Le Clan des Sacketts

I wanted to like this movie, but I only found it fair. Nothing new here in regards to a Western film. While the story concept was passable, the dialogue was mediocre at best, except for a few fleeting moments. Glenn Ford stood out briefly, but then overplayed his role and his death scene was way over the top and it was clear as day that a stunt man did the falls for the over 60 Ford. Most of the cast was wooden, stiff and either underplayed or overplayed their parts. Of course this was a television movie and for that, it was entertaining enough on a rainy night or a night with nothing much to do. Like I said, nothing new here.

....you know, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Jack Elam, Sam Elliot, Shug Fisher, James Gammons, etc etc LQ Jones etc. Episodic kinda nature of the show keeps your interest, esp. when you see Sam Elliot come onto the screen.

Nothing ground breaking, but check it out if you like either L'amour or Tom Selleck at the least.

*** outta ****.

Hollywood western so often just leave really behind, but this movie is different. The sets, scenery and buildings really added a lot of realism. Also I liked that the riders lead pack horses, got dirty and didn't always run around clean shaved. Riders didn't leave their horses loose but tied them up and ran out of ammunition and had to reload. Again realistic. The plot has a few holes and leaves some questions unanswered but even if you don't get all fired up about the story, just watching for the set designs is worth it. Firearms, saddles, building construction and costumes for the most part were period correct. And for the most part, the named actors rarely used stand-ins. In my younger days, I had the chance to ride with Slim Pickens, and that man could ride!

This is pretty much standard Western fare with a cattle drive, gold prospecting, town taming and gun play. Sam Elliot, Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage play the three Sackett brothers. The oldest one, Tell (Elliot) is the one looking for gold. In the meantime, the other two leave their home in Tennessee and head west, hooking up with a cattle drive. When the cattle are delivered, they head to racially divided Santa Fe to help a beautiful Mexican senorita whose family is threatened by a dishonest businessman.

Much of the strength of this story lies in the supporting cast, including Western veterans Glenn Ford, Ben Johnson, Jack Elam, Slim Pickens and Gene Evans. Ford is Tom Sunday, ramrod of the cattle drive. He and the two younger Sacketts go into business together rounding up stray cattle before taking them to Santa Fe. Then Sunday's relationship with the Sackett boys begins to spiral downward, and when Orrin (Selleck) gets the sheriff job Sunday has his heart set on, a grudge develops that will not abate. Ben Johnson is a hoot as Cap Roundtree. He was going to join in the stray cattle venture, but when he meets up with Tell, his eyes light up with gold fever and off they go to the mountains. Elam, Pickens and Evans are the Bigelows. They aim to get revenge against Tell for the slaying of their brother and this leads to the final confrontation. Elam, with his long handlebar mustache and black garb, including gloves, looks especially menacing.

The Sacketts is not the best Western to come along, but it is always a pleasure to watch those guys who appeared in so many of the bygone classics and have since passed on.

The best part of the Sacketts is the cast. Including 5 members of the Western Performers Hall of Fame. Sam Elliott ( Tell Sackett), Tom Selleck ( Orrin Sackett), Glenn Ford ( Tom Sunday), Ben Johnson ( Cap) and Jack Elam, so it is fair to say the producers put an effort into casting. The funny thing is though the main character is the youngest brother Tyrel ( Jeff Osterhage), and he is the one who obviously is not well known like the others. I also give the producers credit by casting actual Mexicans Gilbert Roland as Mexicans Don Luis and Ana Alicia as his granddaughter Drusilla. It certainly helps when it comes to the authenticity of the characters. While The Sacketts was well above average, the thing that prevented it from being great was too many open plot lines. I actually went to Wikipedia and found out that Tyrel married Drusilla in the book, and Orrin was definitely not as lucky with the woman he fell for ( Laura) . In the film she ended up in a saloon serving drinks and in the books she married him and tried to have him killed.. if they would have spent more time on Drusilla it would have improved the movie because the Drusilla scenes with Tyrel were some of the strongest in the movie. Anyway, I give it 8/10 stars mostly for the cast.