The Desperate Trail

Sam Elliot plays a hardened Sheriff bent on capturing his daughter in law because she killed his son who had the audacity to beat her. The sheriffs methods at times seem heavy handed, but he is a dedicated lawman who will not shoot her at the first chance. No, he intends to see her hang. One of the most vicious lines in the movie is his while telling her what it's like. He tells her, "You can hear a neck snap, sounds like breaking a carrot." Excellent portrayals all around, even has a few surprises. I do feel that toward the end the woman on the run become a loose cannon, blazing away at any who offend. This might be taken as her rage against men who belittle and abuse women as had her husband, the son of the sheriff who hunts her down at all costs.

I guess this is supposed to be a feminist Western. While I liked Linda Fiorentino's performance, I also have to wonder what her husband did to her to justify so many murders, so much mayhem. I guess it just spiraled out of control and she did what she had to do to avoid being executed, but some characters were killed who didn't really seem to deserve it. Sam Elliot and Craig Sheffer did decent work, and even Bradley Whitford was OK overdoing a brogue. Like so many Westerns, everybody sure seemed to have an awfully lot of ammunition. The cigarettes and some of the weapons seemed a little bit anachronistic, but the time setting was never really explicit, so never mind. I can't really say see it, but I can't say avoid it either. It depends.

P.S. I don't know if this was a deliberate part of the realism of this film, but about the brief topless scene by Jill Scott Momaday. Her breasts are a bit sagging, noticeably real. I'm not putting down Ms. Momaday, as I prefer that to the more common huge mounds of silicone. Just thought it was interesting.

It's too bad that Sam Elliot was born about 30 years too late and was not on the scene in the 40s and 50s when westerns began to change to more adult themes. He was as born to the saddle as a Joel McCrea or a Gary Cooper was, Elliott would have been a superstar then.

Not that he's done too badly now as The Desperate Trail shows. It's just that westerns have limited release for a specialized audience now. When we meet Elliott he's a marshal escorting a handcuffed prisoner for a date with a hangman. His prisoner is Linda Fiorentino and a holdup interrupts the journey.

When all is said and done another passenger Craig Sheffer makes off with several grand in Wells Fargo money and Fiorentino is loose and Elliott in a most embarrassing position. Naturally the marshal rounds up a posse and pursues the outlaws.

But this is a western with modern and adult themes, more modern than was discussed even in those beginning days of adult westerns. Sam and Linda do have a relationship of sorts and Linda is a battered spouse. As the film progresses Elliott is shown not to be the upstanding marshal that he professes to be and what we expect in the usual type of westerns.

If you like action there are more than enough shooting incidents to satisfy your craving. Elliott, Fiorentino, and Sheffer give fine performances in the leads.

A western with some very modern themes.

This little-known Western is well-made and well-cast, with strong performances from Craig Sheffer and Linda Fiorentino. What starts out as a light-hearted romp becomes progressively darker, shading into tragedy at the end. There is an unusual and striking music score, which materially adds to the film.

A woman , convict of killing an abusive husband , manages to escape from the marshal Bill Speakes (Sam Elliott) who's escorting to her hanging . After a failed stagecoach robbery Sarah (Lind Fiorentino) and another thief named Jack Cooper (Craig Sheffer) rob the money , the latter managing to snatch away the transported twenty-five hundred dollars from her . So she follows him to get it back . Soon after , she teams up with the con man in a plot to rob a bank to start a new life . While the marshal who wants her dead so wrongly , he even doesn't mind breaking the law , as he enlists a posse and sets after them. Travellers. Partners. Lovers. Robbers. No one escapes from Marshal Bill Speakes.

This The Desperate Trail ¨(1994) contains strong performances augmented by blazing guns , hobbled by weak writing . Nevertheless, it doesn't have much interest at times , neither intensity enough , though Sam Elliott captures his role pretty well . J. P. Pesce's slick direction , he was named Best Independent Director of the Year at the Hamptons International Film Festival for his critically acclaimed film The Desperate Trail (1994) , which he wrote and shoot . Nice acting from Sam Elliot as the merciless avenger Marshal Speakes who's really decided to sentence his contender to the gallows . Star Sam Elliott is a detached figure in Western genre , being one of its main representatives , performing a lot of them in the Eighties and Nineties , as cinema as TV , such as : Cactus , Houston The Legend of Texas , Yellow Rose , The Quick and the Dead , Gettysburg , Hi-Lo County , You Know My Name , Buffalo Girls , Indians, Wild Times , The Shadow Riders , and several others . While Linda Fiorentino is fine as the brave woman and an arrested killer who decides to no longer take any humiliation or battery , as she frees herself . She becomes partner to bandit Jack Cooper well played by Craig Sheffer.

The motion picture was professionally directed by P. J. Pesce , though it has some flaws . P. J. Pesce studied directing under and Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese from whom he received honors and also studied editing and acting . This filmmaker is an expert on sequels such as he proved in ¨Sniper 3 ¨ and ¨ From dusk till down : the hangman's daughter ¨ and ¨The lost boys : the tribe¨. Equally , he directed a lot of episodes of notorious TV series , such as : ¨Leverage¨ , ¨Fringe¨ , ¨Transporter¨, ¨Under the Dome¨ , ¨Supernatural¨ , ¨American Gothic¨ , ¨Code Black¨, ¨Quantico¨, ¨Blue Bloods¨ , among others. Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable Western . The movie will appeal to Sam Elliott fans.