Clint Eastwood stars as the title character in this low-key moderately politicised variation of his spaghetti westerns In New Mexico in the late 1890s the fiery Louis Chama (John Saxon) leads a group of Mexican-American peasants in a fight for their land after the evidence of their ownership has been destroyed in a questionable courthouse fire The wealthy Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) who also lays claim to the disputed land has decided to bypass the legal system & hires a group of killers to take care of Chama Kidd who initially rejects Harlan's offer to join his hunting party changes his mind when he finds that Chama has stolen some of his horses & brutalized one of his ranch hands However after seeing Harlan randomly pick off some Mexicans & becoming interested in Helen Sanchez (Stella Garcia) Kidd begins to think twice about his current employer