O Aventureiro do Oeste

This is one of the best "true Westerns" ever, a tribute to the faithfulness of the makers to the book, and the labor of love done by the makers (Sam Elliott and Catherine Ross themselves). Sam and Catherine stuck to the text for the script, despite PC pressures to change some scenes.

The depth of love and respect for the original is also conveyed by the gracious touch of having Louis L'Amour's daughter portraying the starting-over former saloon girl stuck in the Indian battle at the stage station. The casting is near-perfect, even if most of them were the Elliott's good friends (and several were in Sam's other films).

The realistic look at ranch hand life strikes chords of memory with Monty Walsh. The action scenes were more reality-based than the 50's through 70's Westerns, such as the primitive look of the final saloon fight scene. And the costumes look straight out of a Matthew Brady photo book of a Western settlement, with the characters showing the dirt and grit which true pioneers experienced.

The developing love story between Con and Evie is beautifully captured by the camera, often without a word, as "the eyes tell the story". Ross plays the part perfectly of the dutiful, faithful frontier wife. And you "feel her pain" as she struggles with loneliness, and his as he struggles with an identity crisis and feelings of inadequacy to be the husband of a woman so noble. Sam deserved the Golden Globe for Best Actor he won, with a quietly powerful portrayal of the honest cowpoke.

All in all, a delightful and classically beautiful story of the Old West. I grew up in one of the last Western towns to "go modern", a real cow town which experienced some of the last (and biggest) gun battles in US history. This movie made me proud to be from my home area.

An exemplary Western in the tradition of "Shane". Conn Conagher is my kind of man... tough, courageous and most of all honorable... and Sam Elliott who is the epitome of "cool", plays him to the bone!

This movie has the feel of how it really was in the West back then with authentic dialog, scenery, dress and props of the time. It has a well written script with action, drama and warmth. For true Western fans, I recommend it highly.

I can hardly put into words ,my love for this movie.I have seen it at least 50 times.I wore out the first video and have started on my second one.

I am a great fan of Louis L'amour and the making of this book into a film was one of the best things that could have happened,for me.

The cast and crew could not have been better picked. The roles of Evie and Conagher could not have been better done than with the husband and wife team of Sam Elliott and Katherine Ross.

I am transported to the old west every time I watch this movie.I suppose I like it so much because the book does the same thing when I read it.It is a movie to enjoy time and time again.

Based on the novel by Louis L'Amour. Rustlers, a cattle baron or two, a homesteader who dies in an accident on his way to town, a bashful lonesome cowboy, a lonesome widow and her two lonesome kids, questions of loyalty and integrity, a stage line establishing its route through the district, and of course the laconic dialogue that marks the Western as a man's man type of movie. But this is really High Romance. Elliot plays the knight in tarnished armour, Ross is the Lady in need of rescue, and it all plays out with a minimum of gore and a maximum of historical realism. Good movie. ***

This was a solid lower-key Louis L'Amour-written western, meaning a little bit less action than the normal film of its genre. The action scenes they did have in here were short, too.

This is mainly a movie with several stories weaved in it: 1 - Cowhands slowly being sifted out as the times change and they are no longer needed; 2 - traitors among the main group, men who go to a competing gang of rustlers; 3 - a story of a lonely widow who has to take care of two kids after he husband disappears (killed).

Katharine Ross is the mother ("Evie Teale") who turns cook at a lonely stagecoach stop that also is being eliminated. She is a good woman, and it's nice to see the female star of "Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid" still looking good out there is the prairie over 20 years later. Also refreshing to see was her young boy "Laban," one of the nicest, most respectful kids I've ever seen on film: the exact opposite of the many brats I've seen on film in the last quarter of the 20th century. Cody Braun was excellent as the son, and, that's the only movie role he ever played.

The man "Evie" eventually falls for is the hero of the film, "Conagher," played by Sam Elliott. If anyone in the modern era of films ever looked like he was born to play a cowboy, it has to be Elliott. He has the weathered looks and the voice that go perfectly with westerns.

Overall, this is another beautifully-photographed, nice story and a real "keeper" for those who love a good fim of this genre.