StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

ma-cortes This is a violent and gory western packed with thrills , noisy action , riding pursuits , shootouts and a real vendetta . It deals with a sheriff , Sean Kilpatrick (Richard Harris) , who heads Southwest of the border to get his pound of flesh from the bandits led by Brand (Rod Taylor , when Sam Fuller was going to direct, he wanted Terence Stamp for the role) and hoodlums (Neville Brand , William Smith , Paul Benjamin) , all of them slew his family in a bank robbery . Across his chase into Mexico , Sean is challenged by an upright Mexican Sheriff (Al Lettieri) and things go wrong . Exciting western that displays an extreme battle of wits and strong story about a merciless vengeance among some spiteful characters . Being based on a story written by the great Samuel Fuller titled ¨Riata¨ and with an interesting screenplay by the prestigious Lukas Heller who also wrote ¨Dirty Dozen¨, ¨Monty Walsh¨ , ¨Too late the hero¨ , ¨What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?¨ and ¨Flight of the Phoenix¨ . Duo protagonist is frankly well , as Richard Harris and Rod Taylor , both of whom give excellent acting . Support cast is awesome such as Neville Brand , William Smith , Al Lettieri , Isela Vega , Paul Benjamin , William Bryant , Pedro Armendariz , among others . The picture is pretty well but it might have been more bearable if Samuel Fuller had not been bumped from the director chair as it is , he and other contributors refused to be listed in the credits . Furthermore , it is full of atmospheric musical score by Fred Steiner . And an evocative and colorful cinematography by Gabriel Torres . The motion picture was professionally directed by Barry Shear , though it has some flaws and gaps . Barry took the filmmaking from uncredited Sam Fuller who was replaced as director at an early stage . Shear directed some nice films , such as ¨Across 110th Street¨ and ¨Wild in the streets¨ and a lot of TV episodes . Rating : 6 , acceptable and passable western

zardoz-13 Rod Taylor is incredibly obnoxious as a murderous bank robber in one and only theatrical western that director Barry Shear of "Across 110th Street" helmed. In "The Deadly Trackers," Richard Harris portrays a pacifist lawman who pursues Taylor and his gang of ruffians into Mexico. This violent oater, about a sheriff who refuses to buckle on a six-gun but then changes his mind after the odious villain shoots our hero's wife in the face when he abducts his son, is a good western. Harris milks the role for everything that he can, and "Monte Walsh" scenarist Lukas Heller's screenplay, based on Sam Fuller's original story, treats the subject of revenge with insightful irony. The seasoned cast is definitely worth watching, especially the scenery chewing Taylor, who has never been better as a bad guy. Taylor gives new meaning to the word detestable. He is a dastard through and through. The story that he relishes telling about his ornery father and how his dad died of hoof and mouth disease is macabre but amusing. Neville Brand and William Smith, who co-starred on the short-lived NBC-TV series "Laredo," are reunited as two of Frank Brand's outlaw accomplices. Brand plays an absurd villain who has a chunk of railroad rail attached one hand. Although it looks interesting, how would a man handle such an unwieldy encumbrance. Good things aside, the only thing more annoying than the slide-show at the outset is the use of recycled music cues from Jerry Fielding's "Wild Bunch" score. "The Trackers" boasts plenty of tenacious action, and Taylor challenges Harris effectively from start to finish. Several veteran western character actors flesh out the cast, like William Bryant cast as Harris' deputy."The Deadly Trackers" opens with an irritating slide show sequence that introduces us to both the good guys and the bad guys. Shear must have thought that it would look cool, but it did nothing for me and it just slows things down. Frank Brand (Rod Taylor of "The Train Robbers") and his gang, consisting of Cho0-Choo (Neville Brand of "Riot in Cell Block 3"), School Boy (William Smith of "Darker Than Amber"), and Jacob (Paul Benjamin of "Hoodlum"), ride into Santa Rosa to hold up the bank. They get the loot, and Brand shoots the teller in the face. Schoolboy shoves a knife into a customer's belly and takes his bowler hat. Before these desperadoes can clear out of town, Sheriff Sean Kilpatrick (Richard Harris of "Camelot") and his townspeople cut down and round them up. All escape Brand who storms into a school and takes a young boy hostage who happens to be Kilpatrick's son. Brand makes several demands, more prominently, that the lawman shed their firearms, collect their horses, and give them the loot that they stole. Brand promises to deposit the boy at the edge of town. Predictably, everything goes awry. Katharine Kilpatrick chases Brand and tries to dislodge her son from his clutches. Brand blasts her with his six-gun. A visibly shocked Kilpatrick straps on a six-gun and crosses the border in pursuit of the gang.Once he crosses into Mexico, Kilpatrick kills Schoolboy, but he is arrested by a forthright Mexican policeman, Gutierrez (Al Lettieri of "The Godfather"), who struggles to reason with him about the role of a policeman. Gutierrez locks up our hero in jail after a mob mistakes him for the felons who killed an old man and an old woman. Eventually, Kilpatrick manages to escape and go after the gang. During the finale, things come full circle, as Brand visits an orphanage where his young daughter lives, and Kilpatrick takes her hostage to flush out the villain.

moonspinner55 Peace-loving Irish sheriff in a small town on the Texas-Mexico border single-handedly goes after a pack of scurrilous bank robbers whose leader is responsible for the death of the sheriff's wife and child. The western genre of late-'60s/early-'70s cinema took a sour turn once the production code was abolished and the ratings system established, allowing films to push the boundaries of their violence and language. By the time "The Deadly Trackers" has dispensed with its godawful credits sequence (which is nothing more than dialogue from the film dubbed over grainy stills from the shoot), we've already heard enough expletives and racial slurs than any number of films from John Wayne's heyday. Two of the picture's principle sequences involve holding loaded guns to the heads of children, while the talents of Richard Harris and Rod Taylor are thoroughly trashed. Buffs may find some tension here, but the direction (by Barry Shear, filling in for the fired Samuel Fuller) is weak, and the production is depressingly cheapjack. A foul-mouthed, mercilessly elongated bore. * from ****

FightingWesterner Pacifist sheriff Richard Harris rethinks his civilizes ways, when his wife and son are murdered by ex-Confederate lowlife Rod Taylor and his nasty band of cutthroats. Abandoned by his posse at the border of Mexico, he goes it alone, butting heads with Al Lettieri (who's great in this), his idealistic Mexican counterpart, who wants to bring Taylor in alive for a local murder.A fast pace, plentiful action, good photography of beautiful Mexican locations, and a colorful cast of villains, that include William Smith as a disfigured brute, Neville Brand as an unpleasant cretin with a block of railroad track for a hand (!), and Paul Benjamin as a cultured, black dandy, make this worth watching for fans of hard-boiled, macho film-making.The film's message is a bit murky though. It seems as if the movie is demonstrating the dehumanizing effect of Harris' obsessive search for vengeance, which turns him into a man to be pitied.However, despite Mexican lawman Lettieri's great strength, dignity, and honor, his sense of true justice makes him look like less of a man too, when in the end he's forced by his rigid ideology to attempt to release the truly vile, smug killer and ends up shooting Harris in the name of the law.The film is either trying to have it both ways or telling us to choose our own morality!Like most of his western films (A Man Called Horse, Man In The Wilderness, Unforgiven), Harris takes an inhuman amount of physical punishment in this grim, sometimes mean-spirited, and excessively violent action/adventure, that somehow managed to sneak by with a PG rating!