Sterling Hayden was an actor of some quality, as proven by his performances in Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING and DR STRANGELOVE, among others -- but he never sat comfortably as a lead, and that is the case here, too.
Hayden just looks uncomfortable and wrong for the part throughout -- and, with such an unbelievable mish-mash of a script, you can hardly fault him.
I had never heard of Rat Nazarro as a director, but now I will avoid him -- he should never have been entrusted with any role higher than extra. His is a careless and lazy direction, beginning with female lead Booth who is neither beautiful nor convincing, and whose role appears to borrow from Grace Kelly's in HIGH NOON (1952). The difference is, of course, that Kelly was a far better actress and much kinder on the eye.
James Millican, as the town sheriff, and Toomey as the only person in town who will give Rick Martin (Hayden) the time of day, provide the film's better moments.
Even top villain William Bishop is given such a patchy part that he can't save it, in spite of lying most of his way.
The idea of a 20-strong band of "renegades" (what they are renegading against is - sadly and absurdly - unexplained) attacking a town which they know to have few people able to defend it, and losing more than half of their force in the attack, really stretches your suspension of disbelief to complete snapping point. John Dehner is the band leader and he, too, is poorly used, to a large extent because his character's motivations are not clear - one moment he has no use for money, the next he's ready to kill for it.
The final shootout is ludicrous. You get no sense of where the goodies and baddies are in relation to each other, and the stunts are amongst the poorest I have ever watched in a Western - and I have watched many. Even spaghetti Westerns had more credible stunts than you see in this movie!
TOP GUN works as a case study in missed opportunities: much of it borrows from HIGH NOON (the scared inhabitants, the church offering insufficient sanctuary, and one man against the rest as criminals ride into town), and a potentially interesting angle is thrown in when Rick Martin discovers that his mother was murdered by Bishop, who also forged the deed of sale to her house for good measure... but Nazarro just can'y make it work.
4/10 is much too generous, but then Rod Taylor makes a surprise and uncredited appearance -- in a Western! -- and I am a sucker for Westerns.
Hayden just looks uncomfortable and wrong for the part throughout -- and, with such an unbelievable mish-mash of a script, you can hardly fault him.
I had never heard of Rat Nazarro as a director, but now I will avoid him -- he should never have been entrusted with any role higher than extra. His is a careless and lazy direction, beginning with female lead Booth who is neither beautiful nor convincing, and whose role appears to borrow from Grace Kelly's in HIGH NOON (1952). The difference is, of course, that Kelly was a far better actress and much kinder on the eye.
James Millican, as the town sheriff, and Toomey as the only person in town who will give Rick Martin (Hayden) the time of day, provide the film's better moments.
Even top villain William Bishop is given such a patchy part that he can't save it, in spite of lying most of his way.
The idea of a 20-strong band of "renegades" (what they are renegading against is - sadly and absurdly - unexplained) attacking a town which they know to have few people able to defend it, and losing more than half of their force in the attack, really stretches your suspension of disbelief to complete snapping point. John Dehner is the band leader and he, too, is poorly used, to a large extent because his character's motivations are not clear - one moment he has no use for money, the next he's ready to kill for it.
The final shootout is ludicrous. You get no sense of where the goodies and baddies are in relation to each other, and the stunts are amongst the poorest I have ever watched in a Western - and I have watched many. Even spaghetti Westerns had more credible stunts than you see in this movie!
TOP GUN works as a case study in missed opportunities: much of it borrows from HIGH NOON (the scared inhabitants, the church offering insufficient sanctuary, and one man against the rest as criminals ride into town), and a potentially interesting angle is thrown in when Rick Martin discovers that his mother was murdered by Bishop, who also forged the deed of sale to her house for good measure... but Nazarro just can'y make it work.
4/10 is much too generous, but then Rod Taylor makes a surprise and uncredited appearance -- in a Western! -- and I am a sucker for Westerns.