Riders of the Purple Sage

Most of the new westerns being made these days (i.e. Unforgiven, Tombstone, etc.) are exceptional, but this may be the pick of the lot - the characters are real, the plot is believable, the photography is superb. I've never read the book, but I may now.

Mr. and Mrs. Ed Harris, like Mr. and Mrs. Paul Newman, Mr. and Mrs. Frederic March, Mr. and Mrs. Hume Cronyn, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Colman, even Mr. and Mrs. Jack Benny work beautifully together as they help make sense out of Zane Grey's, "Riders Of the Purple Sage."

Unfortunately, that wonderful all-west title was borrowed by some sort of psychedelic band calling themselves, "New Riders of the Purple Sage."

I'll stick to the old riders, thank you just as the movie sticks closely to the original book.

The movie is up to its eyeballs in philosophy, but it is not so deep that the residents of Dolt City would be confused.

The background music is quite good, even if it does not include the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

The story will keep you interested from top to bottom. In dialogue it is more than a tad above Gene, Roy, and Tex, etc., all of whom i deeply enjoy.

"Riders Of the Purple Sage" is a thinking person's western, while in no way losing the flavor of a western film.

Go see it. That is 'sage' advice.

I watched this movie out of curiosity because I have the book and have read it; five times. My book is 4" x 7" and is 311 pages long. That seemed like a lot for a two hour (I believe it was two hours) movie. I wanted to see how good the movie was and what parts of the book the movie omitted. I liked the movie despite the fact that it very understandably omitted a lot from the book. I read through the other user comments quickly and found two that said they like the movie better than the book. I would like to encourage those of you who have seen the movie but not read the book to get the book and read it. Parts of the book tend to be grandiose, which might be why the two users said they liked the movie better. To me, the book tells a great story with meaty characters that you get to know and care very much about. Central is Jane Withersteen who is being intimidated by the top Mormon men of her community. When she finally finds out how this intimidation campaign got started and, especially, who started it, she is rather shocked.

I was an avid Zane Grey reader as a teenager in the forties & have not re-read the book since. However,when viewing the movie, I felt the same aura of old west romance that I remembered from many years before. I have always felt that, in spite of his rather blatant racism, Zane Grey wove exciting and entertaining stories. I wish there would be additional efforts to bring more of his books to either the small or large screen, and that they would be as well made as "Riders of the Purple Sage".

In most movies, gunslingers are cold men with hot bullets, but in this movie Ed Harris convinces the audience that no-one is beyond redemption. Killing out of hatred has not turned Lassiter into a robot with a gun, but a human being plagued by the life he has chosen. Great acting, by everyone.