Naïve, but eager farmhand Karl Westover (a fine and amiable performance by Gary Busey) goes on the lam after he accidentally kills his brother-in-law. Karl befriends shrewd and resourceful outlaw Barbarosa (wonderfully played with tremendous rascally charm by Willie Nelson), who teaches Karl how to survive in the wild.Director Fred Schepisi offers a flavorsome and meticulous evocation of a past time and place, relates the story at a measured pace, makes the most out of the dusty and desolate Tex-Mex prairie frontier setting, and puts a welcome and refreshing emphasis on people over action. William D. Wittliff's provides a wealth of witty dialogue and a surprisingly intricate narrative in which the relationships between the various clearly delineated characters are quite compelling and complicated. Moreover, the natural and engaging chemistry between Nelson and Busey gives this picture a winning surplus of pure heart and appeal; they receive sturdy support from Isela Vega as Barbarosa's lusty estranged wife Josephina, Gilbert Roland as the vengeful Don Braulio, Danny De La Paz as the angry and relentless Eduardo, George Voskovec as the vindictive Herman Pahmeyer, Alma Martinez as the sweet Juanita, and Luis Contreras as slimy bandito Angel. Both Ian Baker's crisp widescreen cinematography and Bruce Smeaton's harmonic score are up to par. A real sleeper.

The title role of Barbarosa is played by Willie Nelson and he's a former Texas Ranger turned outlaw who's on the run from his various crimes and from his in-laws who don't like him very much. They resent this Anglo marrying into their family and family patriarch Gilbert Roland got his leg shot off while trying to break up that marriage. He's lost several other family members in trying to kill Nelson to avenge that.But Nelson picks up Gary Busey a farm kid on the run from a feud himself because he accidentally killed his brother-in-law. Busey takes up with Nelson and his outlaw ways and the two become an amiable pair.Judging by the other reviewers Barbarosa seems to have a bit of a following. I wouldn't call it great by any means, still it's certainly entertaining enough for the discriminating western fans.Barbarosa's significance to me is that it is the farewell performance of Gilbert Roland whose career went back six decades into the silent era when he was touted as a would be Valentino successor. His career never quite fit that mold, but he was always a favorite of mine. The part as the family patriarch is not the usual carefree, but tough Gilbert that we usually see. He's an understandably bitter man in this film and it was a good performance to go out on.Western fans won't mind this one and Nelson and Busey have a nice chemistry between them.

Barbarosa is one of the best westerns ever made. The subject here is myth and the people who become mythic heroes. Barbarosa is, on the one hand, a legendary bandit and, on the other, an ordinary Texan who steals for a living: "Cattle, horses...Anything except sheep. You couldn't give me one of those wooly bastards." A young man on the run becomes Barbarosa's companion, then his acolyte. Both men are looking for a place in the world and the role they find is that of outlaw hero, players in a mythic drama that gives them meaning. The myth is that of the Outlaw Lover ( as in Hughes' The Outlaw or Brando's One-Eyed Jacks ) and both Nelson and Busey play their roles to perfection. The directing is excellent and the dialogue nigh perfect -- a great western! A swell movie!

The second half was an improvement over the first, but I never really could get into the movie. It bounced around too much, taking too long to give the viewer a grasp of what was going on. The Big Bend country was spectacular, but the film was an also ran.