Last Stand at Saber River (1997) (TV)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Dick Lowry

Writers (WGA):

Elmore Leonard (novel)
Ronald M. Cohen (teleplay)

Release Date:

19 January 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Western

Plot:

As America recovers from the Civil War, one man tries to put the pieces of his life back together but...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Tom Selleck	...	Paul Cable
Suzy Amis	...	Martha Cable
Rachel Duncan	...	Clare Cable
Haley Joel Osment	...	Davis Cable
Keith Carradine	...	Vern Kidston
David Carradine	...	Duane Kidston
Tracey Needham	...	Lorraine Kidston
Chris Stacy	...	Chris
Harry Carey Jr.	...	James Sanford
Patrick Kilpatrick	...	Austin Dodd
Eugene Osment	...	Wynn Dodd (as Michael Osment)
Denis Forest	...	Cornet
David Dukes	...	Edward Janroe
Lumi Cavazos	...	Luz
Bryan Sullivan	...	Josh

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-15 | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Bonanza Creek Ranch - 15 Bonanza Creek Lane, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Company:

TWS Productions II

A Darn Fine '90s Western

What is wrong with this movie? I'll tell ya - not much at all. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, exciting at times, truthful, and hardly at all boring. It was interesting seeing Haley Joel Osment in an early role. I thought he'd steal every scene but his character wasn't too central to the story. Still it was interesting to see the enormous talent just pouring out of the kid every time he did have a scene. Suzy Amis I thought was great in this role. She just fit it really well. All around the characters were great including the Carradines and of course Magnum P.I. Selleck On The Range. I'd like to say he's today's John Wayne in a western sense but no, no way he's not the new John Wayne; there can never be another, well, maybe someday but there definitely isn't now. Thankfully those of us who like westerns have Tom Selleck ‘cause he does great in them! I'm completely flabbergasted that people voted 1 or 2 for this, essentially believing this is one of the worst movies ever made, ‘cause when you vote that low that's what you're thinking. Unbelievable people could think that way about this movie. It definitely didn't suck and I don't even think it was bad. Oh wait, I know, Confederate sympathizers voted that low because of the bad things this movie said about Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Even though there was no Civil War fighting in this movie, in a way it revolved around Forrest's actions at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. There the slave trader Confederate General Forrest ordered the massacre of unarmed, black Union troops who had surrendered. They laid down their weapons and should have been sent to a POW camp but instead Forrest ordered them shot dead in cold blood. Tom Selleck's character Paul Cable, after enlisting in the rebel army when he should have enlisted in the Union army, saw action at Fort Pillow and saw the atrocities Forrest had committed thus changing Cable forever. After Cable returns home he tries to rebuild his life but finds that in a small yet still deadly way the war continues. Because he regretfully enlisted in the rebel army he was a target for elimination from a neighbor who wanted his land for his own. Cable, of course, prevails in the end and along the way enemies become friends realizing that off the Civil War battlefield there's no need for Southern sympathizers to hate those who are neutral or support the North. I give this a grade of B+.