Desolation Canyon

I thought it was pretty darn decent western. I've seen a lot worse. I thought there were some great comedic moments. Edwin being a "rooster" was funny. I love Duffy and Steach. The woman who played the mom couldn't act her way out of a paper bag but otherwise, good entertainment.

Desolation Canyon is a great movie; however, don't watch it if you don't have an appreciation for movies or only see the worst in everything. I would imagine that those posting negative comments on this movie simply don't understand thoughtful writing and would be more receptive if the writers broke the mold of a western and never got it produced. If you enjoy Westerns with a little bit of thinking and a feeling of a good old fashioned moving picture, you will enjoy Desolation Canyon. If you enjoy your movies to have super-heroes, crazy special effects and astronomical budgets, you will NOT enjoy Desolation Canyon.

Desolation Canyon is a western that takes some of the themes from the John Wayne classic Big Jake and develops them a bit further. In fact it's quite the family tangle for Stacy Keach who essentially plays the Duke character and admirably fills his boots.

Some outlaws come to the town where Patrick Duffy is the sheriff and his old partner Stacy Keach lives in retirement and raising his two grandkids. The outlaws include his son who is the father of the grand children and on the way out of town grab the boy Drake Johnston.

The boy's mother Kelly Overton is divorced from the son Victor Browne and she's keeping company with David Rees Snell the town banker who is nearly killed in the robbery. He's an Easterner and insists accompanying Duffy and Keach.

In fact when the final showdown comes it's almost a relief because for what should be a straightforward story, the plot has an incredible amount of twists and turns. There are a couple of bounty hunters also on the trail with their own agenda, the outlaws have one aside from the robbery, it's all a bit hard to follow.

Still the players do very well in an extremely and needlessly convoluted story.

The movie is a double treat because it offers plenty to those (usually me) who like to nit pick at the flaws in a movie, and it also offers plenty to those who want to sit back and relax and enjoy the movie's complex plot, enjoyable characters and happy family ending (as I do for the film). To enjoy the many fine qualities of the movie, you have to shrug-off the many small absurdities and filler in the plot. For example the story tells us that the two leads are expert experienced outdoors-men and trackers, so I believe it. Thus, it doesn't bother me when I see some amateurish moves on their part — like letting some bad guys walk away from an encounter in a saloon; and being shot at in the open so many times and surviving unhurt. There are a lot of unlikely plot coincidences that I just brush off.

I know IMDb has its own method to get a rating average, but I think this film should have a higher average. I see that about 150 voters gave 6 or better, and about 75 gave it 5 or worse — so how did it end up with a 5.7 average? For me the movie is an unexpected pleasure. I agree with those who laugh at the stupid title to the movie, that has nothing to do with anything in the movie — "Desolation Canyon."

I give this TV movie 10 stars because it's a refreshing change of pace for a Hallmark movie!

Instead of a working woman romance which is the status quo for Hallmark movies these days, the main relationship in this film has to do with fathers and sons, and the story focuses on men more than women; while the acting may not be Emmy material, I still enjoyed the actors, from Courtney Gains to Patrick Duffy.

It's a standard story as far as westerns go and I wouldn't say the writing is awful, but it's not the same as older westerns from the '50s or '60s.

It's a clean movie with no sex, innuendos, or swear language; there is gun play of course, but that's to be expected in a western, yet it's not over-the-top, tough-guy action; all reasons why I enjoyed it for the 80 minutes it was on.

Thanks to the Starz Encore channel for airing it in high definition without commercials!