Rating: NR
Genre:
Western
Release Date: 05/24/2005
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: DD1/DD4.0
Run Time: 96 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: 20th Century Fox
In this
Western with curiously
Shakespearean undertones,
Matt Devereaux (
Spencer Tracy) is a ranch owner who has tried to raise his sons to carry on the fierce, hard-working spirit that helped make him a success. However, as a consequence, he never learned to show them affection and treats his boys little better than the hired help.
Joe (
Robert Wagner), is
Matt's son by Native American wife
Señora (
Katy Jurado). Because of
Joe's mixed ethnicity, he is treated prejudicially by his three half-brothers,
Ben (
Richard Widmark),
Mike (
Hugh O'Brian), and
Danny (
Earl Holliman) -- all Caucasian sons of
Matt's first wife.
Joe loves his father and would do nearly anything for him, but his siblings resent
Matt's emotional distance. When
Matt discovers a nearby copper mine is polluting a stream where he waters his cattle, he becomes furious and leads a raid on the mine that causes the law to visit the ranch; the police have a warrant to arrest whoever was responsible for the attack. To spare his father the agony and humiliation of a stay behind bars,
Joe claims responsibility and spends several years in prison. When he's released, he discovers that
Ben and his other brothers rebelled against their father with such extremity that the old man suffered a fatal stroke. While
Señora tries to persuade
Joe not to seek revenge,
Ben is more than willing to fight his brother for taking his father's side. Screenwriter
Philip Yordan won an Academy Award for his work on
Broken Lance, while
Katy Jurado received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance as
Señora.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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