Peter Strand Rumple Movies
The backdrop for this epic Western, which aired in August 2002 on the Hallmark Channel, will be familiar to fans of the genre and students of Western history. The Johnson County War took place in northern Wyoming in April 1892, growing out of the familiar story of big-money ranchers who suspected homesteader neighbors of rustling. Screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana adapted Frederick Manfred's 1957 novel, Riders of Judgment, which used some of the events and people but changed the names, including the county (which becomes Bighorn) and the main town (from Buffalo to Antelope). Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1981) also employed elements of the Johnson County War in its story. Manfred's book and this film center on Cain Hammett (Tom Berenger), a lonesome cowboy who hankers for Rory (Michelle Forbes); she has married his younger brother Dale (Adam Storke) in spite of the fact that she really loves Cain. A third Hammett brother, Harry (Luke Perry), unlike his honest, homesteading siblings, is a rustler who runs afoul of Marshal Hunt Lawton (Burt Reynolds), who is in the employ of wealthy Lord Peter (Christopher Cazenove), an Englishman in cahoots with the owners of big ranches to exterminate all of the homesteaders, guilty or innocent. Cain Hammett's real-life counterpart, Nate Champion, was a prime target of mercenaries hired by the big cattlemen, and the siege of Cain's cabin, which was the opening salvo in the war, provides the film with its climax. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Luke Perry, (more)
One of Hollywood's most acclaimed Westerns gets a new interpretation in this made-for-TV remake of Fred Zinnemann's 1952 classic. Will Kane (Tom Skerritt), the marshal of the frontier town of Hadleyville, is stepping down to marry his sweetheart Amy (Susanna Thompson) and move on to a less demanding occupation. However, on the day of his wedding, Will gets bad news -- Frank Miller (Michael Madsen), an outlaw Will helped to put behind bars, has just been released from jail and will arrive in Hadleyville on the noon train to settle his score with the marshal. Will appeals for support from the local townspeople, most of whom have done little to help him in the past, and they unfortunately behave in much the same manner in his time of greatest need; Amy even turns her back on her fiancé rather than become a widow on the day of her marriage. In the end, Will finds that he alone must face Miller in a shootout in Hadleyville's main street. Also featuring Dennis Weaver, Maria Conchita Alonso, and Reed Diamond, this version of High Noon was produced for the TNT cable network, where it first aired on August 20, 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Skerritt, Susanna Thompson, (more)
- 1995
Three pairs of slacker dweebs wander mindlessly amongst the ultra-homogenized urban desert of strip malls, fast food joints and sprawling car lots in this funny look at modern urban youth from Canada. Though the characters have adventures, some of them life-threatening, the boys, though not unintelligent, are too numbed by the continual commotion of flashing lights, sounds, sales pitches and the never ending drone of the radio, to notice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McNichol, Stephen Spender, (more)
