How can a western with Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Eli Wallach, Lee J. Cobb and Edward G. Robinson be mediocre? Well, it can.
This could have been a classic treasure hunt: action, adventure, growing paranoia, shifting factions... instead, it's a waste.
The big cast is handled terribly. We are introduced to this huge group of people, played by famous stars and respectable character actors; we get some half-baked character-building scenes... then, after a few minutes, 90% of them get killed. The quote from a much better western I've put in the review title feels quite fitting. Try to imagine a version of, say, The Magnificent Seven or The Dirty Dozen... where most group members die in the scene right after their introduction. "Anticlimactic" doesn't quite convey it.
Peck is not at his top form: he looks uninterested, even bored. Sharif goes for an over-the-top approach as the outlaw.
Worth mentioning is a bit near the end which just cracks me up - movie villain stupidity at its most glorious. Sharif's Colorado has all the gold and the horses, he can ride away and live happily ever after... but he grabs an axe and goes free-climbing after Mackenna, who is far away on the top of a mountain. It's so dumb it's brilliant.
There are a few effective scenes - like the arrival at the valley and the gold fever - but, overall, Mackenna's Gold is sadly mediocre.
I dig the main theme of the score, though - catchy.
5/10
This could have been a classic treasure hunt: action, adventure, growing paranoia, shifting factions... instead, it's a waste.
The big cast is handled terribly. We are introduced to this huge group of people, played by famous stars and respectable character actors; we get some half-baked character-building scenes... then, after a few minutes, 90% of them get killed. The quote from a much better western I've put in the review title feels quite fitting. Try to imagine a version of, say, The Magnificent Seven or The Dirty Dozen... where most group members die in the scene right after their introduction. "Anticlimactic" doesn't quite convey it.
Peck is not at his top form: he looks uninterested, even bored. Sharif goes for an over-the-top approach as the outlaw.
Worth mentioning is a bit near the end which just cracks me up - movie villain stupidity at its most glorious. Sharif's Colorado has all the gold and the horses, he can ride away and live happily ever after... but he grabs an axe and goes free-climbing after Mackenna, who is far away on the top of a mountain. It's so dumb it's brilliant.
There are a few effective scenes - like the arrival at the valley and the gold fever - but, overall, Mackenna's Gold is sadly mediocre.
I dig the main theme of the score, though - catchy.
5/10