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DVD Purgatory
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, in fact, dead legends of the American West--Wild Bill Hickok (Shepard), Doc Holliday (Quaid), Jesse James (Souther), among others--spending a violence-free interim before being taken to Heaven (or Hell if they fail). A purely fun if slightly hokey piece of fanciful adventure, Purgatory's colorful cast plays the whole thing straight and gives this made-for-cable film (directed by Uli Edel of Last Exit to Brooklyn) some exciting, six-gun grit and emotional authenticity. --Tom Keogh
PURGATORY is an old fashioned western----right out of the Twilight Zone. With its imaginative script, good pacing and excellent cast, this made for cable movie is quite good and entertaining. A bunch of bad guys led by supreme baddie Eric Roberts and Peter Stormare find themselves in the town of Refuge, a quaint little town where the sheriff doesn't wear a gun and there's no cussing on the streets. We soon find out there's more to Refuge than meets the eye and the movie climaxes with a big gun fight to rival the best. Along with Roberts and Stormare, the cast is perfect: Sam Shepard, the laconic sheriff; Randy Quaid, the kindly doc; singer John David Souther as the general storekeeper; Donnie Wahlberg as the somewhat feisty deputy; Amelia Heinle as the lovely Rose; and Brad Rowe as the naive member of the bad guys. It's quite different and should appeal to both fans of westerns and ghost stories.
A Great Movie
If Rod Serling had written a Western, he might have come up with Purgatory. I won't describe the plot, which previous reviewers have already done, but let me say that I always feel my spirit soar at the end of this movie. It also has one of the most beautifully choreographed gunfights you'll ever see, and one of the most memorable lines: 'The Almighty may be strict, but He ain't blind.'
This movie is a keeper. I already had it in VHS format, but bought the DVD to have it in a more permanent media.
Sci-fi and classic western combine
While I found that Purgatory was a bit slow at the start, it does eventually pick up speed and have you anxious for the next sci-fi surprise. The first 15-20 minutes are your standard "spaghetti flick", but once the desperadoes go through the tunnel, nothing is as it seems. The old warrior by the gate has me smiling every time he comes to pick up those to be dismissed, as his face never changes - he just does his job endlessly.
My only complaint is the lack of bonus features on the DVD.
I highly recommend this movie for those western lovers who want a change of pace from the norm or those sci-fi buffs who want something a little less spacy.
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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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. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Reynaldo Villalobos 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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I don't know the real history of the gunfight at the OK Corral. I saw the recent movie TOMBSTONE with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer and found it thoroughly enjoyable but I never considered it to be "historical". It was just hysterical.
HOUR OF THE GUN is another, older version of the story. It too is excellent and more believable as a historical drama but I have no conception that it is historical other than the recognition that Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Ike Clanton were real people; Tombstone, Arizona, Colorado, Mexico and the OK Corral are real places; and a gunfight really did take place at the corral. That doesn't matter to me because this too is a fine film and thoroughly entertaining. It has none of the comic element that TOMBSTONE had but it is a high quality western... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Garner - Jason Robards Director(s): John Sturges DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 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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