The Trackers Weren't Particularly Deadly

Ever see The Chase? Early '90s film, Charlie Sheen, Kristy Swanson? It's not very good, though it has its humorous moments, especially the unintentional use of cadavers as a deterrent to police pursuit. It's a freaking work of art compared to The Deadly Trackers. My dad's of the opinion most Westerns from the '70s were garbage, because they went too far with the anti-hero idea, to the point no one was any good, everyone's motives were suspect. It's like some of the current crap comics, mistaking brutal violence and sexual content for maturity.

We spent the entirety of the film mocking the incompetence of the good guys, the stupidity of, well, pretty much everyone, the unlikeability of the Texas sheriff, played by Richard Harris, who was much better in Unforgiven. Unforgiven was an infinitely superior movie, which doesn't hurt. The one character we liked was the Mexican sheriff, Gutierrez (Al Littieri), who was the most honorable guy in the film. Being a cynical picture, this is portrayed as weakness. Harris pursues the criminals who killed his wife and son for vengeance, with no regard for jurisdiction (he chases them into Mexico without authorization) and generally behaves poorly to everyone he meets. Gutierrez pursues them for murders committed in Mexico, but intends to arrest them and have them stand trial, assuming his witness will testify. Gutierrez helps Harris in tracking the killers, saved him from a misguided lynch mob, cares for him when he's blinded by a gunshot. In return, Harris nutshots him with a rifle butt, holds a priest hostage to escape jail, and whacks Gutierrez over the head with a rifle later.

The ending was predictable, and I wonder what the director wanted our reaction to be. I was happy with it, as all the people who needed to die did, but given how characters had been presented, I think they were going for the sort of "the system is broken" points, ala Dirty Harry. Didn't work that way for me. Harris probably could have won if he'd worked with the system, but he didn't and we see where it gets him.