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19 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Slow Start Hurts This Nice Film, 25 May 2007
5/10
Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

Can a western be too nice? Yup, as much as I hate to say it here, because this a goodhearted, good-messaged film with good people and - yes, a touch of good Christianity, the fact remains it's a dull movie for the most part.

You need some kind of edge in a western and it's not here, at least in the first half of the film. If you're boring in the first 30-60 minutes, you're going to lose them.....even in a very nice movie like this one.

In a faith-based film, as this is, I don't expect nor want profanity or gory stuff, but you have to have some action and some villains that are more than just one old man carrying a grudge and acting a bit sour, as Keith Carradine does here. That isn't enough.

However, kudos for the effort and for bringing God into a positive light in a western movie. I was glad to at least support like that with my rental money. I also appreciated seeing nice kids, a nice mom and dad, and I always enjoy seeing Wes Studi. I wish he had a bigger role in here. The acting in here was fine, too.

There are a lot of good elements to this film, but it got off to such a slow start it lost me.

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A pretty confusing movie - CONTAINS SPOILERS!!, 10 September 2006
4/10
Author: weeziepepper from Colorado, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

My Dad and I just watched this movie, he's a pretty big fan of westerns like Lonesome Dove. We were confused at the beginning about the relationships of all the people. We finally figured out the main details (two families at odds with each other for various reasons). David Carradine was good and some of the other actors were OK. The main problem we had was about John (Tim Abell). He gets injured but when they cannot find him they just assume he's dead. What's up with that? I would at least want to find the body for a proper burial. Then the families all just decide to hang out for Christmas time dinner. John's wife doesn't even seem too upset - come on she thinks her husband just died! Starting at about 2/3 of the way into the movie my dad and I kept saying to each other "Where's John?". At the very end we got our answer but by then we didn't really even care. It seems like lots of you really liked the movie and I did like the spiritual messages. It is also a nice family movie. I just was a little annoyed with the John issue. Thanks.

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A few problems..., 1 November 2006
1/10
Author: runnoft-1 from NW of Los Angeles, California, United States

I'm watching the movie right now, so I don't know how it ends.

Um, Christmas-time in Wyoming, and there's green leaves, green grass, flowing water, shirt-sleeve attire, no breath fog.. meaning, it's not very cold in Lusk, Wyoming in December?? WHAT? The Indian woman was washing clothes outside, sleeves rolled up, in December, in Wyoming. Wyoming has long, wicked-cold, windy winters. That immediately took a lot of the reality away. It was filmed in Arizona, they should have just set the story there, as "Wyoming Territory" didn't have much to do with the story. There were homesteaders and Indians in Arizona, too. It's just too unbelievable. Maybe later it snows in the movie, but I've been to Wyoming, and seen it snow in JUNE, and I've been there in February and it was very cold and windy. Nobody went out in just light jackets.

They filmmakers must take us as people who all live in LA or NY, people who know nothing about geography and what places look like, and people who don't ever travel. I've seen some movies supposed to be Wyoming, but filmed in Canada, and you can't tell. The terrain in THIS movie didn't look at ALL like Wyoming.

Bad acting, especially the Grandfather Indian character. Unneeded choppy "Indian Accent". Words used I don't think someone new to the language would use.

Here's another: A mother and her son are sitting right by a fireplace that has a good crackling fire in it. She feels his head and determines he has a fever. How could she tell? Being a mother, I know better than to forehead-feel a kid for a fever when they're a few feet from a fire.

Snore.

You want a good western? See Lonesome Dove. See Tombstone. See Open Range. See anything else.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Rent it First, 4 July 2006
4/10
Author: PrairieCal from USA

From reading previous comments it seems as though every relative, friend, and casual acquaintance of anyone even remotely connected with this movie has pulled out every superlative in the book to recommend it.

In actual fact this is a slow, plodding, uneventful film without out a single character to identify with. It has too many characters -- none of which have really been developed sufficiently for us to care about any of them -- too many stories going on at the same time, and too many clichés. Add to this continual references to God and prayer and one gets the feeling we're being not so subtly preached to.

We'd all like to see clean and wholesome family oriented movies but that doesn't mean we'll settle for substandard fare.

A fine cast is totally wasted here. Rent this film before you consider buying it. I'm betting you won't put out money to own it.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
great intentions do not a great movie make, 19 June 2006
2/10
Author: TIles_re from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I understand the need for family movies, traditional values and though I share that need I have to say that the critics on this website too eager to be pleased.I can see what the filmmakers were trying to achieve,the story of two families separated by culture and yet brought together by tragedy, finding out their need for each other in their darkest hour. But this was not a great movie,it was barely watchable. I liked the cast, the performances were great, but the script just did not make any sense. The lines were often just too corny and rang completely untrue and unrealistic.

So here is the characters: There are two families, family number 1 includes dad, used to be involved in unspecified ministry, now in charge of a stagecoach rental business, mom and two boys. Grandfaher of family number 1, angry guy, blames Indians for the death of his wife for unspecified reasons and wishes his daughter had gotten married to dad number two.

Family number two, includes dad who is white, mom who is Indian, son, daughter, who has no lines at all, and wise old Indian chief grandfather. Dad number 2 seems to still have a crush on mom number 1.

****warning- following content might contain spoilers**** Dad #2 steals a horse right under the nose of the two guys hired to kill him and they do not even bother going after him, they just shoot at his direction once.

Mom #2 is all choked up and grateful that grandfather #1 will not take her land back completely ignoring the fact that he is the reason her husband, dad # 2 is presumably dead. Let me see, taking the land, bad, murder mucn much worse... if my husband was murdered the land would be the least of my worries.

