Why so much hype?

Powerful

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Dull western is actually two episodes of "The Virginian" from the 1960s, one starring Charles Bronson and the other starring Lee Marvin, edited together and released theatrically almost 20 years later. The episodes are connected in that Marvin and Bronson are supposed to be half brothers, although they didn't appear together in their respective episode and their stories not originally connected. The only reason I wanted to see this film is that one of the two episodes was written and directed by the great Samuel Fuller ("The Big Red One," "The Steel Helmet," "Shock Corridor," etc.), but you'd barely notice when watching this routine TV western. There are flashes where you can see seeds of something better, such some basic story concepts (Fuller wrote and directed the Lee Marvin episode), Fuller's usual knack for action, and, of course, Bronson and Marvin. However, it's all undone by cheap television production values, such as cheap sets, bad photography, and painful overuse of stock footage. Marvin is good, but he seems to just be going through the motions, as does Fuller. Really, there's nothing to recommend here unless you're a Fuller, Marvin, or Bronson completionist.

The single thing that really makes this film bad is the editing ( which might be the worst I have ever seen). You can actually spot where this film is spliced together from two episodes of "The Virginian" You can even tell how James Drury aged from the Lee Marvin scenes to the Charles Bronson scenes. Not to mention (spoilers ahead) the stupid abrupt ending , where you have no idea if Harge Talbot (Bronson) kills his brother Kalig (Marvin) or not. Of course, Marvin's character was originally named Martin Kalig, not Kalig Talbot ( see what a little IMD research can do?). There is only one reason to watch this film, and that is Bronson, who must have given an excellent performance in the original episode, because he actually looks good here ( or is it, because everyone else ( especially Marvin) looks so bad?). Perhaps the best way to see Bronson (if you are a Bronson Completist which is the only reason to see it), is look for the original episode or if you must watch this film, reverse what the editors did..... Zap through every scene not featuring Bronson or his wife. 1 star

This has gotta be the worst movie of Charles Bronson & Lee marvin. I was truly disappointed. An absolute waste of time as well as money. I read the reviews by other viewers but still I bought it. I wanted to kill myself by the time I reach the first half of the movie. There are many better movies of Charles & Lee Marvin which are not on DVD & yet this movie is been released on DVD! It's really a surprise.Pls. guys, do not waste your money & time on this one. It's better to break your head against a wall than watching this.

A Sam Fuller-directed and scripted episode of the TV show The Virginian starring Lee Marvin and Lee J. Cobb is cobbled together with another episode (I assume) starring Charles Bronson to create this dreadful mess. Bizarre voice-overs, misplaced shots, and freeze-frames attempt to create the new plot. Utterly ludicrous and a disservice to a great filmmaker.