Miracolo a Sage Creek

Miracle at Sage Creek

Movie Review for the Cowboy Chronicle, International monthly publication for SASS (Single Action Shooting Society)

By Steve Shaw

Rarely are Westerns made for television these days. The few exceptions attempt to recast the Western in a bitter, physically violent role, oftentimes with offensive language. Westerns the entire family can enjoy are difficult to find…they just don't make 'em anymore. Miracle at Sage Creek is a rare, welcomed change. This well-developed story, with fine acting, has you speculating about the miracle, since several materialize; a splendid and appropriate family-oriented film for the Christmas holidays. The story is set in 1888 Wyoming with David Carradine portraying rancher Ike Franklin, a hard-nosed, ruthless old man, embittered with the death of his wife at the hands of a Sioux war party ten years earlier. Just before Christmas, Ike hatches a scheme to legally remove neighbor Chief Red Eagle (superbly underplayed by Wes Studi) and his family off their small adjacent homestead with the use of US Cavalry. Red Eagle's son-in-law, John Stockton, a one time suitor of Ike's daughter Mary, perhaps the only man that could reason with Ike, is ambushed, shot and left for dead by villainous road agents while on his way home from town. Ike's daughter Mary and her husband, Seth, operate the Sage Creek Station, a stagecoach stop on the road between Lush and Chadron. Ike disapproves how the two are raising their two young sons, and of course, feels Seth not good enough for his daughter. When their youngest son, Kit, becomes infected with scarlet fever and is not expected to recover, Ike's despondency intensifies. How these two families overcome their prejudices and the tragedies befalling them is capably told. This film will elicit a tear of two, as should any well-told Christmas story. David Carradine is at his best, supported by, arguably one of the best actors to portray an Indian, Wes Studi. Familiar names and faces sustaining these two veterans are Buck Taylor, Tracy Nelson, Michael Parks, Irene Beddard, and Tim Abell. The film, shot at Old Tucson Studios' Mescal movie site in Arizona, is directed by James Intveld, by a script written by Thadd Turner. Turner should be familiar to many of you. His well-researched, non-fiction book "Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood City – End of Trail" was reviewed and recommended by this author in a previous Cowboy Chronicle issue. Thadd was a national level competitor in Cowboy Action Shooting from 1995-2001 and was a contributing editor for True West Magazine from 2001-2003. Through his production company, Talmarc Productions, Turner produced this film and also served as stunt coordinator and co-lead wrangler. In fact, if you look close, you will see Turner as one of the US Cavalry troopers attempting to evict the Indian family. The film has been picked up by American World Pictures for distribution through Hallmark with a release date of January 2006. Check your local listings.

OK a hundred things wrong with this movie; and a hundred things right. But, in the end everything works out the way everyone wants. The high point of the film is David Carradine, an exceptionally under-rated actor. His character transformation is too sudden, but hey John Ford didn't direct this. There is nice cinematography and good acting all around, backed by a story that is fairly believable and satisfying. Wouldn't watch it again, but didn't feel cheated watching it this time.

Michael Landon's "Little House on the Prairie" is similar in concept, and "Miracle at Sage Creek" producers should have watched a few of those shows to learn how to make a viewer's heart feel a story. And too many production liberties were taken. For example, the only thing cold about the weather was the conversations about how cold it was.

I like a "feel-good" story, but it needed more showing and less telling. The characters simply were not developed very well, so it was difficult to share their troubles or feel great about the resolutions of those troubles. And time was wasted on meaningless "excusions". For example, we were given a rather lengthy introduction to the Judge's wife early, and then she never reappeared.

This is the kind of movie I like and pull for, but this one was B Rated at best.

Can a western be too nice? Yup, as much as I hate to say it here, because this a goodhearted, good-messaged film with good people and - yes, a touch of good Christianity, the fact remains it's a dull movie for the most part.

You need some kind of edge in a western and it's not here, at least in the first half of the film. If you're boring in the first 30-60 minutes, you're going to lose them.....even in a very nice movie like this one.

In a faith-based film, as this is, I don't expect nor want profanity or gory stuff, but you have to have some action and some villains that are more than just one old man carrying a grudge and acting a bit sour, as Keith Carradine does here. That isn't enough.

However, kudos for the effort and for bringing God into a positive light in a western movie. I was glad to at least support like that with my rental money. I also appreciated seeing nice kids, a nice mom and dad, and I always enjoy seeing Wes Studi. I wish he had a bigger role in here. The acting in here was fine, too.

There are a lot of good elements to this film, but it got off to such a slow start it lost me.

I'm watching the movie right now, so I don't know how it ends.

Um, Christmas-time in Wyoming, and there's green leaves, green grass, flowing water, shirt-sleeve attire, no breath fog.. meaning, it's not very cold in Lusk, Wyoming in December?? WHAT? The Indian woman was washing clothes outside, sleeves rolled up, in December, in Wyoming. Wyoming has long, wicked-cold, windy winters. That immediately took a lot of the reality away. It was filmed in Arizona, they should have just set the story there, as "Wyoming Territory" didn't have much to do with the story. There were homesteaders and Indians in Arizona, too. It's just too unbelievable. Maybe later it snows in the movie, but I've been to Wyoming, and seen it snow in JUNE, and I've been there in February and it was very cold and windy. Nobody went out in just light jackets.

They filmmakers must take us as people who all live in LA or NY, people who know nothing about geography and what places look like, and people who don't ever travel. I've seen some movies supposed to be Wyoming, but filmed in Canada, and you can't tell. The terrain in THIS movie didn't look at ALL like Wyoming.

Bad acting, especially the Grandfather Indian character. Unneeded choppy "Indian Accent". Words used I don't think someone new to the language would use.

Here's another: A mother and her son are sitting right by a fireplace that has a good crackling fire in it. She feels his head and determines he has a fever. How could she tell? Being a mother, I know better than to forehead-feel a kid for a fever when they're a few feet from a fire.

Snore.

You want a good western? See Lonesome Dove. See Tombstone. See Open Range. See anything else.