The Desperate Trail

Linda Fiorentina develops from sexy seductress in The Last Seduction into a merciless killer in this effort, and it's a world away from Jessie the happy cowgirl from the Toy Story films. She'll blast your brains out without so much of a second glance, and she wears them Western clothes like she was born in the outfit. Partnering with a smart mouthed confidence trickster, she's on the run from the always excellent Sam Elliott, who plays a grizzled old sheriff. She committed the unpardonable sin of killing his son (Who she was married to, and he knocked seven bells out of her, hence the reason for her slaying him) so needless to say, this lawman is slightly more persistent in pursuing his target than most...

There are no signs of this being a straight to video effort, as the productions values are decent throughout. There are also some well staged and fast moving shootouts, but in terms of gore this ain't no The Wild Bunch, so the 18 certificate is a bit of a mystery. Like the film I last watched, The Kentuckian, this is hardly going to go down in history as one of the genre classics. But it'll pass 85 minutes, and you won't feel you've wasted your time. Which is good enough for me. 6/10

This movie seems to have been written under the shade of Unforgiven - the beating of a woman justifies over a dozen murders. I didn't see it that way. Throughout the movie, my sympathy (unlike that of Mr. English who also reviewed this) was with the marshal (as rough as he was) in catching and hanging the murderer - and her partner.

The movie was very well-done though - and a particularly wonderful and surprising beginning.

Note the wonderful chimed music when things get most exciting.

It's worth seeing. Linda Fiorentino is superb - and Elliott was born to play westerns - and does this wonderfully - with great restraint.

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.

Sam Elliot and Linda Fiorentino go toe to toe in this very entertaining TV western. Elliott plays Marshall Bill Speakes, a lawman obsessed with catching Sarah O'Rourke (Fiorentino), his fugitive daughter-in-law. It seems that Sarah killed her husband. Speakes is understandably rather upset and tears up the west pursuing her when she escapes his grasp. Along the way, Sarah allies herself with a dandified highwayman and the story becomes a rather quirky Bonnie and Clyde story. But things aren't always what they seem as Speakes' tactics for catching the pair become increasingly ruthless as Elliott goes against his usual good-guy image. The audience sympathies are fully with the outlaws in this story. Writer-Director Pesce gives the story a relentless pace as the antagonists maneuver around each other. Visually, the film owes a lot to Leone and Peckinpah (right down to the slow motion death scenes) but the plot is so fast-paced and the characters are so interesting, the pyrotechnics never over-shadow the story. If you are a fan of either Elliott or Fiorentino, The Desperate Trail is a must see.

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.