I thought I would see something a little grittier than the way this story played out. There were some violent scenes, to be sure, but over all it felt like a Western made by the Hallmark Channel folks. Things moved along a little too quickly as well, as years went by in a flash, marked by the rapid growth of Montford Johnson's (Martin Sensmeier) son Edward Bryant (portrayed by various actors as he grew up), while all the other characters didn't seem to age over the span of a couple decades. My favorite scene involved Montford's decision to finally stop putting up with buffalo hunter Holden's (Tommy Flanagan) threatening presence, and run his fifteen hundred head of cattle right through the villain's camp. No doubt this is a story of one man's courage and persistence in the face of overwhelming odds in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma during the years following the Civil War, but the film only conveys a limited aspect of the grit that it took for Johnson to persevere. The limited budget and no-name cast no doubt contributed to that feeling.
