The Bull of the West

I compliment myself for having the patience and strength to watch this entire movie. IMDb says it is 90 minutes long; it seemed like 2-1/2 hours. Much of it was well acted and written, and I give them credit for doing a decent job of melding 2 or 3 episodes of "The Virginian" together, but it moved so slowly and kept repeating itself. I grew weary and angry as I watched Charles Bronson argue, annoy, antagonize, reject and torture all the many characters (wife, son, fellow ranchers) who tried to befriend/love/reach him — over and over. Whew! The conversations between Brian Keith and the young man he mentored also became boring and repititious. Maybe it is just me, but this is another Western where it is never made clear to me what the legal rights some ranchers have in fencing off or appropriating "open free range." Avoid the movie unless you have a keen interest in some of the people who made or acted in it.

I actually thought they did a pretty good job of melding two different episodes of the Virginian into one film with two concurrent stories. They didn't run one episode after another but interwove scenes from the two episodes to make it seem like they were occuring at the same point in time. I was impressed how they took brief clips of Charles Bronson riding and shooting and standing and made it look like he was joining in the attempt to divert a cattle stampede and standing with others watching Brian Keith die when Bronson wasn't in that episode. Others commenting here say the acting is bad, but it was the acting of the day and the cast, including Lee J. Cobb, Bronson, Keith, George Kennedy, Lois Nettleson, Doug McClure and James Drury is pretty impressive.

Almost has a 'film noir' feeling. Has 'heavier' drama than what current TV shows depict. More 'real life' atmosphere than 'bigger than life'atmosphere which is what a lot of westerns go for. The sentiment of the past few decades is easily reanimated to potency in the post 911 USA. I've noticed that in viewing westerns, especially the ones that were candidates for quick categorization by critics into 'template' scripts, the actions and characters now take on more mythic proportions. I think this has to do with the attack on the west in the 21st century. Mechanically has good mix of three plots but has some 'tv-esque'acting, however this is easy to ignore and enjoy the film anyway. Good mix of big stars seen in roles before they broke out and dominated the western/action film scene in Hollywood.

The Bull of the West which I saw under the title of Hot Lead is a mix of about three shows from The Virginian television series, spliced together and released in the overseas market as a feature film.

Guys like George Kennedy, Charles Bronson and Brian Keith are all featured in separate stories that get illogically edited together to form a most incoherent motion picture. I suppose it was just a cheap attempt to capitalize on a lot of movie names. It was one cheap film to make since all that was involved was editing.

Unless you are either a stargazer, a fan of The Virginian or like all the guest stars in general, I'd pass this one by. Run do not walk to the remote to change channels when it's one.

In fact, calling this stitched together piece of tripe a movie at all is a distortion. I hesitate even to call it a television show, although supposedly it was created by combining two episodes of "The Virginian." It has an all-star cast, including Charles Bronson, Lee J. Cobb, George Kennedy, Brian Keith, and Doug McClure, but the script is terrible, the acting almost as bad, and the plot nearly non-existent. The motivation of the various characters is never very clear, their loyalties and direction seeming to shift regularly, while many of the segues are abrupt and atrociously amateurish. You have to wonder how otherwise talented actors could appear in such an obvious chunk of dung and be able to look themselves in the mirror the next morning. Brian Keith plays a wandering Texan who practically adopts a youngster from the East, buying him a set of western duds and teaching him how to shoot, but soon enough, advises the kid to get lost. Charles Bronson is a cattle rancher who insists on doing everything his way and taking help from nobody. Lee J. Cobb plays "the judge." He comes off like some sort of saint, even though he is apparently the richest rancher in the valley and the chief honcho. He and his peers in the ridiculously goody goody Cattlemen's Association do all they can to get along with Bronson, but he wants nothing to do with anyone, not even his own son or, for that matter, his comely (if annoying) young wife. When we aren't groaning at how bad the flick is, we wonder what is eating at the guy to make him such a jerk, but the most we ever find out is that he can't do anything right and always runs from trouble. A rich, ambitious young woman moves into the valley and is determined to ride roughshod over everyone, especially the judge and his friends. She plans to bring in too many cattle and overgraze the available grass on the open range they all must share. When the judge tells her that she is being "shortsighted and foolish," she responds that he is exactly right and gets to be that way because she is a woman. Figure that one out -- it's the high point of this turkey. Brian Keith becomes her top man after clobbering his chief rival for the job and inexplicably goes from Mr. Nice Guy to unprincipled Lothario. If all this makes sense, it's only because I've attempted to inject some sense into it. There is only one way to characterize a movie that is this bad -- amazingly awful.