Grand Nord

Despite being made by one of Hollywood's most prominent film companies (Regency), and starring James Caan and Christopher Lambert, the distributor (Warner Brothers) doesn't seem to have done much (if anything) in the way of a theatrical release, at least on this side of the ocean. Seeing the movie for myself, I think I can understand why. It's not a TERRIBLE movie - the scenery looks nice at times, and the movie is never boring - but it comes across as flat. Lambert is his usual vanilla self, and Caan at times doesn't seem to be taking this acting assignment with much seriousness. There appear to have been cuts made to the story, either in the screenplay stage or in the editing room, which leads some parts of the movie to be somewhat incoherent or without proper explanation. One explanation for this may be that this movie was a co-production between FOUR countries - maybe details got lost in the constant translation between the parties. The movie obviously had a limited budget, which explains why the movie lacks visual depth and scope at times, often resembling a made-for-TV movie. And in the last part of the movie, Caan's character starts doing some ludicrous things that no man with sense would do in his situation. You are not missing much if you skip by this movie at your video store.

In Nome, Alaska, in the 1890s, the mining claim of Hudson Saanteek, deceased, is being auctioned off, only he's not really dead. Hudson is a 'half-breed' who wants to preserve land that belongs to the Indians who raised him. Meanwhile, Swedish immigrant Bjorn Svenson wants to claim the land where he has been mining for months, but immigrants are not allowed to have claims. He has to appeal to Sean McLennon, who seems to make the rules in this town and has plenty of money but could always use more. McLennon won't listen, because he despises immigrants as well as half-breeds, and anyone who stands in his way. Later, one of these two problems is dealt with by a kidnapping, and so begins a wintry wilderness adventure.

If you like scenes of sled dogs racing through the snow, this movie may be for you (though this wouldn't have been my first choice; it just happened to be on TV). There's lots of excitement once the adventure gets going, and some strange plot twists. James Caan made a deliciously evil and almost comical villain, at least at first. Later, he was just plain mean. The Indians talked mostly in a native language, which added to the realism, and I think most of them gave good performances. One Indian woman never said a word, and yet she could show emotion just with her face, even with very little movement. And one dog, who was listed in the credits as a wolf, even seemed to have a personality. Reidar Sorenson was also quite good as Bjorn, with a style that made me wonder if he has done Shakespeare.

Still, this is not that special, and maybe there have been movies like this which were done better.

RELEASED IN 1996 and directed by Nils Gaup, "North Star" is a Western that takes place in Nome, Alaska, during a gold rush in 1899. James Caan plays the love-to-hate mogul who denies mining claims to foreigners and attempts to kill a half-breed Indian (Christopher Lambert) for the claim to a cave filled with gold, which the Natives use in their ceremonies. The half-breed ends up abducting the mogul's woman, played by the beautiful Catherine McCormack, who you might remember as Wallace's doomed wife at the beginning of "Braveheart" (1995). The Winter chase is on!

There are elements of other Westerns here, like "Death Hunt" (1981), "Valdez is Coming" (1971), "The Far Country" (1954), "North to Alaska" (1960) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990), but that's to be expected. On the originality side, it's one of the few fully Winter Westerns of which I can remember beyond "The Great Silence" (1968) and "The Hateful Eight" (2015). Of course, films like "Will Penny" (1967), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "A Man Called Sledge" (1970) and a few others have some fairly long Winter sequences.

While Caan's villainy is too over-the-top for my tastes (although he does it well), I found "North Star" to be a well-done Western, except that the final 11 minutes or so feel rushed. As noted above, I was impressed that this was one of the first Westerns I've seen that focused exclusively on Winter conditions. It goes without saying that shooting in the snow is way more challenging than shooting in other seasons; and even more so if the locale is mountainous. The locations, sets and cast are all first-rate even while the storytelling has somewhat of a comic booky Grade B vibe.

But the filmmakers seemed to hurry the ending. Maybe they wanted to just complete the project and keep it under 90 minutes; or perhaps they weren't confident with the closing footage and awkwardly tried to "make it work" in the editing room. But it's not THAT bad and didn't ruin the experience for me. At the end of the day "North Star" is a worthwhile 'modern Western' that attempts something unique even while being a pastiche of the genre.

THE FILM RUNS 88 minutes and was shot in Norway. WRITERS: No less than five scripters are credited to adopting Heck Allen's novel.

GRADE: B-/C+ (5.5/10)

North Star is unique for a European western in that it's set in Alaska, far from the sun baked deserts of the southwest. Everything else is disappointingly typical.

Caan plays a black-hearted land baron in 1899 Alaska who's systematically murdered and cheated his way into being the owner of the largest goldmines in the area. He tries to kill Lambert, a half Eskimo who had the good sense to file a claim on his people's sacred (and gold rich) cave.

It isn't boring but a chase movie where Christopher Lambert squares off against James Caan and Burt Young in a savage frontier battle for survival should have generated more heat than this, especially being that this is co-written by Sergio Donati, who also helped pen For A Few Dollars More and Once Upon A Time In The West!

It's pretty straight forward and unpretentious but it made me wish it were more compelling. The characters were pretty cardboard, though Caan seems to be having some fun swinging back and forth between greedy and treacherous to insane and out of control.

Also, everyone appears to be under-dressed. This movie takes place in Nome, Alaska during a snowstorm but everyone's dressed like it's Fall.

Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson were better in Death Hunt, watch that one first!

Sorry friends this is a frozen turkey; just it's an interesting turkey courtesy of Caan & Young. Years back they made two superior films- The Gambler & The Killer Elite. It's nice to seem them looking so good 25 years later even considering the material.

When the movie starts I started to think of Jimmy Stewart & Walter Brennan in The Far Country. Afterwards, Valdez is Coming. By the end it just freezes to death of its own weight. It's supposed to showcaset this Highlander guy but he doesn't even rise to the level of Steven Seagal.

I laughed and enjoyed Caan as a ruthless businessman turned psycho killer but somewhere Sonny Corleone is shaking his head. John McIntire too.