John Wesley Hardin (Rock Hudson) is released from prison and on his way out of
town he drops off his handwritten autobiography at the local newspaper office.
Flashback time.Hardin was raised by a Jesus lover who was a big believer in Proverbs 13:24 (a Bible verse that encourages parents to beat the shit out of their children...for their own good, of course). The ass whoopins didn't help much because when John is still a teenager he has some trouble during a card game and kills a man. The police aren't going to believe it's self-defense (and the man has three ill-tempered brothers), so Hardin goes on the lam. But it seems trouble has a way of always finding Hardin and Hardin does his part to always keep the gravediggers in business. After a few years of this, Hardin finally settles down with his main squeeze and they start a farm. Things are going good and she even has a little baby on the way...but the past isn't done with Hardin just yet.
For an older western, THE LAWLESS BREED is entertaining. Rock Hudson definitely has a commanding screen presence and the pace is quick. But then after seeing the movie I did a little reading about the real John Wesley Hardin and holy horse pussy that guy (at least according to his Wikipedia page) was a fucking maniac! It's like everywhere he went he killed somebody. He even shot some guy through the wall of a hotel room because he was snoring too loud!!! Attention Hollywood: instead of making movies about talking Chihuahuas or a weredolphin winning a breakdancing contest to help cure childhood terminal butt cancer or whatever it is you make movies about...how about a hardcore NC-17 movie about the legend of John Wesley Hardin? This dude was something else. On top of killing nearly everybody on the planet, he studied law in prison then when he got out passed the Bar Exam, married a 15 year-old girl and then "accidentally" killed a guy during a bet before finally being gunned down while playing dice in a saloon.
Back to THE LAWLESS BREED. Good film, but nothing life changing.
