Captivating movie !

Absolutely Brilliant!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie does well, but not for his direction, script, photography or even wardrobe, which are acceptable. The line that separates this movie from the classic battered western movie is its peculiar choice of actors. Starring Johnny Cash and Kirk Duglas, the plot is based on the expectation of the town folk for knowing who of the two is the best gunman, when Abe Cross arrives at the town where Will Tenneray is trying to set a quiet life for himself. All in all, it's one of those acceptable movies, except in this case there are two iconic American characters.

See it - As the title suggests, this western is about a gunfight - but not just any gunfight. Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash (that's right, as in "Walk the Line" Johnny Cash) play two retired gunmen who agree to duel to the death in front of a sold-out crowd for money. The film is similar in concept to "The Quick and the Dead," and the viewer must wait until the climactic ending to see who lives and who dies. But perhaps the main question is whether this is a western or a character study. I would lean more toward character study. The movie is a bit slow and the ending is a bit abrupt, but seeing Johnny Cash as a gunslinger is well worth the watch.

Hearing Johnny Cash's tremendous "American Series" albums for the first time last year with a friend,one of the main things which would coming up when we talked about the music,was wondering how Johnny Cash would be in a real Western movie.Feeling one day that I should take a look to see if Cash had actually done a Westen,I was pleasantly surprised to find,that not only had Cash starred in a Western,but he had actually starred in one alongside "Spartacus" himself!:Kirk Douglas. The plot:Slowly heading to the near by town,out law Abe Cross has to make pace when his horses legs suddenly become injured.Taking the struggling horse to a near by vet,Abe tries to pass the time by introducing himself to the local residents.Being standoffish over a stranger having entered "their" town,the residents begin to let their guard down,when sheriff Will Tenneray appears and tells Cross that he will not allow any trouble to occur in this peaceful town.Initially showing a mutual respect towards each other,Will and Abe start to hear whispers around the town over people placing bets for who is the best gunslinger out of the two.Noticing the piles of cash that the betters are gathering,Will and Abe relies the they could get all the cash that they could ever dream of,if they take part in a winner takes all shoot out between each other.View on the film:Featuring in almost every scene of the film,Johnny Cash and Kirk Douglas make Will and Abe into a terrific double act,with Douglas's calculating,calm family man Will being a complete contrast to Cash's rugged,rumbling loner cowboy Abe.Despite the dialogue feeling slightly tied,and lacking the "livly" feel which the two lead actors bring to the movie,screenwriter Harold Jack Bloom cleverly uses the building up of the "main event" to show the worrying effect that hype can have on people.as Will and Abe are almost made obsolete,due to the residents being more focused on bloodsport and money than the personality's of the two individual's.Smartly turning the final shoot out into a blink and you'll miss it boxing KO style match,director Lamont Johnson wonderfully turns the films ending upside down,and leads it into a terrific fantasy area,which allows the movie to end on a mysterious note of "What if ?."

The Western showdown is a duel, a matching of gunplay skills in which the faster, more professional gunman wins... The logical extension of the show is without doubt a gladiatorial Roman circus combat between two fighters and such is the elemental structure of Lamont Johnson's film...Kirk Douglas is a retired gunman sick enough of his life, and Johnny Cash is a weary gunslinger who knows that even if he wins, he will eventually lose... Both are famous, veteran gunfighters who provide their talent as the quick and the fast... The auditorium chosen is a bullfight ring...Whether the two men are considered as gladiators or bullfighters, the film deplorably smashes the traditional conception of the showdown, twisting it from a clash between good and bad into a show of a very poor quality...The situation exposed is certainly ambiguous, implausible and anti-climactic against popular blood lust...The film captures the viewer with a double-ended showdown... One with Douglas as the winner, and the other with Cash...Our feeling is that the strands of myth and honest re-creation which connect the American Western to the real American West are being cut by those whose roots are far removed from the actual frontier... To the Western purist, such tendency can only be seen with alarm... The screen showdown has been undermined and ruined... There are no white hats and black villainy anymore...