Tashunga

In Nome, Alaska, in the 1890s, the mining claim of Hudson Saanteek, deceased, is being auctioned off, only he's not really dead. Hudson is a 'half-breed' who wants to preserve land that belongs to the Indians who raised him. Meanwhile, Swedish immigrant Bjorn Svenson wants to claim the land where he has been mining for months, but immigrants are not allowed to have claims. He has to appeal to Sean McLennon, who seems to make the rules in this town and has plenty of money but could always use more. McLennon won't listen, because he despises immigrants as well as half-breeds, and anyone who stands in his way. Later, one of these two problems is dealt with by a kidnapping, and so begins a wintry wilderness adventure.

If you like scenes of sled dogs racing through the snow, this movie may be for you (though this wouldn't have been my first choice; it just happened to be on TV). There's lots of excitement once the adventure gets going, and some strange plot twists. James Caan made a deliciously evil and almost comical villain, at least at first. Later, he was just plain mean. The Indians talked mostly in a native language, which added to the realism, and I think most of them gave good performances. One Indian woman never said a word, and yet she could show emotion just with her face, even with very little movement. And one dog, who was listed in the credits as a wolf, even seemed to have a personality. Reidar Sorenson was also quite good as Bjorn, with a style that made me wonder if he has done Shakespeare.

Still, this is not that special, and maybe there have been movies like this which were done better.

Had "North Star" been made in the 1940's or 1950's and had starred John Wayne or Charlton Heston, it would have been hailed as an exciting wilderness adventure, featuring excellent chase sequences and solid characters. However, it was made in 1995, and while the story had a good deal of potential as a great, if mindless, adventure story, it unfortunately is too tame for modern viewers. They will probably be either very bored or just not interested. While the characters are effective and the story is loaded with some great stuff, it simply pales to films of its kind, including "Cliffhanger" and "White Fang."

That said, the cast is excellent, if a little miscast. James Caan is the villian, a man maddened by the isolated confounds of Nome Alaska. Having lived there for many years, I knew many people in his situation, and he does as a good a job as possible showing the effects such desolate surroundings can have on the human spirit. He nails the performance and shows why he's the celebrated actor that he is, and he makes dialogue such as "Nobody dies until I tell them to die!" sound miraculously believable.

Christopher Lambert also brings passion to the role of the half-breed Indian who is trying to protect his land from Caan. While it is obviously a miscast (he's part Eskimo like I'm Clark Gable!), he does a commendable job as a man torn between loyalties, protecting a land from a native people who don't necessarily trust him. I don't think he was the ideal choice for the role, simply because he's obviously French, but the subtly and haunted characteristics that he demonstrates here shows a great deal of flair and concern for making this film work.

Between he and Caan, not to mention an altogether underused Catherine McCormick, they almost manage to lift this tame adventure story above standards. Unfortunately, good perfomances can't save it. Only style and more over-the-top actions scenes would have, and that is where the movie is lacking. Still, it's not a bad film to watch during the dog-days of summer for a little pick-me-up.

**1/2 out of ****

RELEASED IN 1996 and directed by Nils Gaup, "North Star" is a Western that takes place in Nome, Alaska, during a gold rush in 1899. James Caan plays the love-to-hate mogul who denies mining claims to foreigners and attempts to kill a half-breed Indian (Christopher Lambert) for the claim to a cave filled with gold, which the Natives use in their ceremonies. The half-breed ends up abducting the mogul's woman, played by the beautiful Catherine McCormack, who you might remember as Wallace's doomed wife at the beginning of "Braveheart" (1995). The Winter chase is on!

There are elements of other Westerns here, like "Death Hunt" (1981), "Valdez is Coming" (1971), "The Far Country" (1954), "North to Alaska" (1960) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990), but that's to be expected. On the originality side, it's one of the few fully Winter Westerns of which I can remember beyond "The Great Silence" (1968) and "The Hateful Eight" (2015). Of course, films like "Will Penny" (1967), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "A Man Called Sledge" (1970) and a few others have some fairly long Winter sequences.

While Caan's villainy is too over-the-top for my tastes (although he does it well), I found "North Star" to be a well-done Western, except that the final 11 minutes or so feel rushed. As noted above, I was impressed that this was one of the first Westerns I've seen that focused exclusively on Winter conditions. It goes without saying that shooting in the snow is way more challenging than shooting in other seasons; and even more so if the locale is mountainous. The locations, sets and cast are all first-rate even while the storytelling has somewhat of a comic booky Grade B vibe.

But the filmmakers seemed to hurry the ending. Maybe they wanted to just complete the project and keep it under 90 minutes; or perhaps they weren't confident with the closing footage and awkwardly tried to "make it work" in the editing room. But it's not THAT bad and didn't ruin the experience for me. At the end of the day "North Star" is a worthwhile 'modern Western' that attempts something unique even while being a pastiche of the genre.

THE FILM RUNS 88 minutes and was shot in Norway. WRITERS: No less than five scripters are credited to adopting Heck Allen's novel.

GRADE: B-/C+ (5.5/10)

Sorry friends this is a frozen turkey; just it's an interesting turkey courtesy of Caan & Young. Years back they made two superior films- The Gambler & The Killer Elite. It's nice to seem them looking so good 25 years later even considering the material.

When the movie starts I started to think of Jimmy Stewart & Walter Brennan in The Far Country. Afterwards, Valdez is Coming. By the end it just freezes to death of its own weight. It's supposed to showcaset this Highlander guy but he doesn't even rise to the level of Steven Seagal.

I laughed and enjoyed Caan as a ruthless businessman turned psycho killer but somewhere Sonny Corleone is shaking his head. John McIntire too.

Businessman Sean McLennon is the president of the miners union. He has banned all non-Americans from staking claim to the land. Moreover he is killing off people in order to then buy their claims at auction. However when his men only wound Saanteek and kill an old Indian, Saanteek returns to take revenge on McLennon and to protect his land.

Why did I bother to tape this film? The film industry is a funny thing isn't it – James Caan was at his peak in Godfather and Rollerball, while Lambert had his `peak' with Highlander – but now they both wind up in this, although for Lambert he hasn't fallen too far. The story here is very basic and starts out very dry. Unfortunately it stays that way. The characters never get interesting and the plot never ever gets any tension involved at any level. The way the ending is forced into a face off is clumsy and typical of the whole film.

Caan is OK because he never seems to take it totally seriously – certainly the plot `twists' around his character are impossible to accept without laughing. Lambert is terrible – he seems to be saying all his lines through gritted teeth as if he has his jaw wired up! The rest of the cast are also poor but the leads being bad distract from that. The cast is wooden and even then they are put to shame by the wooden sets being better than them. The sets and costumes are good and set the period well – shame the film lets them down.

Overall this is totally lacking in interest, plot, characters and any sort of action or tension whatsoever. It's not total rubbish it's just made with no conviction, no passion and is worse than bad – it's just barely mediocre.