Hawken's Breed

This movie is the reason I no longer rent titles that are unknown to me. This was so poorly done and acted that it appears that it was done in someone's back yard in one afternoon. Video tape jackets are like movie previews, they sure make the movie look good until you see it.

I thought this DVD was really going to be bad due to many of the reviews here but I ended up finding this film quite watchable so hence gave it a rating of 6.

It is a Western that one can just sit back and relax with.. no big long loud gun fights (they happen quite quick in this film, so if you like a lot of action, this isn't the film for you).

It's easy watching as you don't have to put any thought into anything. A film that one can watch and relax to when tired while in bed just before sleep or fall asleep to and then get up the next day and finish watching it. Someone commented they didn't like the music in it but I liked the peaceful music.

I do agree thou that there is some very bad acting in this film eg in one part there was someone with life threatening injury and his son had a bit of a smile/smirk on his face when the guy is talking about it and of wanting revenge.

I didn't at all mind the story line thou it was quite a typical one.

Worth a watch if you aren't watching with high expectation of action and just want to veg out in bed or on a sofa and relax to a western and can over look some faults.

If you want a complete waste of time, because pulling lint out of your belly button or cleaning the wax out of your ears or grouting your tile is your idea of a carnival thrill ride, then you'll not want to miss this one.

For one thing, forget the VHS cover. NO body in this movie looks that attractive (ie, the Indian girl). Someone else commented that whoever posed for the cover is not the same girl and I agree. The cover is THE most exciting thing about this movie.

To put this in perspective, I bought this VHS for 99 cents at K-Mart and three minutes, no, 40 seconds into the movie, I knew I had been ripped off.

I finished watching it because 1) I did pay 99 cents after all and, 2)there might possibly, conceivably been a hair of chance some scene in this turkey was worth more than a pinched loaf.

There wasn't.

Good grief, Fonda. I know you were hard up for roles when you did this, but this is beneath you.

My review was written in February 1990 after watching the movie on Vidmark video cassette.

"Hawken's Breed" is an "Eastern"; a 19th-century tale of frontiersmen set in Tennessee. Minor pic played briefly last fall on its home turf in Nashville and currently is a home video title.

Peter Fonda is comfortably cast as a beaver trapper who falls in love with the beautiful Shawnee girl Serene Hedin. Unfortunately, she already "belongs" to mean trading post owner Jack Elam. A feud erupts when Hawken steals her away.

Atmospherically lensed story is slowly paced, and there is an unfinished quality about the film, which relies too heavily on voice-over to spin the yarn.

Bearded Fonda perfectly fits his role. Character actors Seamon Glass, Elam and Bill Thurman do a fine job building authenticity.

This isn't just a turkey, it's turkeysaurus, mount turkeyest, the turkeyiana trench, turkey t-rex. One of the absolute stinkiest stinkers of all stinkiness. Absolutely unwatchable excepting as a drinking game. Some suggested rules would be every over-exaggerated use of the close-up - take a drink. Every time you physically cringe at how bad Peter Fonda's acting is- take a drink. Every time a gun goes off with no recoil - take a drink. For every awful awful line uttered by Spirit in perfect SATs English that makes you laugh - take a drink.

Drunk is the only way this might be viewable. If you live in California and has a medical prescription, then this should keep you laughing for about two weeks.

It is rare to see a film that achieves the unique distinction of being truly bad in ALL areas: directing, acting, script, make-up, costuming - but Hawken's? It be that bad.

Deserves cult status.