i find it interesting how i can reconcile my feeling about this film . on the one hand and it a boldly intense revenge western and while on the other and there so much nonsense go on that with any serious scrutiny one might dismiss it a gross caricature . take the character of choo choo ( neville beand ) for instance how exactly do 1880 medical technology manage to graft a chunk of railroad track to his right arm . then there gutierrez ( al lettieiri ) and the mexican federale you mean to tell me that he get shoot off his horse and do a forty foot swan dive over a cliff and and some time later manage to get up and walk away . i have him a goner and but if he could have survive and how so without a broken back . then there the main character himself and sheriff kilpatrick and ably portray by richard harris . now i know it doesn not take much of a stretch to go from pacifist to hell bent avenger after see your family wipe out and but how about some discretion . kilpatrick just jump right in without thought of consequence and like jump that big lug schoolboy ( william smith ) . ok and i know that have to work out to keep the story go and but gee and the guy look like he just finish a workout at world gym . there something else about kilpatrick do you notice that after every one of his bloody encounter ( that first one with schoolboy be the bad ) and he appear in the next scene with a clean set of dud . i do not notice any chinese laundry along the way and so it leave me wonder how he might have manage that . maybe i be be picky and but do not anybody else think about that . here something neat though i like the idea that kilpatrick have the town of santa rosa so organize that they be able to back him up at a moment notice with all hand on deck . if these be the citizen of lago and there would have be no rest of the story in high plain drifter . something to think about . a for the finale and i be not buy it . after all that kilpatrick and gutierrez have go through to catch up with brand ( rod taylor ) and the mexican lawman would just shoot him in the back a he ride away . where the code of honor among lawman . even if gutierrez want to be hard core by the book with kilpatrick and by the final showdown with brand it be go to be self defense any way you slice it . so i have to ask and be that really necessary .