a hand!!!) and then there's the GREAT character actor Al Lettieri as the Mexican Sheriff, Gutierrez. He's more of a passive puss than Harris to the point of frustation from the viewer. I've always enjoyed his work, what little is out there to see. He died too young at 47 of a heart attack in 1975.

"Al 'Normally a Badass But Not So Much In This One' Lettieri

There's some great lines, too, as in this scene between Kilpatrick and Brand.


Brand: You understand Mex, fella? They're sayin' they're gonna hang you. (pause)


Brand: I hope it hurts like a sonofabitch!

The problem, besides the sometimes performances (except for Taylor who shines all the way through), is the pacing. It just drags in places from the get-go. And at nearly 2 hours (110 minutes) it's unforgivable. Taylor's gang fucks Harris' shit up more than a few times and that's pure evil fun. Oh, then there's the music. Credited are Fred Steiner and Jerry Fielding. Much of the score is lifted from Fielding's score to THE WILD BUNCH (1969). Specifically, the triple/duple/triple meter cue. It's great stuff but if you remember it from TWB then it detracts and I've seen TWB about a dozen times. I couldn't help but be reminded of it every time I heard it. That's not something you want your movie to do. It's one thing to give you the feeling of another film but you don't want to be taken out of what you're watching at the same time.

In all it's not a bad film but it's not a very good one either. Watch it for Rod Taylor's top-notch performance and the beautiful Mexican locations. Stay through it, though, because the ending is is going to kick you square in the nuts. I really enjoyed that - the ending, not the kicking 'O' the nuts part.