SanteeFats Another excellent western with Tom Selleck. Starts out a little odd with the opening scenes being on a ship at sea. Several of the crew have obviously been shanghaied and one is dying. Tom swears to help the dying man's widow. After beating the snot out of the captain for letting Charley die and taking their pay, Tom and two others set out for Charley's ranch. They arrive and start fixing the place up. Wilford Brimley shows up as a great old timer!! I love his character in this movie!! Mark Harmon plays a smooth, suave bad man. Trying to use his manners to win over the widow, played by Virginia Madson. Harmon makes a great snake in this film!! Everyone learns you don't screw with Tom in a movie. Called out by one of Harmon's men, he kill's the man, after giving him several chances, and kills another on a roof who is laying in ambush. As the movie goes on you see a cow being pulled out of a tar pit and then it is apparent why Harmon wants the ranch, oil!!! Since the killings by Selleck Harmon has sent for some paid killer, bushwhacker types. The scum of the old west, like Tom Horn. Harmon starts felling the pressures so he tells Madson to wear the white dress,she has not only been married but had a kid,and they will marry the next day. The bushwhacker goes out and murders one of the men. Big mistake as you would expect in a movie such as this. Harmon grabs Madson, goes to the bar where the sheriff/justice of the peace is. Forcing the vows they are married. I love the rest as Madson fights Harmon until he knocks her out. After they bury the dead kid the remaining three load up and head for town. So the bushwhacker shows his true colors when he rides his horse in to a church to get position for another ambush. He has placed his two sycophants at strategic points in town. Man what a show down!! The bad guys die, the good guys win, and all turns out as expected.

weezeralfalfa Guess I have to blame it mostly on book author Louis l'Amour. I was disappointed in the one dimensional characterizations, especially of the baddies, and the very familiar formulistic plot, where the contested woman initially falls for the familiar handsome urbane, locally powerful, but discretely evil baddie and is initially put off by the overtures of the unfamiliar, unwashed cowboy who wanders or intrudes into her life, and ultimately saves her from being shackled to the baddie or cheated out of her substantial inheritance(both in this film).One look at Mark Harmon and I knew he had to be the oily boss of the baddies. Strange he's listed at the bottom of your list of players?!The main characters were well cast and the marvelously photographed mountains and plains Alberta landscape largely makes up for the predictable or deficient screenplay. Wilford Brimley makes a loyal, if overweight and non too animated, sidekick. With his long hair, dark looks, robust body, and generally serious manner, Selleck looked like he might be a fearsome badman. Thank goodness, his character instead personified l'Amour's standard hero :well practiced in all cowboy skills, tough with his fists, exceptional with firearms and horses, used to right wrongs. Seems that the husband of Anne Rodney traveled from his huge northern WY ranch to SF to get some money to pay off the mortgage note being held by Mark Harmon's Bruce Barkow. The story going around is that Anne's husband was ambushed on the way back by Sioux, who took his body, and has presumbably been dead for a year. On the other hand, Selleck's Rafe Covington much more recently was with him when he died from a brutal beating by the captain of the ship on which he and Covington had been serving as shanghaied hands. He requested Covington to go take care of his ranch and wife for a while. After beating up the captain, Covington and a couple of partners abandoned the ship, near shore, bought some horses and rode to this ranch, which looked rundown. Covington encountered Anne in town who disbelieved his story and was not thrilled to learn he was preparing to get the ranch back on its feet, fearing he might be planning to try to steal it while she is busy in town teaching school. Reeking with thinly disguised sarcasm toward detailed eye witness descriptions of Rodney's demise, the nosy Covington soon makes enemies of Barkow's evil henchmen. Drunk, one challenges him to a street gun duel. Laughably, he misses Covington's broad back several times, before the latter turns around to give a demo of marksmanship. This prompts Barkow to send for a famous gunslinger(silent, self absorbed, dressed in all black , with distinctive flat hat, sporting a huge telescopic sight for his custom-made rifle) to take care of Covington and his 3 friends.Of course, we know that eventually Covington and friends will have a showdown or two with Barkow and his gang, whom we suspect were involved in the robbery of Anne's husband before he was shanghaied. We also know that widow Anne will eventually see Barkow for the monster that he is behind his suave exterior, and switch her allegiance to the unlikely fearsome-looking Covington, who buys the rifle Rodney special ordered, to do in most of the baddies.The main showdown occurs in town with various participants hiding behind windows or outside at the corner of buildings, etc. : very dangerous for other townies, if not terribly novel in westerns. Covington and friends even release the cattle from the pen at the edge of town to add more confusion and danger to the scene. At least they didn't stampede through the town, as in some westerns. See the film to discover the meaning of my review title. The scene in which Barkow drags Anne across the street, caveman style, to force her to go through a marriage ceremony before a crowd is especially unbelievable. This finally demonstrates his true motive in pursuing her and how cruel he is. Prior to this, Barkow had the bought marshal charge Covington and friend with raping the daughter of chief Red Cloud, to cover up her presumed rape by 3 of his gang, who presumably broke her leg in the process. This is a bizarre move since Covington did a crude reset of her leg(we could hear the crunch of the bones)after discovering her predicament and made friends with Red Cloud who happening along just then. For a woman in such a state, she seemed remarkably well dressed and calm when two other unknown white men came upon her out in the bush. In any case, this incident served to further characterize Barkow's gang as thoroughly cruel and opportunistic. Presently, part of a small Tom Selleck westerns DVD collection.

Hang_All_Drunkdrivers As a western star, selleck is right up there with john wayne. He has wayne's size and no nonsense no talk attitude. Nevertheless, this is not a great movie since the story is as old as the hills. As usual, the real stars here are the villains and mark harmon and brad johnson do a great job there. Virginia madsen plays the damsel in distress but was disappointing since she, at least in this movie, is not that pretty. The big shootout is something of a joke. As in all westerns you have gunmen hiding behind the flimsiest of barricades while blasting away. How is a wagon wheel gonna protect you? A couple of the bad guys just stand behind the swinging doors to the saloon and fire away! The wood must be all of a quarter inch thick. I give this movie a B.

trpdean This was truly enjoyable. Wonderfully cast with Selleck, Brimley, Madsen and Mark Harmon.It was wonderfully directed (two examples: the tension felt during normal duties on the morning that the assassin goes out to Madsen's ranch, and the photography of the steeple of the church/schoolhouse and the ranch itself from various elevations). I loved the use of horses and cattle during the gunfire. I liked the realism of people having to reload. I loved the story itself - the simplicity is very believable. Just excellent - I thank Tom Selleck as Executive Producer for helping to bring this to the screen - and for going for such a high quality cast and director. One thing I've always liked about Selleck is the modesty and restraint of his acting - it's very evident here. And one thing I've always liked about Madsen is that she is so scrumptious (!) and that's very evident here too! Mark Harmon is one of my favorite actors, and his big smile, manifest charm make the events that occurred prior to the movie - seem very believable.I loved this - thanks! I'll certainly watch out for any other Tom Selleck westerns (this was the first I'd seen).