Boy #1 and 2 are missing and mother #2 waits the whole day at her house for the dad #1 to show up and look for them, even though her dad, grandfather #2 seems perfectly able to at least try.

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Don't waste you're time, 21 May 2008
2/10
Author: duboiskowtoe from United States

This was, to put it lightly, unwatchable garbage.

My crap detector first went to orange alert when the two boys look for fire wood by sitting down and picking up the sticks in there immediate area and pile them together. This was then followed by a gun fight where people take cover behind barren shrubbery and don't get shot. Not only do they not get shot, they add in rickashay sound effects meaning that they aren't just retardedly bad shots, but the twigs are actually blocking to bullets.

Who ever directed this film should be black listed and maybe checked for Alzheimer's or blindness.

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17 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Christmas Western Elicits a Few Tears, 19 November 2005
8/10
Author: s-m-shaw from United States

Miracle at Sage Creek

Movie Review for the Cowboy Chronicle, International monthly publication for SASS (Single Action Shooting Society)

By Steve Shaw

Rarely are Westerns made for television these days. The few exceptions attempt to recast the Western in a bitter, physically violent role, oftentimes with offensive language. Westerns the entire family can enjoy are difficult to find…they just don't make 'em anymore. Miracle at Sage Creek is a rare, welcomed change. This well-developed story, with fine acting, has you speculating about the miracle, since several materialize; a splendid and appropriate family-oriented film for the Christmas holidays. The story is set in 1888 Wyoming with David Carradine portraying rancher Ike Franklin, a hard-nosed, ruthless old man, embittered with the death of his wife at the hands of a Sioux war party ten years earlier. Just before Christmas, Ike hatches a scheme to legally remove neighbor Chief Red Eagle (superbly underplayed by Wes Studi) and his family off their small adjacent homestead with the use of US Cavalry. Red Eagle's son-in-law, John Stockton, a one time suitor of Ike's daughter Mary, perhaps the only man that could reason with Ike, is ambushed, shot and left for dead by villainous road agents while on his way home from town. Ike's daughter Mary and her husband, Seth, operate the Sage Creek Station, a stagecoach stop on the road between Lush and Chadron. Ike disapproves how the two are raising their two young sons, and of course, feels Seth not good enough for his daughter. When their youngest son, Kit, becomes infected with scarlet fever and is not expected to recover, Ike's despondency intensifies. How these two families overcome their prejudices and the tragedies befalling them is capably told. This film will elicit a tear of two, as should any well-told Christmas story. David Carradine is at his best, supported by, arguably one of the best actors to portray an Indian, Wes Studi. Familiar names and faces sustaining these two veterans are Buck Taylor, Tracy Nelson, Michael Parks, Irene Beddard, and Tim Abell. The film, shot at Old Tucson Studios' Mescal movie site in Arizona, is directed by James Intveld, by a script written by Thadd Turner. Turner should be familiar to many of you. His well-researched, non-fiction book "Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood City – End of Trail" was reviewed and recommended by this author in a previous Cowboy Chronicle issue. Thadd was a national level competitor in Cowboy Action Shooting from 1995-2001 and was a contributing editor for True West Magazine from 2001-2003. Through his production company, Talmarc Productions, Turner produced this film and also served as stunt coordinator and co-lead wrangler. In fact, if you look close, you will see Turner as one of the US Cavalry troopers attempting to evict the Indian family. The film has been picked up by American World Pictures for distribution through Hallmark with a release date of January 2006. Check your local listings.

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
I'm glad I did'nt pay a rental fee for it, 18 January 2007
3/10
Author: obm4 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I honestly can't see why all the critics on here; say bad things about good movies and good things about bad ones?Oh look at the scenery,oh pretty music,wow so real?One could not call this one realistic by any means.The husband gets attacked and shot by bad guys,falls over a cliff.They look for him once run into the bad guys give up looking.They did'nt tell anyone like the army, who is the law in them days that he's lost,shot,the bad guys?Never played up the feelings of the grandpa and Indian chief to get into the characters so we could feel good when they bonded?This was a very low,badly written movie.Take it for what it is, and it's a clean movie at least.Gary

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Great story idea, but not well produced., 8 February 2008
5/10
Author: SteveEshleman from United States

Michael Landon's "Little House on the Prairie" is similar in concept, and "Miracle at Sage Creek" producers should have watched a few of those shows to learn how to make a viewer's heart feel a story. And too many production liberties were taken. For example, the only thing cold about the weather was the conversations about how cold it was.

I like a "feel-good" story, but it needed more showing and less telling. The characters simply were not developed very well, so it was difficult to share their troubles or feel great about the resolutions of those troubles. And time was wasted on meaningless "excusions". For example, we were given a rather lengthy introduction to the Judge's wife early, and then she never reappeared.

This is the kind of movie I like and pull for, but this one was B Rated at best.

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13 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Rich detail, good pacing, great story and direction. Go see and enjoy!, 20 November 2005
10/10
Author: maryerand from United States

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was serene and stately. I liked the timing of the way each scene unfolded and the pace of the editing because it gave me time to settle in and enjoy the atmosphere of each of the scenes in their rich detail. This quieter slower pacing was appropriate to the quieter and slower times which it portrayed and the expansive landscape of the west which requires slowing down to take it all in. There were no rude shocks along the way for "effect" (like the cheap thrills of too many movies these days) The sensitivity, depth, and subtleties of real human relationships were conveyed well. Really good acting and I thought perhaps the best I've seen from David Carradine. The careful attention to props costumes and sets really made it feel like I'd gone back in time. Thanks for a wonderful afternoon!

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