Maybe it's just me, but Willie Nelson looks just about as old in this thirty year old movie as he does now. He's here in an unlikely team up with Gary Busey, both on the run as saddle tramps from different factions who want their hide. In Karl Westover's (Busey) case, a pair of brothers are tracking him for the death of another sibling, although it wasn't intentional, but dead is dead. Barbarosa (Nelson) never got the blessing of his Mexican father-in-law (Gilbert Roland) for marrying the man's daughter, and finds himself on the outs with the Savalas clan once again after a self defense killing of Don Braulio's son Luis. The odd duo try to avoid trouble by staying one step ahead of their enemies, but that doesn't always work out with results that lead to more mayhem and death.

Willie Nelson made a fair handful of Westerns over the years; my favorite of the ones I've seen so far is probably the 1999 TV movie "The Long Kill", in which he appears with fellow country singer Kris Kristofferson with a very brief appearance by Waylon Jennings. It doesn't rate as highly with IMDb viewers but has only been rated by about a third as many as this one. "The Red Headed Stranger" is probably the best known and scores higher, but I thought that story was a mess.

Not all goes well for Willie's character in this story. After teaching a few tricks of the outlaw trade to his farm boy partner Karl, he finds himself on the receiving end of a knife wielded by Savalas son Eduardo (Danny De La Paz),and ruefully declares "They killed me this time". However Karl doesn't allow the family to rejoice too long over their apparent victory, and takes on the guise of the feared Barbarosa to keep the legend alive.

Karl Westover (Gary Busey) is a runaway Texas farm boy. His brothers want to bring him back but he follows bandit Barbarosa (Willie Nelson) instead. He is conflicted about robbing the poor. A Mexican bandit kills his brothers and shoots Barbarosa. Barbarosa survives and the duo escape with gold. However Karl and Barbarosa are both hunted men.

Willie Nelson lacks the acting power to be a feared bandit and Gary Busey's character is way too stupid. It's not cute and funny naivety. It's annoying stupid. I wonder if throwing away the gold is suppose to be comical. It's not bad as a desolate desert western but I want more tension. It moves a bit too slow.

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.