Crossfire Trail

I just caught the DVD version of "Crossfire Trail" and enjoyed it immensely. It is a western of the old school full of action, romance slimy villains and hard ridin'.

Tom Selleck stars as Rafe Covington who has made a promise to a dying friend to look after his ranch and his wife (Virginia Madsen) after he is gone. Along with his two pals (David O'Hara, Christian Kane), Covington sets up shop on said ranch. Joining the trio is crusty old Wilford Brimley (barely recognizable) as a former ranch hand. Unfortunately, villain Mark Harmon also has designs on the aforementioned ranch and widow. When Selleck proves to be a formidable opponent, Harmon brings in gunfighter Brad Johnson to settle things which of course, leads to the inevitable showdown.

The scenery, shot in western Canada, is beautiful and unspoiled. The town (looking suspiciously like the one in "Unforgiven"(1992) looks like a real dusty western town and the costumes and make-up have been created authenticly as well. The acting is good all round and the action scenes are as exciting and well staged as any I've seen.

Barry Corbin as the town's drunken sheriff and William Sanderson as the bartender are excellent in featured roles.

"Crossfire Trail" is a western lovers delight. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

This is an above average western drama. Although many plot elements are predictable, particularly the shoot-em-up ending, the film has many strengths. Tom Selleck and Mark Harmon give excellent performances. Selleck, unlike his Thomas Magnum character of years ago, portrays the lead as a thoughtful, reserved character with considerable depth. Harmon perfectly portrays the smarmy, conniving bad guy. Wilford Brimley, although fatter than ever, delivers a strong performance as usual.

Especially watch and enjoy the beautiful location photography. The ending credits were invisible (squashed on the screen) when I watched the film, so I'm not sure of the shooting locales - even if they were included. But the high altitude and mountain scenery is spectacular. As is often the case today the music soundtrack (though fine)is too loud, making it difficult to catch all of the dialogue in places.

Tom Selleck, kinda like Sam Elliott, was born to star in Westerns. He and the rest of this marvellous cast bring another Louis L'Amour western to vibrant life. Tom is great as the straight-shooting (in both ways) hero who does whatever it takes to keep his promise to a dying friend. Mark Harmon is delightfully smarmy as the vile villain, and Virginia Madsen makes a great schoolmarm. Production values are very high for a TV movie, and the photography is gorgeous. Like in all good westerns, the scenery almost becomes another character. Kudos to Turner for their continued efforts to produce topnotch television drama!

If it wasn't for QUIGLEY, DOWN UNDER, CROSSFIRE TRAIL would be my favorite western. Tom Selleck easily slips into the type of role he seems born to play. Not many current actors look right at home in a western, but Selleck is one who does. He looks like he stepped right out of the 1800s. Mark Harmon makes an appropriate ass as the bad guy, and the beautiful Virginia Madsen is gorgeous as the school teacher Harmon plans to marry and Selleck has vowed (to her dead husband) to protect. The talented and underused Brad Johnson is a good villain as well, a hired gun Harmon brings in to kill Selleck. Good performances from all, and excellent score as well, by Eric Colvin, that deserves a soundtrack release. The Vancouver locations are a surprisingly-good stand-in for Wyoming, and director Simon Wincer (who should be the person to call when a western needs to be made) gives the film a nice pace with an exciting climax, intercutting between two shootouts. Seeing as how this was the highest-rated original cable movie in history when it debuted, I hope to see more Selleck/Wincer team-ups in the future.

The Western is a dying genre and it never ceases to amaze me that it is so. It is being displaced by the cops 'n robbers, grisly hero shoot'em-ups and a variety of other overly violent superhero vehicles. As a kid, I grew up on Westerns and could not get enough of them. The bad guys always wore black hats and the hero, like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and others always wore the white hats coming to the rescue of the ladies at the last moment. Villains were slime-suckers and deserved all they got. I mean, who could even feel a twinge of regret when Joel McCrea shot Brian Donlevy in the Virginian after he engineered Sonny Tufts getting hung? Well, this film loosely based on a Louis L'Amour story takes us back to a time when heros were just that: bigger than life figures that placed honor, decency and the love of their horses above the petty greed and avarice of the weaker villains. Selleck is outstanding in this role as Rafe Covington who comes to "take care of" the widow of a friend (whom we later learn he knew but a short time). What commitment! Now, we get some growls here from the peanut gallery from some who fail to understand the archetype the Western Hero is based on and even one faithful Louis L'Amour fan who cries foul at the departures from the original. OK. We can let that go. Someone observes that Selleck leaving his Magnum PI role is a "natural" for Westerns. I second that! He does. His pals, veteran character actor Wilfred Brimley, Kane and O'Hara add texture to the hero role while the villains are outright scumbags, especially usual good-guy Mark Harmon and refugee from the rapture, Brad Johnson (glad he made it out of the apocalypse). These baddies are REAL bad. Cheap made-for-TV has-been Western flick? No way, José. This is FINE entertainment and I wish they had a lot more of it.