Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Although Austrian-born director Nathan Juran made a name for himself with his science fiction themed films, such as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," "The Deadly Mantis" and "First Men in the Moon," he was no stranger to westerns. He helmed three Audie Murphy frontier fracases, "Drums Across the River," "Gunsmoke," and "Tumbleweeds" as well as the Fred MacMurray western "A Good Day for a Hanging." Nathan Juran's last western, the Columbia Pictures' release "Land Raiders" is an average but uneven horse opera about a materialistic, amoral Arizona rancher who will stop at nothing to steal land so he can build himself an empire. "Land Raiders" is a 1950s style western with 1960s sensibilities. In other words, the villains make life extremely tragic for the Apaches in the first two-thirds of this movie, but the Indians has the last word. Lensed on location in Spain and Hungary and graced with an exhilarating score by Ennio Morricone's orchestrator Bruno Nicolai, this dusty sagebrusher deals with deceit and racism on a widespread basis.Ultimately, Telly Savalas plays the villainous brother and Maharis is cast as the heroic sibling. A major criticism of this western is the suspension of disbelief required to accept these two actors as kind. Although the story is pretty formulaic, "Land Raiders" contains many examples of great editing, especially the shifts from one story to an entirely different one. This outdoor adventure has no shortage of action with rampaging Apaches on the warpath and whites who are willing to kill them to collect the bounty on their scalps. The major problem with "Land Raiders" is the Ken Pettus screenplay that focuses on the sibling rivalry between the Mexican brothers Vincent Carden (Telly Savalas of "Kelly's Heroes") and Paul Cardenas (George Maharis of "The Satan Bug") who hate each other's guts with a passion. The ugly secret that has made them sworn enemies looks like something out of a 1950s movies. Furthermore, Vince forsakes his Mexican heritage because he wants to assimilate and become an American, while Paul refuses to turn his back on his Hispanic origins. Between them is the mysterious death of Paul's fiancé, Luis Rojas (Jocelyn Lane of "The Angry Hills"), who died from a broken neck after her horse threw her. Nevertheless, everybody in the town of Forge River holds Paul responsible for her death, but the local town sheriff, John Mayfield (Phil Brown of "Star Wars"), could not assemble enough evidence to arrest him, so Paul has roamed the southwest with the memory of Luis plaguing him.Meanwhile, the Army wants to make peace with the Apaches and they dispatch Major Tanner (Guy Rolfe of "King of the Khyber Rifles") to persuade Carden in the name of peace to stop offering a reward on Apache scalps. Vincent pays his gunmen $10 for male Apaches, $5 for female Apaches, and $2.50 for their children and he has no plans to stop this unsavory practice. Paul is riding in the opposite direction when he encounters a wagon train, warns them about Apaches on the warpath, and saves one wagon. He saves the Sheriff Mayfield's gorgeous daughter, Kate (Janet Landgard of "The Swimmer") and decides to hang around town. When Vince learns from Colonel Tanner that an Indian agent from Washington,D.C., plans to sit down with the Apaches and smoke the peace pipe, Vincent figures out that prosperity will do his business no good so he sends his gunmen out to kill the Indian agent and frame the Indians for his death.Eventually, all of Vince's evil catches up with him in the form of three arrows in his chest after the Apaches storm Forge River and kill just about everybody in sight. The major flaw in this western is that Telly Savalas overshadows George Maharis with his dynamic screen presence and Maharis' hero comes off looking pretty useless. Talk about a lopsided yarn! One of the aspects of this western that makes it rewarding for film buffs is the solid editing. Juran does a good job with scene shifts by having one character perform an action that inconspicuously leads to a different scene but does so very smoothly. For example, a child toss a rifle to somebody off camera, but Juran lets the action of the flying rifle bridge the scene change and the rifle winds up in different hands and the scene has changed.

Wealthy Spanish landowner Telly Savalas pays mercenaries to kill Apaches and then benefits when their reprisal killings against whites create cheap vacant properties for him to add to his empire. Meanwhile, his younger brother comes home and opposes him, opening up old wounds involving Telly's past misdeeds.An American film shot in Europe (Spain?), Land Raiders is an obvious attempt to imitate the look and style of the Italian westerns popular at the time. Still, it's a pretty good movie with hard-boiled characters, splashes of blood, and a little bit of nudity thrown in, not to mention the score by Ennio Morricone's frequent arranger Bruno Nicolai.Telly Savalas is smooth and sinister, appearing to have a lot of fun, while George Maharis gives a likable, noble performance as his brother.Impressive looking stock footage pads out the action sequences nicely, but it's too easily distinguishable from the bulk of the film.

This unknown western concerns about Vince Carden (Telly Savalas) , he's a baron cattle and untameable owner who rules over a small town called Forge River in Arizona county . He's a cruel proprietary who buys Indian scalpels . His brother Paul (George Maharis) left the town but he nowadays goes back . The Vince Carden power will be modified in arriving his brother looking for revenge and his vision from law and justice differs quite of Vince . Each owed the other their circumstances but is now the moment of reckoning . Then, there happens a battle of wits among two brothers with their ill father (George Colouris) as witness (such as King Lear). This is a trigger-taut drama of the strangest brotherhood and confrontation between the West's most upright man and his deadliest baron land .The movie displays shootouts , love and hatred, stampedes, fighting , it is plenty of violence and contains effective action sequences such as the Apache raid on the wagons and on the small town . The film gets remarks from Spaghetti Western , thus the customary violent battles and shoot'em up , extreme and exaggerated baddies and ambition and vengeance as usual themes . Telly Savallas as brutal villain is excellent though sometimes overacting , he starred various Spaghetti Western ( Pancho Villa, A reason to live a reason to die, Criminal story of an outlaw couple ), George Maharis as good brother is pretty well , besides gorgeous Arlene Dahl ( married to Fernando Lamas and Lorenzo Lamas's mother ) as his wife and Fernando Rey ,as usual, playing a priest . Atmospheric , adequate musical score by Bruno Nicolai , habitual collaborator to Ennio Morricone and colorful cinematography by Wilkie Cooper . Jesse Lasky Jr ( Cecil B Mille's ordinary screenwriter and son of great producer , Jesse Lasky ) wrote the interesting scrip . The picture was shot in Almeria ,Spain , where in the 60s and 70s were filmed several Western . The motion picture is realized by a magnificent trio , the producer Charles H Schneer , the cameraman Wilkie Cooper and the director Nathan Juran , they made sensational Sci-fi and fantastic movies , such us : ¨First men oh the moon¨, ¨The 7th voyage of Simbad¨ , ¨20 million miles to earth¨, among others.

Ruthless Vince Carden (Telly Savalas) dominates the Arizona-territory town of Forge River and buys the scalps of murdered Indians. He has driven his brother Paul (George Maharis)from his home, and this leads to the total disillusionment of his wife Martha (Arlene Dahl.) Haunted by the mysterious death of a girl he had loved, Paul ends his wandering and attaches himself to a wagon train heading for Forge River; with the train is Kate Mayfield (Janet Landgard), who is returning home after years of school in the East. Paul and Kate are the sole survivors when Apaches attack the train, in reprisal for a slaughter staged by Vince's men. Vince uses the Indian attack on the train as an excuse to lead the raid on a defenseless Apache village, which sparks a massive assault on Forge River. So, attack A leads to counter-attack B which leads to reprisal attack C which leads to final attack D, which leads to a climatic fight between Vince and Paul. Pass the pasta tamales, please.