Extreme Prejudice

A thinly disguised remake of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, set on the US/Mexico border, updated to include a CIA team of Vietnam veterans trained in the use of sophisticated hi-tech weaponry. The central conflict between Texas Ranger Nolte and his former buddy turned drug baron (Boothe) is textbook Western stuff, complete with the standard rivalry over the love interest (Alonso). Covert CIA team leader Ironside asks Nolte for help in recovering secret government documents allegedly in Boothe's possession, thus forcing the ranger to choose between old loyalties and the demands of duty. The action is lean and tough, the body count huge, and the final shootout an obvious reprise of Peckinpah's finale. But where the latter's vision transformed The Wild Bunch into a savage elegy for the passing of the Old West, Hill can only duplicate its choreographed violence.