Everybody knows Willie Nelson, the outlaw, the last of the old "giants". He is less known as an actor, playing himself in Jerry Shatzberg's Showbus, magical in Michael Mann's Thief and he's not at all known as a producer like for instance with the Stagecoach remake with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristopherson. Here he plays Barbarosa, the man with the red beard who'll teach Gary Busey the tricks of the outlaw trade. If the story seems familiar it's only normal as it's the same as in William Riley Burnett's Captain Lightfoot adapted by the same for the eponymic film by Douglas Sirk; Burnett who was furious with Michael Cimino's cut and paste Thunderbolt and Lightfoot with... Gary Busey. Willie Nelson says his inspiration came from the true story of an Irish highwayman from the early 19th century. In any case the title well describes this bloody family vengeance story where almost everyone ends up dead.