This John Wayne movie, handsomely photographed by western veteran William H Clothier, uses a fictional variation on the Lincoln County cattle war to tell the tale of the man who first hired Billy the Kid. The Duke is well served by director Andrew V McLaglen, Forrest Tucker makes an imposing villain and the Dominic Frontiere score is above average. A fine supporting cast of home-on-the-range hombres that includes Ben Johnson, Bruce Cabot and Richard Jaeckel - faces that should lend credibility to any western - will help take your mind off the rambling plot. However, laziness is beginning to cramp Big John's style: he would soon sleepwalk his way through a mediocre but lucrative series of widescreen examples of the genre.

Cattle baron John Chisum joins forces with Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett to fight the Lincoln County Land War in the New Mexico Territory of 1878.