Robert J. Maxwell A made-for-TV cowboy movie with no bankable stars -- pretty ominous. Yet it's better than that.It's the 1920s in Oklahoma and the oil boom is in full bloom. As Bill Tilghman, a famous elderly retired lawman of the old West, Sam Elliot is living a peaceful life on his ranch not far from a boom town called Cromwell. He's engaged in trying to make movies that show the old West as it really was at a time when Tom Mix ("too purty") is the glamorous hero of silent movies.But Cromwell is having a hell of a bad time. This is prohibition, after all, and, what with Oklahoma being what it is, you have prohibition piled upon prohibition. Yet none of that stops the booze that flows like the Mississippi River through good old Cromwell. More than that, a mixture of cocaine and heroin is on its way from the gangsters in Kansas City. Worst of all, they insist on wearing white after Labor Day.The local sheriff wises up to this and reports it to the man from the Federal Bureau of Prohibition or whatever it is. He's played as a real skank by Arliss Howard, who has an innocent face and the moral character of a flesh-eating bacterium. When they get in his way he casually shoots the sheriff and the local informer and dumps their bodies into an oil tank.The good folk of Cromwell appeal to former lawman Elliot to come and introduce family values into their community. Elliot's wife, Carolyn McCormick -- I almost wrote Dr. Elizabeth Olivet -- is supportive but doesn't want her husband putting his life on the line. They have two lovely kids. McCormick, by the way, is pretty foxy and delivers a more animated and nuanced performance than she ever did on the small screen.So Elliot proceeds to clean up the unrestrained violence and vulgarity of Cromwell and the townsfolk are shocked. Most are supportive but some have grown kinda fond of the booze and the whorehouses and the guns. Especially antagonistic is Arliss Howard, the federal man who gets a big cut of the illegal shenanigans, and his companion in crime, whose name I can't figure out but who resembles Pizza The Hut. It doesn't play out well for Sam Elliot or his family. That much is historical fact.I don't want to bother researching the history of the real Bill Tilghman but there are some scenes that are so thoroughly Hollywoodized that they lose all credibility. I truly doubt that Tilghman, with two bullets in him, survived just long enough to whisper a few last words to his wife -- "Honey...Take care...Take care of the children. I'm on my way to the big roundup in the sky." And I strongly doubt that, on the death of Tilghman, the good folks of the town finally rallied and burned down all the gambling halls, whorehouses, bars, and stills.That's probably the weakest part of the film, the writing. There are times when it's not clear who Elliot is arresting or why, or what happens to them. It seems poorly edited. How did Elliot know that bodies were being dumped into the oil storage tank? And casting gets a bonus point for giving the role of the corrupt federal man to Arliss Howard, whose character name is "Wiley." I don't know whether that was intentional or not but it's a palpable touch. The script, however, has made him not just a bad guy but almost the personification of evil -- he throws his girl friend to the floor, he snorts dope, he's always waving around an automatic pistol. A demerit too for casting as the corrupt sheriff a poor actor who could never play anything but an evil part -- the subtlety of a sledge hammer.But extra points for production design, location shooting, and photography. A lot of attention has been paid to period detail and it pays off.

Woodyanders Proud and rugged cowboy law enforcer Bill Tilghman (a spot-on terrific performance by the always dependable Sam Elliott) lives off his past triumphs by making authentic Western movies in the early 20th century. Tilghman gets hired to clean up a scrappy small town that's rife with crime and vice. He faces opposition from manic coke-snorting Federal agent Wiley (a lively and deliciously slimy portrayal by Arliss Howard). Writer/director John Kent Harrison relates the enjoyable and engrossing story at a brisk pace, offers a flavorsome evocation of the Roaring Twenties period setting, and astutely explores the radical discrepancy between the blunt and honest Old West way of doing things and the more shady and decadent attitude of the 1920's. Naturally, it's a real treat to see Elliott expertly play a colorful large-than-life living legend figure who counts as a true hero because of how he inspires others to rise to the occasion with his firm disposition and strongly felt beliefs. Moreover, there are sound contributions from Carolyn McCormick as Tighlman's feisty wife Zoe, James Gammon as the amiable Arkansas Tom, R. Lee Ermey as the loyal Marshal Nix, and James Parks as wormy stoolie Alibi Joe. Both Lees Van Oostrum's sharp cinematography and Lawrence Shragge's twangy harmonic score are up to par. Worthwhile viewing for Sam Elliott fans.

FightingWesterner In 1924, legendary lawman turned silent film star Bill Tilghman (Sam Elliott) reluctantly agrees to clean up a grimy Oklahoma town controlled bootlegging gangsters and full of rowdy oil-rig workers. He ends up squaring off against coked-out, renegade G-Man Arliss Howard.This production looks fantastic, with lots of attention to detail and great atmosphere. Unfortunately, there's too much talk and not enough action to go along with the vivid sets, costumes, and locations. This ends up being more of a character study than a western or gangster story.Sam Elliott does a great job as Tilghman, who rode with the Earps and went up against the real-life Wild Bunch. If anything, the film does do an excellent job at portraying a man who has little left to offer but his pride and stories of past triumphs.

RHM-2 Sam Elliott was made for the lead in this film, playing William Tilghman in his final weeks as a lawman in an Oklahoma "Oil Patch" town in the mid-1920s. He's simply over-powering in demeanor and gait and attitude. Pay special attention at the end when he bids farewell to his family. Oh, my!... Other mostly unknown actors are mostly okay, but Arliss Howard's drug-addled primary bad guy seems a tad much over the top (I reckon I cotton to heavies who are bad _and_ smart).... Best all is the production which features a roughneck oil town and mud and iron/steel workers and noise and mobs and blacksmiths and misery and saloons and cathouses and ... well, you get the idea.... As a bonus, movie buffs get to see reproductions of Tilghman's own silent movies about his exploits as a young lawman.... Thus, a many-dimensional treat for us hero-worshipers who grew up with the movies.