This was a TV movie made at a time when Western's were popular and of course the brief 18 months of the Pony Express' existence didn't stop it becoming immortalized in American culture as part of the taming of the West. The movie also portrays the time honored theme of the boy-to-man transition featuring 15 year old Peter Lundy (Leif Garrett) straining to break free from his gruff and unyielding father Jethro Lundy (Mitchell Ryan). When the Pony Express recruiters come to the small Nebraska town near where the Lundy's run a Trading Post, young Peter, already an accomplished horseman, is goaded by older boys into trying out and makes the grade!
The movie covers some key attributes of the Pony Express: the Christian values of key founder Alexander Majors who gave each recruited rider a bible and had them sign a clean living pledge, the target recruits were to be "thin, wiry, not over 18, preferably an orphan, fearless and a good rider" and the unheard of pay of $25 a month, fabulous pay for a teenage boy at the time.
It's a good movie with some poignant moments but it's hard to get past the fact that Leif Garrett was likely given the lead role of Peter Lundy because of his rapidly emerging teen hearthrob status. Garrett is actually a halfway decent actor but how many 15 year old frontier boys in the mid 19th century wondered around with shoulder length hair and with a shirt opened 2/3rd of the way down? Garrett did all his own horsemanship work in the movie and so he clearly knew or learned how to ride well but all through the movie, you can't get past impression that the director was trying to preserve Leif's teen mag pin-up look than have him really be immersed in what was an interesting character. An example of the absurdity of the casting is a scene where son asks dad for his old cut throat razor as he claims he needs to shave and yet 15 year old Leif Garrett's voice hasn't even changed and he looked like he won't need a razor for a couple of years. Putting his trademark blond locks into a ponytail and braids did little to age him. Yes young thin riders were targeted but having such an androgynous lead actor does little to give this Western much gravitas despite the good story line.
The movie covers some key attributes of the Pony Express: the Christian values of key founder Alexander Majors who gave each recruited rider a bible and had them sign a clean living pledge, the target recruits were to be "thin, wiry, not over 18, preferably an orphan, fearless and a good rider" and the unheard of pay of $25 a month, fabulous pay for a teenage boy at the time.
It's a good movie with some poignant moments but it's hard to get past the fact that Leif Garrett was likely given the lead role of Peter Lundy because of his rapidly emerging teen hearthrob status. Garrett is actually a halfway decent actor but how many 15 year old frontier boys in the mid 19th century wondered around with shoulder length hair and with a shirt opened 2/3rd of the way down? Garrett did all his own horsemanship work in the movie and so he clearly knew or learned how to ride well but all through the movie, you can't get past impression that the director was trying to preserve Leif's teen mag pin-up look than have him really be immersed in what was an interesting character. An example of the absurdity of the casting is a scene where son asks dad for his old cut throat razor as he claims he needs to shave and yet 15 year old Leif Garrett's voice hasn't even changed and he looked like he won't need a razor for a couple of years. Putting his trademark blond locks into a ponytail and braids did little to age him. Yes young thin riders were targeted but having such an androgynous lead actor does little to give this Western much gravitas despite the good story line.
