Some people think this a mess, but I think that its eccentric performances, complex Milius script and continual (yet controlled) tonal shifts--from realism to folk tale to surrealism to farce and then back to realism again--make this a uniquely enjoyable epic Western. More than any other film outside the Peckinpah oeuvre, it effectively chronicles and mourns the disappearance of the Old West. Newman is good, and Stacey Keach is a standout in an hilarious cameo as "Original Bad Bob the Albino."

Entertaining, amusing, clever, absurdist/revisionist western. Completely one-of-a-kind. It does run out of steam at a certain point, but never feels worn out.

A movie this bizarre with this director and this cast ought to have been a lot more satisfying

Criminally underrated and little seen masterpiece from genius Huston. Contains a myriad of unforgettable and bizarre scenes and characters. Keach's small scene might well be the most awesome thing ever put on a screen.

Tongue-in-cheek Western with surrealistic touches.

A rickety mess from Huston. It's little more than a series of increasingly tiresome incidents as the prickly title adjudicator played by Paul Newman takes over a frontier town. Maybe it's good for a misplaced laugh to see Huston himself bluster pointlessly for a scene as Grizzly Adams or to watch Victoria Principal strain admirably but ineffectively in her screen debut as a Latina spitfire, but overall it makes for fairly dreary viewing.