Sworn to Vengeance

An interesting case, true one. However the film is so slow, so tedious. Cliche after cliche, such as permanent varying responsibilities and the main figure even quitting the job, investigating on his own initiative.

In addition there are some incomprehensibilities. When they find the real crime scene, no further (forensic!) investigation of the place and the surrounding is applied. Come on!

All together it's a mixture of documentation and lame crime movie. Not too bad, but not good either.

The movie was based on a true story that took place in a Texas city. There is also a book about the events that took place. I read the book and thought it was a great book and could not put it down. I saw the film and even tho there is a lot they don´t explain I think Robert Conrad did a fair job playing the real hero of the story.

"Sworn to Vengeance" is an adequate TV movie from 1993 based on a real incident in Texas, which was the subject of a book. It stars Robert Conrad, William McNamara, Peter Breck, and Sharon Farrell.

When three teens are brutally murdered, Sergeant Stewart (Conrad) is so shaken that he goes to each body and promises to find their killer or killers. A woman (Farrell) had a vision of the murders as they were happening and is able to give clues to the killers' identity; this is dismissed by the detectives in charge, but not by Stewart.

Stewart has trouble staying on the case, thanks to problems with the other jurisdiction that felt he had stolen another case from them. Though his boss (Breck) assigns the case to him, he is later removed. He resigns and starts to work at the jail where one of the suspects (McNamara) is imprisoned for another offense. Stewart knows right away that he is one of the killers and attempts to get him to confess.

I've been told the book is amazing; this is less than amazing, but it was great to see Sharon Farrell and Peter Breck -- I hadn't seen either one of them in years. Robert Conrad is fine as the determined Sgt. Stewart.

The story, which is an interesting one, could have been more compelling, but it's a TV film after all. A very tragic case about needless killings and the monsters who did it.