Burt Lancaster both directed and starred in this enjoyable, if odd saga about a slow-witted backwoodsman and his son, who get mixed up in all kinds of trouble when they set off for the new state of Texas in 1820. The film's sluggishly paced and Lancaster's character is irritatingly thick, but it all looks good and the high points are worth waiting for. In his first film, Walter Matthau is a revelation as Bodine, a whip-cracking baddie.

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