Once Upon a Texas Train

The story of some old guys proving they've still got "it" is a pretty common one in both crime films and Westerns, though the former tend to play it as a comedy (see Stand-Up Guys, Going In Style), the former more seriously (Shane, Ride the High Country)*. 

Once Upon a Texas Train is a Western that plays as a comedy. Willie Nelson gets out of prison 20 years after failing to rob a train, determined to rob a train successfully. So he collects his old crew and sets out to rob the same train as last time. Meanwhile, Richard Widmark, who spoke in favor of Nelson's parole and feels like an idiot, rounds up his old crew (who captured Nelson last time) to hunt the train robbers down. 

The movie spends a lot of time on how these guys are past it, trying to relive old glories. Nelson's dynamite expert nearly blows himself up, and his gambler drinks until he falls off his horse. Widmark's sharpshooter (played by Jack Elam) can barely see and has to ride a bicycle because he no longer has a horse. The outlaws' attempt at target practice is alternately pathetic and hazardous. Best of all, the train Willie Nelson wants to rob no longer runs, the track is gone.

On a more serious note, there's also a sense Widmark wanted Nelson to do this. Turns out they loved the same woman (played by Angie Dickinson), and while she married Widmark, he could never shake the notion it was only because her preferred option was in prison. So this is Widmark's way of reaffirming he's the better man, when he's the only one worried about that.

The second half of the film, rather than focus on Nelson pivoting to robbing another train, brings a crew of young outlaws (led by Shaun Cassidy) in as antagonists. Before robbing a train, Nelson robbed a bank (specifically to goad Widmark into chasing him), and the rookies think it'd be a good idea to take the 20 grand in gold for themselves. The movie spends a long time with Nelson's gang as their hostages, while the rookies work up the nerve (or the brains) to kill them in a way that makes it look like the gold is lost. Or maybe it just feels like a long time.

Then all the old-timers team-up for a showdown on the main street of a ghost town against the young punks. It may make sense from a thematic view, the greybeards proving they still have the inner steel for a face-to-face gunfight. But it also means the heroes confront the villains when the heroes have a 9-to-4 edge in numbers. The film goes for a crane shot of the heroes marching steadily towards the rookies that really just emphasizes the disparity in numbers. 

Like, in High Noon, they go for the crane shot of Gary Cooper alone on Main Street, to emphasize what he's up against. Or Clint Eastwood at the end of A Fistful of Dollars squaring off with the Rojos all by himself. This works the exact opposite. It might have been better to have Widmark's guys pursuing Nelson's gang, and when they catch up is also when Cassidy's gang tries an ambush. It turns into one of those gunfights with guys shooting from behind cover, but you can still show what the old guys are made of when they don't break under a sudden attack, and it de-emphasizes the numerical advantage the good guys have.

* I'm thinking of this as separate from the "one last job" movies, where the character is trying to get out of whatever business they're in. The old guys aren't necessarily planning to retire. If anything, this might just be the first step on a career.