A Gunfighter's Pledge

In A GUNFIGHTER'S PLEDGE, Luke Perry plays a lawman whose wife and son are murdered by a criminal he has twice incarcerated. Following the killer's trail into Mexico, Perry inadvertently kills an innocent man and takes the man's body home to a ranch where the dead man's sister and son live. Perry stays to help, and crosses paths with a mustache-twirling villain right out of DUDLEY DO-RIGHT, played by a sneering Thomas Howell in a big black hat and attire. Howell of course wants the dead man's ranch and will stop at nothing to get it, including hiring the gunslinger Perry has been seeking. The ending contains a twist. Perry is convincing as a haunted, tired lawman, although Howell is a little too Snidely Whiplash for my taste. Beautifully shot and staged in Simi Valley, Calif.

This movie was made by RHI Entertainment, a company best known for making cheap and boring movies. Like their other movies, "A Gunfighter's Pledge" was made for commercial television, so you won't get any nudity, sex, foul language, or serious violence. Despite these limitations, I will admit that this is the best effort to date I've seen from RHI. The cinematography is pretty good, and while it may be low budget, it never looks really cheap - there are plenty of props and extras in the background.

But despite all that, and my love for westerns, I didn't find this movie to be especially exceptional. It's mainly because of the script - I don't think there's any scene in this movie that you haven't seen in another western before. There is no effort by the screenwriter to put in a few twists, and it's not directed in a way to pump in some juice. Heck, even some of the locations will be very familiar to those who have watched a lot of TV and movies! So we end up with a tired and familiar movie that will make you think you've seen this movie before.

In playing Matt Austin in A Gunfighter's Pledge Luke Perry channeled both Alan Ladd as Shane and John Wayne as Cole Thornton in El Dorado as he plays a former sheriff who's both on a mission to get the guys who killed his family and paying a debt to a family whose provider he accidentally killed.

Luke's long outgrown the sideburns he made famous as Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills 90210, in fact he's now got a three days growth of beard on him. Like Wayne in El Dorado where he kills the youngest son of a family being threatened by a cattle baron and whom he becomes the protector of, Perry in killing one of the two men kills the brother of a widow whose ranch rich landowner C. Thomas Howell wants because it's the source of water for the valley.

Howell himself has outgrown his brat pack days and makes a fine villain. Francesco Quinn, son of Anthony Quinn is a nasty crooked sheriff doing Howell's bidding. Also note Jaclyn DeSantis as the widowed sister of the man Perry kills and who he becomes the protector of.

One really glaring error in the film. I believe the original intent was to have a sadder ending, but a happier one was shot and tacked on at the last minute. I won't explain any further, but if you see the film, you'll know exactly what I mean.

A Gunfighter's Pledge is a good western, the kind we sadly don't see on the big screen any more.

The story is OK, the acting is reasonable.

But the camerawork is AWFUL. Several close ups of the characters, especially the baddy, are way OUT OF FOCUS.

How these scenes ever made it past the cutting floor is beyond me. I've never seen such bad camera work, and for me it ruins the whole movie. Literally, bad optics!

A classic western plot -- a bad guy wants to grab off a small landowner's land and only a laconic wanderer can save the pretty ranch owner -- having killed her man by accident -- runs along in its well-greased way. Luke Perry is fine as the scruffy, squinty, hoarse hero. Jaclyn DeSantis is good as the woman he tries to help and while there are few surprises in this one, it plays nicely to the strengths of the classic western, including some fine camera work by James Wrenn.

It is the old-fashioned camera work that is most notable about this picture, and the color choices that hearken back to silent days, with blue tints for night scenes, an overall sepia wash to the day scenes and an amber touch to the interiors. There are lingering shots when people are riding horses, giving a leisurely but inevitable air to the entire proceedings. A very pleasant TV movie.