Lone Wolf McQuade

Lone Wolf McQuade
Lone Wolf McQuade movie poster
Directed by	Steve Carver
Produced by	Yoram Ben-Ami Steve Carver
Written by	H. Kaye Dyal B.J. Nelson
Starring	Chuck Norris David Carradine
Music by	Francesco De Masi
Cinematography	Jerry G. Callaway Roger Shearman Michael Sibley
Editing by	Anthony Redman
Studio	El Paso
Distributed by	Orion Pictures MGM (current)
Release date(s)	15 April 1983
Running time	108 mins
Country	USA
Language	English Spanish
Budget	$5,000,000
Box office	$122,232,628 (United States)

Lone Wolf McQuade is a 1983 action film, starring Chuck Norris, David Carradine, Barbara Carrera, and Robert Beltran, and is directed by Steve Carver. The film score was written by Francesco De Masi and borrows heavily from Ennio Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in the West. The screenplay features a quiver of characters: the "lone wolf" Ranger Jim McQuade (Norris), the bad guy (Carradine) with the widow of his partner (Carrera) who falls for the hero at first sight, the retired buddy, the captain trying to rein in the hero, and the new young partner the hero does not want.

Plot

The main character, J.J. McQuade is a former Marine and a Texas Ranger who prefers to work alone. He lives in a dirty home in the middle of nowhere with a pet wolf. The film opens with McQuade involved in an intense battle with Mexican bandits and a gang of horse thieves from which he emerges unscathed (saving several Texas State Troopers). Shaking off the dust, McQuade returns to El Paso, Texas to attend the retirement ceremony of his fellow Ranger and close friend Dakota. After the party, his commander attempts to curb his "lone wolf" attitude by insisting he work with local Texas State Trooper Kayo Ramos, a tough but clean-cut and polite Latino. McQuade has a teenage daughter who came from a past marriage and is still on good terms with his former wife.

While out with his daughter (horseback riding), his daughter's horse runs wild and she is saved by Lola Richardson (Carrera). She invites the men to a party where Rawley Wilkes (Carradine) displays his prowess in martial arts and some of his thugs get into a fight with Ramos. After settling the fight, Richardson and McQuade leave the party and apparently have a romantic encounter. She shows up at his house cleaning and seems to start breaking through his rough exterior within the couple of days they are together.

Meanwhile, McQuade's daughter and her boyfriend witness the hijacking of a U.S. Army convoy. The boyfriend is shot to death while one of the hijackers pushes the car in which the daughter is hiding over an embankment, landing her in the hospital. McQuade more readily works with Kayo to find out who did this to his daughter. Kayo's computer skills allow him to track the errant convoy. At an illegal garment factory, they pick up a young delinquent named Snow (William Sanderson), who is reluctant to talk until Dakota points a Mac-10 in his general direction and empties the magazine.

As the story progresses, they are joined by FBI Special Agent Jackson. The trail leads them to arms merchant Rawley Wilkes (Carradine), who is hijacking U.S. arms shipments for his illicit weapons deals.

The three eventually find the arms trading headquarters in the desert. Agent Núñez is killed when he and his agents attack the headquarters after McQuade and Ramos tried to stop them, but ended up in the gunfight as well. All the good guys are shot, McQuade is caught and while held by thugs, beaten by Wilkes. Richardson is witness to this yelling for Wilkes to stop. Wilkes has McQuade placed in his truck and buried. McQuade manages to escape, though injured. Agent Jackson and Ramos appear both shot but alive.

McQuade finds that his daughter has been taken by Wilkes by an another arms dealer (Falcon) mad at Wilkes. He gives McQuade the exact location in Mexico where Wilkes and his daughter are. Though McQuade is intent and tries to head to the location on his own, both Ramos and Jackson have followed him and the three head into the base for the attack. After an intense battle, with Jackson being shot again, and McQuade's daughter and Richardson escaping, the daughter is shot in the leg and both women are sidelined. Finally McQuade and Wilkes engage a hand to hand fight with the fight leaning first in Wilkes' favor until he strikes McQuade's daughter (who ran to her father's aide), provoking McQuade into a frenzy of hits and kicks that defeats Wilkes. McQuade is reunited with his daughter, only to be fired upon by an injured Wilkes. Richardson (Carrera) steps into the line of fire to save McQuade and is killed in the process. Her dying words to McQuade was that Wilkes killed her husband, forced her to be his partner and that she loved McQuade. Meanwhile Wilkes and his remaining thug run into a building, Jackson providing McQuade with a grenade and McQuade throwing it into the building, killing Wilkes and the other man. Falcon's helicopter lands, McQuade, his daughter, Ramos and Jackson take it leaving the arms dealer to deal with the "federales".

After being awarded along with Jackson for their actions, McQuades ex-wife and daughter show up with a U-haul as McQuade is going to help them move (his ex-wife took a job in New Mexico). As they are getting ready to leave, Ramons shows up telling McQuade he is needed at a bank hold up with hostages. Torn between his family and the job, McQuade chooses the job having his ex-wife yell that he will never change.

Cast

• Chuck Norris as J.J. McQuade
• David Carradine as Rawley Wilkes
• Barbara Carrera as Lola Richardson
• Leon Isaac Kennedy as Jackson
• Robert Beltran as Kayo
• L. Q. Jones as Dakota
• Dana Kimmell as Sally McQuade
• R. G. Armstrong as T. Tyler
• Jorge Cervera Jr. as Jefe
• Sharon Farrell as Molly
• Daniel Frishman as Falcon
• William Sanderson as Snow
• Ray Marker as Soldier (uncredited)
• Kale Stokerton as Rude Man in the Pub (uncredited)
• Robert Shaw (american actor) as Gunman (uncredited)
• Gary Oldman as Tyrone Jackson

Production

• David Carradine and Chuck Norris refused to use stunt doubles for their climactic fight scene, despite strong reservations from the producers.
• Norris credits this film as a leading inspiration for his hit television series, Walker, Texas Ranger, which premiered a decade later. Yet the pilot had to be rewritten, and the characters' names changed, since "all things McQuade" were copyrighted by Orion Pictures. The original co-producer of the series was The Cannon Group, which like Orion is now absorbed into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (though the Cannon films are distributed on television by another company).
• An uncredited John Milius helped write the screenplay.
• It is rumored that a fight broke out between Carradine and Norris during the filming of the final fight scene. Norris felt that Carradine was kicking him too hard and warned him not to do it again. When he did, Norris struck him. Carradine said in one of his books that he and Norris never touched each other during the filming of Lone Wolf McQuade, therefore debunking the real life fight rumor.

Reception

The movie had a relatively positive reception from movie critics, often being compared to Sergio Leone's stylish spaghetti westerns.

This film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best supporting Actress, Best supporting Actor, Best Sound.

Box office

Lone Wolf McQuade, grossed $122 million dollars.

External links

• Lone Wolf McQuade at the Internet Movie Database
• Lone Wolf McQuade at AllRovi
• Lone Wolf McQuade at the TCM Movie Database