Jericho

We own a videos shop so we preview a lot of movies and we get very bored with bad ones very quickly. I found this film to be a wonderful film made the way good westerns were. It has many good values taught through out it; by people/characters trying to do what they feel is right. It doesn't fixate on violence with all sorts of meet me at high noon on Main Street for a shoot out. That isn't to say there isn't any bad guys in it, and there are shootouts. It is more real than that. I didn't feel it dragged it covered seven years of a man's life in a short space of time. Sum it up this way, my daughter who isn't into westerns and my husband who is both enjoyed it and that says a lot.

It's amazing to see how different people can have such varying opinions of the same movie. One rated it a 10 and called it a great "family" film. I guess they missed out on the scenes about the man getting his head blown off with a shotgun or the rape or the hanging. And some rated it a 1. Come on! It wasn't going to win an academy award, but it was entertaining. I think it was somewhere in the middle. I just found interesting that Jericho could make it through all he did, spend all that time on the trail and remain so good looking and clean shaven.

Mark Valley (who?) stars as a cowpoke suffering from amnesia, trying to regain his memory in this low-budget STV job shot on location in Texas and New Mexico. Along the way, he works as a cattle drover, a gold panner and a ranch hand before discovering his true identity in a twist ending. One thing for sure: he knows how to handle a pistol, and does so frequently in this gritty but clichéd western. The costumes and general look of the characters and settings feel authentic enough. What's missing is a Sam Elliott or Tom Selleck to give the movie a certain zing. I will say I stuck with it to find out the guy's true identity, which for most viewers likely will come as a complete surprise.

I saw this movie in a theater, with a Q&A by the director, in Springfield, MO, which is one of the places the director calls home and where one of the actors (Woody P. Snow, a local radio DJ) is from. It was a decent movie for its essentially shoe-string budget. Not really what you'd call a Western...it's more of a character study or psychological drama that dresses itself in Western trappings. (Sort of like how "Little House on the Prairie" was set in the west without having the constant gunfights and things that you associate with a Western.) It also had a few problems with the pacing, particularly toward the end where it suddenly and without warning drops into a 15-minute flashback. Had a few interesting ideas in it, though...particularly in regard to how what you think you see at the beginning isn't what you really see at all.

Mark Valley did a good job of portraying a man trying to figure out who he is. Leon Coffee became an instant likeable character and did a very good job. R. Lee Ermey did the job that would be expected of someone who can portray a great bit character on a constant basis. Of course Buck Taylor did his great job as always and you learn quickly to like the character he plays. Mark Collie improves with each film he is in. Once again he can surprise you with the character in him. The storyline was great and it took me almost a third of the way in to start realizing what was going on. You couldn't stop watching it just to see the ending. A couple of odd part were left hanging but I really don't think they would have made a difference in the production. This was a very enjoyable western and for our time now it was completed with good thought and acting. Rare nowadays with all the blood and guts being shown. You'll enjoy it.