Die Gesetzlosen

Any western that stars Sam Elliott is usually a good one. Few people have ever looked and sounded more like a cowboy than Sam. Also, most westerns feature beautiful landscapes and overall photography, and this film is no exception. Being made-for-TV, it could have been made on-the-cheap but it wasn't. I am not a fan of Ted Turner but his TNT westerns look beautiful, all of them.

Elliott plays a lower-key role than usual, being an appealing sort as a loving father and husband and a good-guy marshal. This western is a bit different in that the time period is the early 1900s with automobiles and such dotting the landscape.

There is not a lot of action in here and not an especially happy ending, either, but it's a good western that worth you while to check out.

It's too bad that Sam Elliott didn't come along 20 or 30 years earlier to films. If he had he would never lack for work as a cowboy hero. He's not done too bad in the present day in any event. In You Know My Name he plays one of the west's last genuine heroes from the old days in a new era with little regard for law enforcement which proves to be his undoing.

Bill Tilghman, one of the great frontier marshals of the old west took his last job in law enforcement in Cromwell, Oklahoma in 1924. It was an oil boom town, a wide open town with roughneck money fueling the economy the way the trail hands did back in Tilghman's prime. Now however big city gangsters and their hirelings are running things and even though Prohibition is in the Constitution, that doesn't seem to matter to a thirsty public. It's a world of rumbleseats in flivvers, tommy guns, and bobbed hair on women, Tilghman is out of his time.

He's also got a jurisdictional dispute with Prohibition Federal agent Arliss Howard playing the corrupt T-Man, Wiley Lynn. For all the agents like Eliot Ness, there were more like Wiley Lynn, getting rich on bribes enabling people to flout an unpopular law.

Elliott gives one of his best performances as Bill Tilghman. A weary man who could sit back on his laurels and they were considerable, at the age of 70, yes 70, he goes back to doing the work of a younger man because the younger man are corrupt in a corrupt age. This part was one where Sam Elliott's premature gray hair stood him in good stead.

What you see in You Know My Name is the truth, exactly what happened to Tilghman. I would commend people to read up on Tilghman and find out that this last of the frontier marshals had one glorious career that came to a sad end. This is a wonderful film about a western hero who literally did die with his boots on.

In 1924, legendary lawman turned silent film star Bill Tilghman (Sam Elliott) reluctantly agrees to clean up a grimy Oklahoma town controlled bootlegging gangsters and full of rowdy oil-rig workers. He ends up squaring off against coked-out, renegade G-Man Arliss Howard.

This production looks fantastic, with lots of attention to detail and great atmosphere. Unfortunately, there's too much talk and not enough action to go along with the vivid sets, costumes, and locations. This ends up being more of a character study than a western or gangster story.

Sam Elliott does a great job as Tilghman, who rode with the Earps and went up against the real-life Wild Bunch. If anything, the film does do an excellent job at portraying a man who has little left to offer but his pride and stories of past triumphs.

This film essentially documents the real-life story of a famous American lawman by the name of "Bill Tilghman" (Sam Elliott) who rode with legends such as Wyatt Earp and faced down notorious outlaws in the process. Having retired from law enforcement his fame subsequently attracted the attention of Hollywood where he has starred in numerous silent films which further increased his popularity. And it's at this time that a prominent citizen from Cromwell, Oklahoma approaches him and offers him a position as sheriff in order to bring some law-and-order to the town. At first he declines but after further consideration he accepts even though his wife "Zoe" (Carolyn McCormick) tries to advise him against it. It's only later that he realizes that due to the Volstead Act--and the implementation of prohibition--that crime has become much more organized that it was in the 19th century and all of his skills and experience will be put to the test from that point on. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting "transitional" film in that it managed to capture the impact of the changes brought on by the dawning of the Industrial Age quite well. To that extent, Sam Elliott put in a solid performance as a cowboy who finds himself becoming more and more obsolescent as time passes by. Be that as it may, while certainly not one of Sam Elliott's best films ever made, I found it to be enjoyable enough and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Tilghman was the corrupt one in this story, not Wiley Lynn. Tilghman was extorting protection money from the casinos and bawdy houses in Cromwell. Lynn was the federal agent in charge of enforcing the prohibition of alcohol in the area. Tilghman had made public threats to kill him, but when he tried to as Lynn was raiding one of his client's businesses, Lynn was able to fire his weapon first and kill the corrupt marshal. He was tried for the killing and found not guilty, but the myth of the old "lawman" was stronger than the truth, and Lynn's reputation was destroyed and he resigned from his federal job. He became an alcoholic and eventually died in another shootout.

I'm disappointed that Sam Elliott would agree to make a movie like this, which is so obviously based on lies.