I remember seeing the art for this movie on a vhs copy while I was working in video stores. It never appealed to me. I should have read the pedigree.

Directed by Walter Hill, a score by Jerry Goldsmith, a story created in part by John Milius, produced by Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, and that’s just behind the scenes. In front of the camera you’ve got Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, William Forsythe, Clancy Brown, Maria Conchita Alonso, Rip Torn, Larry B. Scott, Mickey Jones, and Tom Lister jr.

It’s a modern cowboy story, with an insanely high body count and an incredibly violent and bloody climax. This movie is awesome. There are showdowns, gun battles, and a solid story with betrayals, and lots of blood.

Jack (Nolte) and Cash (Boothe) were childhood friends, but their paths took them different ways. Jack became a Texas Ranger while Cash became a drug kingpin. They still chat, but both know it’s going to end badly in the small border town they live in.

Then we throw in the complications. They both grew up loving the same woman, Sarita (Alonso), who’s with Jack, but Cash blackmails her into coming with him to Mexico to keep Jack from tearing down his drug empire.

But wait, there’s more.

There’s a secret zombie unit of special forces, led by Hackett (Ironside) in town. A zombie unit is a group of men who are officially dead and work outside legal sanctions to accomplish their tasks, which in this case means robbing a bank in Jack’s town, and going after Cash for reasons of their own.

The film moves along at a breakneck pace, setting up its moments and its action sequences, of which there are many. And Nolte is cold as ice throughout the film, eyes glowering from beneath his massive cowboy hat.

In the hands of other actors there may have been some glib lines tossed out, but Nolte plays straight as an arrow and is business through and through. He’s there to enforce the law, and deliver justice.

Unfortunately, everything around him is going to hell. So he’ll have to strap on his gunbelt, don the gold star, and dodge a lot of gunfire to get through what’s coming his way.

Boothe is threatening and seems to be edging up to madness, but Ironside, as always, is just a badass. And seeing him working with Clancy and Forythe… bring it on!

And damn, the climax in this film is so good. It just keeps going, the bodies keep dropping, and it all goes right until the creditts roll.

It took me forever to see this movie, but I think coming to it now, where I could recognize so many names in front of and behind the camera, it makes me appreciate it all the more. Damn this was a good flick.