Christopher Walken is an enigmatic stranger wandering the west. Geoffrey Lewis is a scalp-hunter, turned prospector, with a serious case of gold fever, while Margot Kidder is the indentured servant of emotionally-stunted ship captain Bo Bundin. The four collide in and around Mexican-controlled Santa Fe as they dig for gold and search for the lost treasure of Montezuma.
Though mostly character-driven and not for everyone's taste, this independent western looks great, with nice location photography and and the presences of Walken and Kidder, right on the cusp of their breakthrough performances in The Deer Hunter and Superman: The Movie respectively, though Walken is a bit out of place.
Of the cast, the late Geoffrey Lewis is the most game (as usual), delivering some amusing lines, his eulogy for a treacherous henchman especially memorable. Familiar faces, A. Martinez and Sacheen Littlefeather (on the final seconds of her fifteen-minutes of fame) round out the cast.
Action scenes are clumsy and the score is all over the place, with spaghetti western horns one minute, pulsing rock the next, traditional string instruments a few minutes later, with some prints featuring a title song by Kinky Friedman!
