Powerful

A Masterpiece!

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Throughout the '60's Steve McQueen was often referred to as Mr. Cool, and it all started with Wanted Dead or Alive back in the days when TV westerns had not yet succumbed to the liberal non-violence boohooing about too much violence on TV. How many of us kids from the '50's who fought in Vietnam didn't carry just a little of what we learned, rightly or wrongly, about cowboy right and wrong from Josh Randal, Paladin, Marshal Dillon, Cheyenne, John Wayne (multiple roles), etc? Josh Randal, like myself was bred and born a Southerner; unlike today after a couple generations of historical revision, back then to be a Son of the South was a point of respected honor from the entire country including Hollywood...it was the "fight" not the issues, boys and girls, that have made Southerners the most decorated soldiers throughout the entirety of this nation's existence.Yes, the mare's leg was odd and impractical, and it sounded funny, too when fired, but the cat-quick grace of this newcomer, Steve McQueen, is what captured our little boy imaginations back then. Until recently, I had not seen any of the old Wanted Dead or Alive shows in over 50 years, and I found it surprising how much time affects our memory of details. Of course much of what I've seen lately, I don't remember at all except for that Christmas episode where the boy asks Josh to find Santa Claus...turns out that I remember that one in an altogether different fashion, too! Anyway, given what VH1, BET, MTV, Hollywood in general, the video gaming industry, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, etc. have given (or done) to two or three generations of American youth, I can truly say that being raised in the 1950's rural South with one TV station that shared both ABC and CBS programing that I had a much more imaginatively rich upbringing than the sad majority of the entitled obligate mouth-breathing government dependent generation of today.

THE PROFESSION OF Bounty Hunter, which persists today in one form or another, was not one of honor or general acceptance. Sometimes referred to as "Bounty Killer", as in those "Spaghetti Westerns" of the 1960s, the line of work called for those who were neither weak of constitution nor overly genteel in relations with others.THE CASTING OF Mr. Steve McQueen as Josh Randall put all of the actor's abilities on full display before the whole world. His cool, underplaying of the character did much in making this just more than another Horse Opera. It was intelligent writing, careful attention to a complex story line combined with the ability of the Star that served up something other than a plain old 2 dimensional cardboard cutout look at the work of a societal bottom feeder.BEING THE OLD, Wild West of the 1870s, it was a position that was needed. Horrible conditions often times produce solutions that are less than civilized; as a live by the sword mentality is a necessity of life. Being far removed from the Big City life of the "Stupidgencia" as practiced in Academic circles, this is reality; though not necessarily how the "Experts" feel it should be.*IN REFLECTING ON the various rerun episodes that are shown on Cable Stations such as Chicago's MEE TV, one gets a pretty microscope-like look at Steve's abilities. Even at this relatively early stage, we can view the man as Artist. And Artist is the proper term to use for the guy who brought us such great performances in: THE Magnificent SEVEN, THE CINCINNATI KID, THE SAND PEBBLES, THE REIVERS, JUNIOR BONNER, BULLITT,SOLDIER IN THE RAIN, PAPILLION, THE GETAWAY, etc., etc., etc..IT IS TRULY a shame that he left us a such a relatively young age.

Wanted, Dead or Alive was a star vehicle in the truest sense of the term. It was a western calculated to exhibit the talent and charisma of its star, Steve McQueen. It lasted for three seasons before McQueen decided to devote full time to the big screen.McQueen was after some of the most dangerous fellows in the old west, plenty who could shoot a lot better than he. His character Josh Randall needed an equalizer.In John Wayne's classic western El Dorado, you remember that Duke discovers that James Caan can't hit the broad side of a mountain with a regular six shooter. Before going to El Dorado to aid Robert Mitchum, they stop off and see a gunsmith who fixes Caan up with a Josh Randall special. After that Caan's of considerable help to Wayne and Mitchum.Of course the sawed off shotgun was also an evil weapon in the wrong hands. Take note of the Dan Duryea western, The Bounty Killer, a very Freudian piece where Duryea becomes hated and feared as a bounty hunter until an innocent bystander gets shot with it.But with McQueen you knew the weapon was on the side of law and order. As for his Josh Randall character, you can see a bit of him in all the people Steve McQueen brought to the screen like Virgil Hilts, Nevada Smith, all the way to his last two films, Tom Horn and Pappa Thorsen.Wanted, Dead or Alive was most folks first exposure to a screen legend. I wish that westerns like that were made today.

Wanted: Dead or Alive has always been my favourite TV western. I first watched it as a seven year old in the mid '60s, even then it was in reruns.Right from the start the show had the coolest lead-in ever with the camera focused squarely on Josh Randall's 'hogleg' as he slowly walks up to a wanted poster and rips it away from the board. There was something 'mighty' intriguing about the lone bounty hunter who brought in many more bad guys alive than dead. And then there was that sawed-off Winchester '86 and those large 45-70 caliber cartridges. I never did figure out how Josh could load so fast. It couldn't have taken more than three rounds in its magazine, but Josh could easily get off four or five rounds in rapid succession. What about Josh's horse? He/she seemed to prefer to walk sideways but could back up as well as Trigger. Great memories, no doubt. I've viewed countless westerns over the years and I am firmly convinced that absolutely no one but Steve McQueen could have played TV's purest bounty hunter. Todays version is colourized and I think that's fantastic. Even my kids will sit and watch from time to time.