Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Nevada Smith (1966)

I had pleasant memories of Nevada Smith from my television-viewing younger years but you know what? - watching it recently on the new DVD shocked me at how poorly Steve McQueen has held up over the years. This is truly a movie where I can say the whole is less than the sum of the parts.

Overall, the movie is good, with great story, supporting cast, and Lucien Ballard cinematography to die for, but McQueen leaves a hollow core right where the maximum emphasis should be. I had inklings that this might be so from my viewings of some of his movies like The Hunter, but with the exception of Papillon, I now think of Steve McQueen as an interesting SUPPORTING actor, rather than a leading man. Another minor con is the bombastic Alfred Newman score that telegraphs most of the excitement.

Nevada Smith is a revenge movie, based on a story and characters by Harold Robbins. Blue-eyed blonde McQueen is (poorly) cast as a half-breed Indian boy whose parents are killed by three marauders, well played by Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy, and Karl Malden.

McQueen has little credibility in the role - he was about 36 years old playing a teen and his Scandinavian looks do not really evoke any Indian blood. Also, McQueen's variety of emotional expression only slightly exceeds the range of a store window mannequin. Nevertheless, as the story gets underway McQueen burns the homestead and sets out on the trail of the killers. Along the way he realizes that it's a long way between meals so he tries to capture game without much success, then he turns to crime - just like the guys he's after.

His first "victim" is a gunsmith played by Brian Keith who captures him then decides to feed him and teach him some things about shooting and life. Brian Keith points out the irony of trying to live by crime while hunting the killers of his parents; and also helps him learn how to read - and it is purely painful to watch method actor McQueen struggle over the simple words in the McGuffey's Primer.

The movie begins to strain your credulity once again when McQueen learns the killers may be in prison down Loosiana way, so he robs a bank and waits around for the sheriff so he can get locked up with them! His time down in the state pen, where "the swamp is the prison's walls" according to warden Howard Da Silva, prefigures McQueen's future role as Papillon on Devil's Island.

Part of the trouble with the believability is that the story is episodic but Director Henry Hathaway does nothing to indicate the passage of time. There surely must have been long lapses, given the events, but nothing is really done to indicate this, like seasons changing, hair length, wardrobe style, or similar visible signs. These keys would have beefed up the credibility of the fairly old Steve playing a kid as he transitioned into a grown man, or his normal age. But Steve pretty much looks the same all the way through.

The Paramount DVD is presented in well preserved color, in 2.35:1 theatrical format and the movie runs 130 minutes. There are no extras. The stereo sound upgrade is great with lots of depth and separation.

The movie really shines in the bit performances from Brian Keith, Karl Malden, Arthur Kennedy, Susan Pleshette, and a few others. These little supporting parts are so much more colorful than McQueen's central part it's a shame the leading man didn't have the charisma to carry the film. A better lead performance would easily make this into a GREAT western. As it is, I have to give it a modest three stars. Competent, but there are many better.

Some of Steve McQueen's more memorable films are:

The Great Escape
The Sand Pebbles
The Getaway

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV