ThiefHott Too much of everything

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

ChitoRaffferty The musical score for this picture was pretty bad. I'm not saying if done right it would have been a difference maker (the film is mediocre). But goodness it sounded like they took samples from every bad TV score in the 50's --I heard it all before-- and tried to do their "Badlanders" score on the cheap. The film was ok. Ladd though clearly in decline did his best with a weak script. Katy Jurado as usual was a strong support presence.

utgard14 Recently released from prison, Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine head to the town where each was done wrong years before. Borgnine wants to go straight but Ladd has plans to rob a gold mine and asks Borgnine to join him. Delmer Daves directs this enjoyable western remake of The Asphalt Jungle. Alan Ladd is good in what is probably my favorite film of his post-Shane. He has nice chemistry with pretty Claire Kelly. Ernest Borgnine and Katy Jurado steal the movie playing very sympathetic likable characters. I was rooting for them to get a happy ending. Nice support from Nehemiah Persoff, Kent Smith, Robert Emhardt, and Adam Williams. Not one of the more appreciated films from Daves or the stars but it should be. I think if it weren't for it being in the shadow of the classic film noir it's a remake of, it would be more well-known.

bill-790 The other reviews pretty much explain what this movie is all about. I would like to add a couple of thoughts.First, this is probably Alan Ladd's last quality production. The photography and locations are all very good, and the cast is solid. Compare those aspects with Ladd's subsequent films, such as "Man in the Net" and "Guns of the Timberland." Those two are definitely disappointing, not up to the standards of a star who excelled in films such as "This Gun for Hire," "The Blue Dahlia," and "Shane".Second, the ending undermines the film's impact. Viewers who have seen "The Asphalt Jungle" will attest to the fact that the very grim conclusion of that classic seems inevitable and fitting. In the case of "The Badlanders," I suspect that Ladd himself rejected any such ending (if in fact such had been contemplated).(By the way, the same can be said for an earlier Ladd film. "Thunder in the East" also has a happy ending that virtually defines the term deus ex machina. Had the principles all been killed in that one, it would have had a tragic quality that would have made it much better.) "The Badlanders" is a good film (though not a great one) despite the above criticism. Had it appeared right after "Shane," it might have been a major hit. Unfortunately, by 1958 Alan Ladd's personal decline was all too evident. Perhaps it was too late for a Ladd film, even a good one, to break through.

wes-connors I thought the most interesting thing about this movie was that the miners wore those hats with torches in the front. At first, In thought they were candles, but they are really some sort of flamed headgear - looking like cloth caps with candle-type flames coming out in the front. They must have been awfully hot! It seems, to me, many people would have been burned - hats, hair, and hide! It must have been interesting (and very hot) to maneuver around mines in those things.This isn't much of a western; you have to pinch yourself, sometimes, to remember it is presented as a western. After the mining, you get back to stagecoaches and shootouts. The soundtrack effects sometimes don't appear to be happening on screen. It's neat how Alan Ladd pulls a slug out of Ernest Borgnine. He's faster than Dr. Bombay from the "Bewitched" TV show! *** The Badlanders (1958) Delmer Daves ~ Alan Ladd, Ernest Borgnine, Katy Jurado