I love Sam Elliott, especially as a cowboy and this has always been a favorite of mine. I was just waiting for it to come out on DVD to replace my VHS version. My heros have always been cowboys.
Very good made for cable western
Katherine Ross and Sam Elliot both did a great job in this quiet, elegiac western. With Barry Corbin as a stagecoach driver and Ken Curtis (who played Festus on "Gunsmoke") this has a sort of "let's-the-get-the-gang-together-and-make-a-western" feel to it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's full of good, wholesome values--an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, don't steal, don't kill unless you absolutely must--and middle-American common sense and courage.
There are some drawbacks, however. First, this was a made for TV movie, and the commercial breaks are as obvious as in any TV show (although there are no commercials on the DVD). Also, it was shot full frame, and the print this DVD was mastered from was not pristine. But for what it is, it is very good.
A Western Classic
One of the top five westerns of all-time. I am so glad the original version has now been released on DVD !! DO NOT BUY THE VHS VERSION--IT HAS BEEN EDITED AND SOME OF THE BEST SCENES/CHARACTERS CUT. Great professional cast. Check out the detailed production and supporting cast like Jeff Meyer as "Beaver" Sampson's -- his outfit and hat---feel like you stepped back a 150 years.
Tom Selleck shows a harder side of his persona as a disillusioned Confederate who returns home in the waning days of the Civil War in this adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel. His wife, Suzy Amis, isn't ready to forgive him for leaving his family behind for the "adventure" of war, and his children hardly remember him. Haunted by his actions in the war and caught in a power struggle in the Arizona territory, Selleck's soul-scarred survivor makes a last stand to protect the only thing left that matters to him--his homestead and his family. The film has its share of gunfights, showdowns, conspiracies, and Civil War rivalries, and even a runaway stagecoach, but its power lies in the somber exploration of how misunderstandings and conflicts tear at a marriage during such a volatile time,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Dick Lowry DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Though The Desperate Trail is hardly a modern Western, this mixture of frontier adventure and con-man conniving is inflected by the plot twists that have driven the post-Tarantino era of low-budget crime thrillers, at least through the first half of the film. It opens with a stagecoach ride that becomes a thrilling runaway escape from bandits, but the passengers are not what they seem and the films spins into a game of one-upmanship between a pair of slick outlaws thrown together by fate. Craig Sheffer, a con man duded up like an Eastern hick and smiling like a chump, spars with lady outlaw Linda Fiorentino, a tough gunslinger with a gift for bluff, while she eludes driven lawman Sam Elliot, whose passion for justice is personally motivated. Through a series of schemes and ambushes... More Info about this DVD Director(s): P.J. Pesce DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Not to be confused with Sam Raimi's flamboyantly stylized Western of the same name, this made-for-cable adaptation of the Louis L'Amour novel is a lean, taut pioneer adventure set in the wilderness of the northern Midwest. Sam Elliott, sporting his trademark bushy mustache and eyebrows so thick they keep the rains off his face, stars as the mountain man and tracker Con Vallian. Tom Conti is Scottish storekeeper Duncan McKaskel bringing his wife Susanna (Kate Capshaw) and son from Pennsylvania to a homestead in Wyoming. When a scraggly gang (led by the wonderfully sleazy Matt Clark) marks the family as an easy target, Vallian makes himself their gruff guardian angel, partly out of attraction to Susanna ("You're a handsome woman," he likes to repeat). Pride, jealousy, and rivalry make... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Robert Day DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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There are unmistakable pleasures to an old-fashioned Western, and Crossfire Trail has 'em. Tom Selleck has a lean, weathered face that sits nicely atop a horse and beneath a broad-brimmed hat; he plays a canny cowboy who's come to make good on a promise to a dying man and ends up caught between a beautiful woman (Virginia Madsen) and a wicked man in black--a couple of them, actually. Crossfire Trail has just about every element you could ask for (a Sioux war party, a cruel hired gun, a shootout in the street, even a cattle stampede), but it spins them out with such clean efficiency that you can't help but enjoy it. Directed skillfully and with heart, Crossfire Trail will satisfy any Western fan. Based on the novel by Louis L'Amour; also featuring Wilford Brimley and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Simon Wincer DVD Release Date: Released the 10 July 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Purgatory is a down-and-dirty Western with a twist The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling would have loved. A band of 19th-century desperadoes, led by the monstrous Blackjack Britton (Eric Roberts), takes a wrong turn while fleeing a posse and rides into an otherworldly, off-the-map town called Refuge. Sedate, almost repressed, and guarded by an unarmed sheriff (Sam Shepard), Refuge is a weird haven of hospitality with no jail, a literate shopkeeper (J.D. Souther), an erudite dandy of a doctor (Randy Quaid), a restless deputy (Donnie Wahlberg), and a beautiful young woman (Amelia Heinle) with no apparent family. In short order, Blackjack figures Refuge is his for the plundering. But the youngest of his gang, the innocent Sonny (Brad Rowe), slowly realizes the town's residents are,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Uli Edel DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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