Blood River - La vendetta corre sul fiume

This made-for-TV movie was originally written by John Carpenter in the early 70s as a vehicle for John Wayne. That explains why it feels like a throwback to older westerns. Wilford Brimley plays the Wayne role offering support to Ricky Schroeder, who had much greater TV western success with Lonesome Dove two years prior. Brimley, of course, was in Carpenter's The Thing a decade earlier. Both actors do fine with the unchallenging material. Carpenter fans who seek this out will likely be disappointed that it's just a basic by-the-numbers western with little to nothing of his signature style on it. At the time this was written John Wayne was starring in a lot of "colorful old coot teamed up with youngsters" westerns. One even won him an Oscar. Had he made this at the time with a theatrical budget it might have been a bit more memorable. It also might have changed Carpenter's career to get a big star to make a film he wrote years before he made his own name. We may never have gotten some of the Carpenter classics. Anyway what we have here is a watchable time-passer and trivia curiosity but nothing more substantive than that.

I bought this video at a market one summer, put it in the video and saw it. Being a western-fan I really appreciated the scenery and the exiting plot of the creation. Wilford Brimley and Rick Schroeder delivers a very powerful story that centers around their characters. It has all the ingredients to make a western a western. During the first few minutes you get directly thrown into the story of Schroeder's character to get a good background for the following events in the movie.

Definatly a see!

Great script by John Carpenter beautifully realized by Mel Damski. Feels much more like a feature film than an MOW.

Poor direction, acting, costumes, sets, story. Wilford Brimley turns in the worst acting job I have seen him do. Rick Schroder does the same. The storyline just plods along with little more motivation than the script. Shot in Canada there are some pretty vistas but the cheap sets in the foreground detract.

This may be a TV Movie made on the cheap and it looks it. Puzzling choices were made as well. The boat for one. Somebody did a nice job stretching canvas (hides?) over a boat frame. What about the size though? It's twice the size, possibly triple, of a boat to be used by one person. It's just out of place as so much is in this movie.

I watched the whole thing hoping it would get better but it didn't.