Les cavaliers de l'ombre

This should've been a better movie. Good actors, good production, but the music and overall tone are so whimsical and undercuts the drama. Ex: the music is 100% wrong for this. There are numerous fights and dramatic scenes in the whimsical fun music comes up and completely destroys the trauma of the scene. This would be a great candidate to be remade in the same seriousness of the book. Also, the camera work is so tight obviously a TV movie. They should've at least show the landscapes, and the grandeur of the west. That in itself is an important part of any great western, showing how small the combatants are against the landscape. Overall it's just an average TV movie.

So in spite of the caste, this is a mediocre made-for-TV movie. The plot has promise but the uninspired dialog drags it down. The background music doesn't contribute at all, rather it conflicts with the actions on screen. Who puts music more fitted to a comedy in a drama? It would have helped this movie a lot to have the correct background music.

The "bad guys" were presumably hired because of their ability to shoot straight and protect their nasty leader. But when it comes to a gun fight, these guys can't hit anything. It's pathetic. And of course the "good guys" can't miss. Still targets, moving targets, riders on speedy running horses at a great distance. Doesn't matter. They hit them all. And do it with old black power pistols at that. And I know the big name movie stars can't take risks on the set, but sometimes the doubles just don't look much like the heroes. And wearing the same clothes doesn't really help. This is an entertaining movie and that's what its all about. I just wish Hollywood would try a little harder to add some realism.

Good, old-fashioned western with two golden age actors, Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr., from the John Ford and John Wayne movies. Of course, Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross also know how to act and provide some entertaining characters.

Next, Dominique Dunne provides some interesting vignettes. Her homicide/murder soon after the movie was tragic and deprived us of a promising career. The movie is based on a Louis L'Amour western with the same name. The movie is good, but the book is much better. The character Colonel Hammond (Gene Evans) is a sailor and gun runner in both, but he is also Kate Connery's relative in the book. This is a major area where the movie deviates from the book.

Being a huge fan of Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot in westerns, I have to say that I was underwhelmed with the show. I actually bought the DVD just because it had Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot AND was a Louis L'Amour story. I had not heard of it but figured I couldn't go wrong. While the combination of Selleck, Elliot and L'Amour should have been golden, they turned out to be brass. The production value was very "television" (it was made for TV). It is what it is in that regard. However the action sequences were (IMHO) amateur. The hero knocks out the bad guy with one punch. The bad guys never see the hero's sneaking through the bushes in broad daylight. It just had a typical 80's TV show feel to it. I still felt it was worth the purchase for Selleck and Elliot even if the story and production didn't support them very well.