Jack McKee and Cecil Colson are two bumbling drifters who make a living by rustling cattle from other peoples herds in the wilds of Montana. Jack is from a wealthy background but left his parents as he resented their posh lives, and Cecil is a Native American half-breed seeking his own path in life away from his father. Both hustle and rustle their way in the world by targeting cattle owned by wealthy ranch owner John Brown. Frustrated that someone is killing his cattle, John hires a pair of ranch hands Burt and Curt to find the rustlers. When Brown realizes he cannot trust his two inept ranch hands, he turns to the grizzled former rustler Henry Beige to find the cattle thieves, while Jack and Cecil are always one step ahead of them, not realizing that their luck will eventually run out sometime.
In keeping with the audience it is aimed at, the film is self-consciously cynical and insolent, and at the same time fundamentally romantic and seeking to be liked. The combination works surprisingly well, thanks to good ensemble acting.
– ,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
fresh:
Surprise: Frank Perry kept his wits about him long enough to make this mildly watchable 1974 film about the modern west.
– Don Druker,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
There's nothing so hapless as a movie made in the wrong style, especially when the director doggedly insists on that style to the bitter end.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
23 Oct 2004
rotten:
It is so cool it is barely alive.
– Richard Eder,
New York Times,
9 May 2005
rotten:
The humor is too throwaway when it isn't laid on with a trowel.