![]() ![]() When we first meet him, he is symbolically perched up on a sun-baked high bluff overlooking a foolhardy attempt by the regular State Police to ensnare a vicious gang of horse-rustlers. ![]() Amicably separated from his wife, played pretty badly by Sharon Farrell, he still calls round as often as he can and dotes upon his teenage daughter Sally (played even worse by the dreadful Dana Kimmell), and even if he is unrelenting when it comes to catching bad guys, it is abundantly clear that he has a very tender side. If there is a werewolf under your bed, you can bet that Chuck Norris is probably under his! FACT.Īs the titular Lone Wolf McQuade, an ex-Marine turned highly esteemed border lawman whose methods only sit right with his chief when the public ladle him with hard-won accolades, our Chuck is outstanding in what has to be one of his most fully rounded roles. Carver is having fun with his modern-day Western, for sure, but the film he delivers actually feels quite epic. It is a cracking melting pot of rugged derring-do, indomitable honour versus despicable villainy and it is all shot through with a gloriously laconic atmosphere of dust, sweat and blood. Armstrong, and the result was a film that combined the mythical status of the Texas Ranger (something that Norris would massively take to heart in his later TV show, Walker, Texas Ranger) with copious Vietnam metaphor, the intriguing notion of Texan terrorism interlocked with the traditional symmetry of an “eye for an eye” vendetta, and supreme martial arts with the soaring, operatic excess of the Spaghetti Western. Nelson (which was also his first) attracted big stars such as David Carradine and Barbara Carrera, who had just done the cult-cherished Condorman with Michael Crawford and the underrated Mickey Spillane tale I, The Jury with Armand Assante, as well as outstanding character actors like L. The locations were sprawling and majestic, as befitting a John Ford film, and the production values did not appear to have been skimped-on. The budget was far larger than anything Chuck Norris had previously been associated with, the cast more wide-ranging. Carver had worked with Norris a couple of years before on the superb An Eye for An Eye so the two knew what one another was capable of bringing to the movie and this familiarity, if anything, is what bestows McQuade its legendary status as one of the best actioners from the early 80’s. ![]() ![]() Well, if it was Way of the Dragon that introduced Chuck Norris to audiences beyond those who attended martial arts tournaments, and The Octagon that properly launched him towards his status as being a bonafide leading man with people coming to see a film simply because he was in it, then it was Steve Carver’s awesome Lone Wolf McQuade from 1983 that made him fully iconic and downright bankable as an action hero admired by more than just the karate kids and the kick-boxers of the world. Although he knew he’d never be either as strong or as cool, Samson only grew his hair and beard so that he would, at least, look like Chuck Norris. ![]()
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