I am surprised this got such a high user rating vote here. Wishful thinking and blindness to the movie's faults must account for it.
The beginning of the movie was confusing and unnecessary. Then things got better and interesting. Then the movie slowly and surely gets worse and worse. It developed into an unbelievable mess with bits and pieces reminiscent of better movies (saving the Indian princess, hiring the famous out-of-town killer with the black outfit, the town folk rising up at the end to defend justice, driving cattle into town during a gunfight, etc. -- Blahh!). This is the worst Tom Selleck or TV western that I can recall.
Good were: the cinematography, isolated dialogue and scholarly allusions and most of the acting. Mark Harmon gave his usual adept and likable performance, IF HE WERE IN A DIFFERENT MOVIE.
Everything else was quite poor. I blame the screenplay and direction most. Harmon's character's actions were so over the top and incredible, it was shocking. Unbelievable and poorly motivated were almost everything -- the men working a ranch that wasn't theirs, the mortgage on the place, the "courtship" of Madsen, the death of her husband, etc. The tactics and movements in the gun fights were silly/unconvincing. Another thing I didn't like, but typical of many movies, is that Selleck and Madsen didn't initially have an honest conversation dealing with all the facts of the situation; instead they let the information drag out in bits and pieces to prolong the story.
The beginning of the movie was confusing and unnecessary. Then things got better and interesting. Then the movie slowly and surely gets worse and worse. It developed into an unbelievable mess with bits and pieces reminiscent of better movies (saving the Indian princess, hiring the famous out-of-town killer with the black outfit, the town folk rising up at the end to defend justice, driving cattle into town during a gunfight, etc. -- Blahh!). This is the worst Tom Selleck or TV western that I can recall.
Good were: the cinematography, isolated dialogue and scholarly allusions and most of the acting. Mark Harmon gave his usual adept and likable performance, IF HE WERE IN A DIFFERENT MOVIE.
Everything else was quite poor. I blame the screenplay and direction most. Harmon's character's actions were so over the top and incredible, it was shocking. Unbelievable and poorly motivated were almost everything -- the men working a ranch that wasn't theirs, the mortgage on the place, the "courtship" of Madsen, the death of her husband, etc. The tactics and movements in the gun fights were silly/unconvincing. Another thing I didn't like, but typical of many movies, is that Selleck and Madsen didn't initially have an honest conversation dealing with all the facts of the situation; instead they let the information drag out in bits and pieces to prolong the story.