After witnessing the brutal massacre of his family , a young man (Steve McQueen) set out a personal vengeance against a hideous band (the trio formed by Martin Landau , Karl Malden , Arthur Kennedy) . He swears revenge and will do pay one by one the murderers . He carries the vengeance in his heart after seeing his family butchered . Previous rules of the code of west are dated , he is nowadays guided by vendetta . The protagonist combines raw ferocity , toughness and untamed youth . He learns about the life with the experience only a master gun-fighter (Brian Keith) can offer . He is going after those who killed them . He travels the southwestern and goes to Abilene as cowboy . In this cattle town the rowdy , free-spending cowboys attracted saloon keepers , gambling houses , brothels with prostitutes (Janet Margolin) and all types of frontier men , the city became notorious for its lawlessness and vice , there he found his main enemy (Martin Landau) . Later on , he goes to Northern and crosses paths to track down and hunt foes . He is become an outlaw with a price on his head and carries out bank robbery , murders and being severely wounded . But he is trapped . He is imprisoned in a prisoner camp that is a hell on the earth , the inmates are tortured , harassed and humiliated by the wardens (Pat Hingle , Howard Da Silva) in a gaol where rules the strongest law . He along with a convict (Arthur Kennedy) and helped by a gorgeous young woman( Suzanne Pleshette) are involving the preparatives for the scape . He also meets a good priest (Raf Vallone), explaining him a moralising speech.
This is a violent , lengthy Western based on the character created by Harold Robbins in ¨The Carpetbaggers ¨(adapted to cinema by Edward Dimitrick with George Peppard) . In the movie there is action , tension , adventures , violence and results to be quite entertaining . The great Steve McQueen gives a very good acting in his peculiar style . Support cast is frankly awesome , such as : Brian Keith , Raf Vallone , Pat Hingle , Howard Da Silva , Janet Margolin , Martin Landau , Paul Fix , John Doucette , Gene Evans , among others . The picture is well photographed , including magnificently detailed outdoors and stunning locations in glittering colour . As it packs an evocative and colorful cinematography in Technicolor by Lucien Ballard . Excellent music by the veteran and classic Alfred Newman . The motion picture was finely directed by Henry Hathaway (True grit, Five sons of Katie Elder) .
