Synopsis: Western style dramatized true story about big money cattle ranchers that put together a private army and march to exterminate small ranchers in Wyoming. Bixby plays a highly educated, decent, and sensible rambler that goes along so as to get a reporter's fee, ultimately interfering in the plan in an attempt to avoid bloodshed.
Lar-ry-view: A. I like it. It's 90% drama, 10% fun. Bill gets a buddy and they play the buddy act throughout the movie. He also does some bar tricks for us, reprising his "The Magician" persona. The movie starts out with Bill standing an egg on its end, then later he balances two forks on the end of a toothpick.
Just like with his Tony Blake character from "The Magician," and his Dr. David Banner character from "The Hulk," Bixby plays an intelligent, reasonable, decent man. I take this character as being similar to Bill's real personality. A leading man, as opposed to character actors, essentially play themselves in every role. Others have pointed out to me, however, that Bixby's talent allowed a large dramatic range as shown in some other presentations that were not Bixby starring vehicles. Sure, I can buy that. Anything he does is golden.
This movie is a stereotypical western: horses, saloons, sheriffs, trains, card games, gunfights and all. I could list a few places in which the script could have been better, but I won't bother. What matters is that this movie is entertaining, fun, and even contains educational history. You might want to invest your time and money in this movie if you: like Bixby, like bar tricks, like westerns, like buddy movies, or are interested in the historical events covered by the movie.
