O Purgatório

Purgatory is a little gem of a movie of which i really enjoyed. I am always a little weary of TV movies they nearly always teld to have low budget scripts and low budget acting but not this film. The film is about a gang of outlaws who ride into a town way in the middle of nowhere. The occupants are over hospitable and are extremely law abiding,they dont carry guns and they visit the church every day. The bandits start to take advantage of their hosts genourosity and start tearing up the town. This is when the residents true identities are revealed. Great entertainment. 8 out of 10.

Outlaws heading for Mexico stumble across a small town called Refuge, where no one carries a weapon and everyone welcomes strangers with open arms. Problem is, these outlaws aren't having any of it, and decide to burn down the place. Refuge, as we quickly discover, is actually the Purgatory of the Bible, and is populated by such western stalwarts as Wild Bill Hicock and Doc Holliday. For these familiar figures, there is a vexsome problem: if they take to violence, they will get shipped off to Hell post-haste. What's a man to do? A wonderful TV western, fanciful and dramatic at the same time. Several familiar actors including Sam Shepherd (erroneously listed as Sam Elliott on some electronic TV guides), Eric Roberts and Randy Quaid keeps things hopping.

This is pretty much a pleasant - albeit unspectacular - film. It is very watchable with a predictable fantasy theme running through it.

The theme of people realising that they are at some sort of halfway house between Heaven and Hell, awaiting divine judgement, is not new and has been well portrayed in earlier films. This film however, reworks the formula in a western setting. It is certainly watchable and is quite well made for a TV movie.

Purgatory is a conscience western you can compare to 'Unforgiven', or more likely 'Pale Rider.' It seems adapted from a scifi short story, meaning it is not dominated by its wild west setting.

Someone at TNT Originals has a great skill for making movies for the small screen. They can port a plot from the big screen and scale it down to the small screen. They reduce it from "larger than life" size to "life" size. That's what you get with this movie 'Purgatory.' It's a TV movie with characters that are serious but not ridiculous, a pace that's neither too fast nor too slow, a soundtrack that unique but not overbearing, and is a story that is epic but understated. This movie is a rare gem in TV viewing: something that makes you feel good about watching TV.

This film starts out with a band of desperadoes led by "Blackjack Britton" (Eric Roberts) who decide to rob the bank in a town called "Sweetwater". What they don't anticipate is that while they are robbing the bank the U.S. Cavalry happens to also ride into town. A gunfight ensues and the bandits hightail it out of town as fast as they can with a large posse chasing after them. The further they ride the more desperate they become and eventually lose all of the money they had stolen. Then they encounter a dust storm and when they finally ride through it they come upon a town called "Refuge" which is well off the beaten path. At first they decide to keep a low profile but then they notice that nobody in the town is armed. Not content with simply accepting the town's hospitality they soon decide to force themselves upon it. But what they don't realize is that this is no ordinary town. And the townsfolk are not run-of-the-mill people either. Anyway, rather than disclosing the mystery of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is not an ordinary western. The acting is decent and Amelia Heinie (as "Rose") certainly lent some nice scenery. But what made this film so unusual was the unique storyline which was quite intriguing. All things considered then, although the end was somewhat predictable the movie managed to keep my attention for the most part and I rate it as slightly better than average.