Burt Lancaster is an uncompromising lawman who defies the odds when he single-handedly confronts a gang of killers in this extraordinarily perceptive and action-packed tale of life and justice on the American frontier.
When Sabbath town-boss Vincent Bronson and his drunken ranch hands unwittingly kill and old man in Bannack, everyone knows it was an accident. Everyone, that is, except Bannack's marshal, Jered Maddox. A tough, no nonsense man of the law, Maddox is determined to bring the killers to justice. Trailing them back to Sabbath, Maddox makes his intentions clear: 'I'm going to take these men back with me', he vows 'or kill them where they stand'. So when Bronson sends word that he wants to make a deal, the inflexible Maddox refuses, a decision that forces Bronson's men to let their guns do the talking. But Jered Maddox is not a man to back down...he'll bring these desperate killers back to Bannack, his way. Dead or alive.