Watch Nevada Smith For Free

Purely Joyful Movie!

One of my all time favorites.

Admirable film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A box office smash for it's time Nevada Smith is a long, episodic film directed by Henry Hathaway starring the charismatic Steve McQueen. Interestingly McQueen's character actually only uses the Nevada Smith moniker once (as a temporary alias in the movie), the rest of the time using his 'real' name of Max Sand. Sand is a half breed whose parents are killed by outlaws - the outstanding trio of Martin Landau, Karl Malden and Arthur Kennedy a group of class heavies that's worth the price of admission alone - and then who resolutely sets out to track the murderers down one by one, after taking on board some life instruction from gun trader Brian Keith. The moments with Keith reminded me of the great Spaghetti Day of Anger made a year later - another film in which an experienced older gunfighter teaches an innocent the way to get through travails: with gun skills and a bit of frontier philosophy. It's a fairly traditional plot, albeit given resonance by a quality cast and production value.Nevada Smith benefits greatly from Hathaway's leisurely outdoor directorial style, familiar from such personal favourites as The Sons of Katie Elder and North to Alaska as well as some excellent mise en scene cinematography by the great Lucien Ballard. Some critics such as Phil Hardy have sniffed a little at the film, and it's contemporary popularity, but I found it engrossing throughout, although admittedly it might have benefited from a little trimming. The mid-section, in which McQueen finds himself doing hard labour, then escaping, from a swamp-surrounded, brutalising prison camp reminded me of the (I think) weaker Papillion.The real weakness to the film appears in the last section, when Sand/Smith is rescued from Malden's gang by a priest to be then reminded, by way of belated balance to Keith's earlier lessons, of the virtues of forgiveness and Christian forbearance. To a modern viewer this moral lesson seems a little laboured, and does little to make the final scene of the film psychologically convincing, ultimately leaving the principal character redeemed without purpose. Such considerations are striking given moments elsewhere, when the viewer can see the influence of the cynicism and violence of the genre which flowered elsewhere during the mid-sixties.However if you haven't caught this yet I do recommend it, especially in the fine widescreen DVD edition now available. It's short on extras but the image and condition of the print is fine.

Whether or not this is a good film, it sure is a poorly cast one. Think about it....a 35 year-old Steve McQueen is cast as a teenager who is half American-Indian!! The guy is fair-skinned and blond and looks every bit 35--which is hilarious when people refer to him as 'boy' and 'kid'!! It's also odd, since the actor playing his father (Gene Evans) is only 8 years older! While not a major character in the film, Suzanne Pleshette is cast as a Hispanic woman--bad casting but not nearly as bad as McQueen.This is a highly unusual film because it is a prequel to another film. In 1964, "The Carpetbaggers" had a supporting character, Nevada Smith (Alan Ladd) and "Nevada Smith" is about this guy's younger years. Though, if you think about it, McQueen really doesn't look all that much like Alan Ladd, either.Three men on horseback approach Smith and ask where his father is. He tells them and thinks nothing of it. However, the three men are thieves and think the father has struck gold in his mine. To try to get him to talk, they skin his Indian wife alive and then kill him! Not surprisingly, when the son discovers this, he vows revenge. However, the path to revenge is long. He knows nothing about killing and is ill-prepared. But, by the end of the film, he's an experienced killer and ready for the ultimate showdown.Aside from the bad casting decisions, I had a problem with the ending. It just didn't ring true on several levels. First, the baddie was there with his entire gang--yet he runs away and is pursued by Nevada Smith. Since he had about 10 friends, why run? And, when he did, why didn't any of his gang bother to help him or at least take a shot as Smith?! It's a shame, because if the ending were a bit better and the casting A LOT better, it could have easily earned an 8. Interesting but flawed.

Fabulous western the way they used to make them and the way they should be made currently.Looking to avenge the killers of his parents, his mother was an Indian, the film traces the adventures of Max Sand (Steve McQueen) in hunting out and killing his prey.From a young Indian boy, Max becomes a hardened killer along the way. He even purposely gets caught robbing a bank so that he can be sent to the same prison where killer Arthur Kennedy has been sent.Suzanne Pleshette briefly but memorably appears as a woman inmate who helps Max and Kennedy escape before Max guns the latter down.While being rescued by priest Raf Vallone, Max learns humility but is still determined to hunt out and kill the worst of the offenders, Karl Malden, excellent here as well.The film teaches humility as Max, who has changed his name to Nevada Smith to fool Malden, develops a conscience through bible reading. Though maiming Malden, he doesn't ultimately kill him.A tale of bitterness and ultimate redemption fully realized, this is one film not to miss.

I do love old western movies, but I really dislike this one. The pictures and the atmosphere (OK OK, maybe actors as well), are the only reason to watch this movie. Everything else in this movie is totally not convincing.The story is awful - it is totally predictable and makes no sense psychological. Characters act weird and are absolutely unrealistic. Especially our hero hurt my brain. He turns from some idiotic, naive, half-Indian with blonde hair, into a ruthless murderer that only cares about revenge. In the end of the movie he changes his mind, and does not kill his 3rd victim (after shooting him 4 times). This change of mind is totally not explained... One of the worst endings I have ever seen.If this movie wouldn't look so nice, and have such a nice atmosphere, it would have gotten 1 point from me. This movie has one of the poorest scripts ever.