Le dernier justicier

Sam Elliott was made for the lead in this film, playing William Tilghman in his final weeks as a lawman in an Oklahoma "Oil Patch" town in the mid-1920s. He's simply over-powering in demeanor and gait and attitude. Pay special attention at the end when he bids farewell to his family. Oh, my!... Other mostly unknown actors are mostly okay, but Arliss Howard's drug-addled primary bad guy seems a tad much over the top (I reckon I cotton to heavies who are bad _and_ smart).... Best all is the production which features a roughneck oil town and mud and iron/steel workers and noise and mobs and blacksmiths and misery and saloons and cathouses and ... well, you get the idea.... As a bonus, movie buffs get to see reproductions of Tilghman's own silent movies about his exploits as a young lawman.... Thus, a many-dimensional treat for us hero-worshipers who grew up with the movies.

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.

Maybe it was the fact that it was a western set at the start of the modern time period, but something about this movie was lacking. Sam Elliot as Tiglman is excellent and Carolyn McCormick as his wife was a nice bit of casting. However, Arliss Howard as the corrupt federal agent was so over the top you would think you were supposed to be watching a present day drug film. Elliot should be acknowledged as a master of the western movie genre, if he hasn't been already. However, this movie didn't have enough of the "western" qualities for me. I'll sit back and watch Conagher again to see Elliot in top form with a great "western" storyline.

This movie definitely could have been better. First, you've got a great story of a great man to the people and law of Cromwell. Second, without a doubt, you've got Sam Elliot! After Clint Eastwood, nobody took the role of a great western actor...until Sam Elliot.

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.