I haven't been very familiar with the work of Rick Schroder - I know he was in some family sitcom as a kid - and Wilford Brimley I recall from one small role (in "Country") and from oatmeal and diabetic supplies commercials. I was very pleasantly surprised by both of them and by this movie overall. Yes, one might quibble if they think the sets looked 'cheap' (I didn't notice) and maybe the boat was the wrong size (who's to say?) but I found the actors engaging and I liked the story as well.
This is not so much a Western as it is a human story that takes place in the era of the Old West. Jimmy Perls' folks were killed and their land stolen; after killing the son of the man who killed his parents, he has to escape and manages to do so with the help of Wilford Brimley. First off, Brimley has a lot of genuinely funny lines and he plays his part really well. I will certainly remember him in this role. Schroder may not be in quite the top echelon of actors but he looks the part and played it convincingly enough - the young gun who's in trouble, trying to maintain control of his own situation and being tough about it, but underneath it all, he's a scared but good kid. (Schroder was 20 or so when this was filmed.) Probably Schroder's best moment in this film is when he is telling Brimley about the men he killed, and why he did it. I also liked his unintended insults to Brimley through the film ("you ride a horse pretty good - for an old guy") and his constant exasperation at Brimley wanting to do things differently than he does. Brimley's best moments were whenever he had a funny line, and he had plenty of them. I'd have never expected the oatmeal and diabetes guy to be so amusing at delivering funny lines.
If there was any doubt that this movie was meant to warm the heart a little, that went away at the very end. Brimley is about to ride off to his own spread and Schroder asks if he needs any help there. After being told what sort of work there is, Schroder says 'I only do what I can do on horseback. I don't milk no cows or grease no windmills.' He and Brimley ride off in different directions, but as the camera backs out, in silhouette we see Schroder and his horse wheel around and go trotting after Brimley after all.
This movie was supposedly originally going to have Ron Howard and John Wayne in the main roles. (I seem to recall reading that Wayne was anxious to play the role but was unable to and apparently the script was shelved for a while.) Ron Howard is great but I don't know that he would have been an improvement, even though he did play a couple of Western roles very well such as in Spikes Gang. I wonder what the movie would have been like had Wayne played Brimley's role. I think it would have given the movie a slightly more 'serious' tone to have a big gun like Wayne, but as it is, I enjoyed it just fine.
A couple things I didn't like - some of the background music was kind of corny, and though it only happened a few times, I really don't care for slow-motion special effects which in this case involved glass breaking. Those however are minor quibbles.
The opening scene has the most serious violence with the three men shot down by Schroder and his rifle. You might not want your young kids to watch this movie but it's not exactly on the violence level of "Death Wish", say. I found it to be a very satisfying story, there were a couple of good plot twists near the end, and the scene with Schroder deciding to follow along after Brimley was a perfect ending.
This is not so much a Western as it is a human story that takes place in the era of the Old West. Jimmy Perls' folks were killed and their land stolen; after killing the son of the man who killed his parents, he has to escape and manages to do so with the help of Wilford Brimley. First off, Brimley has a lot of genuinely funny lines and he plays his part really well. I will certainly remember him in this role. Schroder may not be in quite the top echelon of actors but he looks the part and played it convincingly enough - the young gun who's in trouble, trying to maintain control of his own situation and being tough about it, but underneath it all, he's a scared but good kid. (Schroder was 20 or so when this was filmed.) Probably Schroder's best moment in this film is when he is telling Brimley about the men he killed, and why he did it. I also liked his unintended insults to Brimley through the film ("you ride a horse pretty good - for an old guy") and his constant exasperation at Brimley wanting to do things differently than he does. Brimley's best moments were whenever he had a funny line, and he had plenty of them. I'd have never expected the oatmeal and diabetes guy to be so amusing at delivering funny lines.
If there was any doubt that this movie was meant to warm the heart a little, that went away at the very end. Brimley is about to ride off to his own spread and Schroder asks if he needs any help there. After being told what sort of work there is, Schroder says 'I only do what I can do on horseback. I don't milk no cows or grease no windmills.' He and Brimley ride off in different directions, but as the camera backs out, in silhouette we see Schroder and his horse wheel around and go trotting after Brimley after all.
This movie was supposedly originally going to have Ron Howard and John Wayne in the main roles. (I seem to recall reading that Wayne was anxious to play the role but was unable to and apparently the script was shelved for a while.) Ron Howard is great but I don't know that he would have been an improvement, even though he did play a couple of Western roles very well such as in Spikes Gang. I wonder what the movie would have been like had Wayne played Brimley's role. I think it would have given the movie a slightly more 'serious' tone to have a big gun like Wayne, but as it is, I enjoyed it just fine.
A couple things I didn't like - some of the background music was kind of corny, and though it only happened a few times, I really don't care for slow-motion special effects which in this case involved glass breaking. Those however are minor quibbles.
The opening scene has the most serious violence with the three men shot down by Schroder and his rifle. You might not want your young kids to watch this movie but it's not exactly on the violence level of "Death Wish", say. I found it to be a very satisfying story, there were a couple of good plot twists near the end, and the scene with Schroder deciding to follow along after Brimley was a perfect ending.