Plot
A trio of outlaws — Bill Bowdre (Arthur Kennedy) and Jesse Coe (Martin Landau), led by Tom Fitch (Karl Malden) — robs, tortures and brutally kills the white father and Indian mother of young Max Sand. Max (Steve McQueen) sets out to avenge their death. One of the killers keeps a tobacco pouch containing a bit of deerskin decorated with Indian beads from Sand's mother's shirt -- the tobacco pouch was made from the breast of Max's mother and Max knew this -- and it is one of the clues Max uses in his search.
Although Max cannot read or write and is not skilled with a gun, he receives help from strangers. One is a man he tries to rob, Jonas Cord, Sr. (played by Brian Keith), a traveling gunsmith. Cord takes a liking to Max and teaches him how to shoot.
Max hunts the killers, who have since separated. With the help of Neesa (Janet Margolin), a woman from the same tribe as his mother, he tracks down Jesse Coe in an Abilene, Texas saloon, killing him in a knife fight inside a corral. Wounded, Max is taken to the reservation by Neesa, who helps his wounds mend while becoming his lover.
After healing, Max leaves Neesa to continue his pursuit of the killers. He pulls a robbery and deliberately gets caught, facilitating being sent to a prison in a Louisiana swamp where Bowdre is now serving time. Pilar (Suzanne Pleshette), a Cajun girl working in the rice fields near the convicts’ camp, gives Max comfort and finds a water craft to help him escape through the swamps. He takes Bowdre with him and murders him along the way. The boat tips in the swamp, and Pilar dies from a snake bite.
Still blinded by revenge, Max goes after Fitch, the last of the murderers. He infiltrates Fitch's gang, calling himself Nevada Smith, as the outlaw is aware that a "Max Sand" is out there somewhere, trying to ambush him.
As the gang is pulling a robbery, Fitch realizes that Nevada Smith is really Max Sand. Fitch runs for his life, but Max tracks him down near a creek and begins to torture him slowly, shooting him in the arms and legs. As the outlaw begs to be killed to release him from his physical agony, Max cannot bring himself to do it and rides away.
Read more about this topic: Nevada Smith
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