Yellow Rock

The historical information questionable, which was displayed in the narrative by the native American at the beginning of the movie (Was it the white man who began scalping, or the native American?...Did the native Americans really live in PEACE before the white came?...Seems that they were always fighting with other and taking other tribal members into slavery...) Also, the dialog was not good, the Dr.'s outfit seemed tailored, the boards were cut mostly clean through as with a table saw or ban saw, the intonation of the dialog was inappropriate, and the Dr.'s hair was dyed red...she looked too old to have non-gray hair. Also, the guy who drank all the time clearly tried to take after Val Kilmer in Tombstone...very bad imitation. The tribe coming at the end and shooting the one man without even knowing what happened with the others seemed a little strange. I think I wasted my money.

"I don't give a damn about those Indians, all I care about is finding my brother and the boy." When Max Dietrich's (Russo) brother and son go missing he sets out to find them. When he gets to the town of Yellow Rock he hires Tom Hanner (Biehn) to guide him to where his brother is. After meeting up with a doctor and getting permission from the tribe's elders they set out on the path to find them. Against the wishes of the Indian guide with them they pass through a sacred burial ground. I'll save you the "western genre is dead" speech, but again this is another movie that isn't terrible but is a B-movie at best. The idea is neat and the cast actually has people that I've heard of but like most westerns lately this one is very slow moving and not really worth watching more then once. Little by little it seems like western movies are starting to get better, but at this pace it will have a full revival in the year 2067. Overall, not as bad as most of the new westerns that have been made and worth watching, but don't expect amazing. I give it a B-.

This film begins with five cowboys riding into a sleepy town somewhere in the Southwest and upon dismounting head to the local saloon. Once inside the leader of the group named "Max Dietrich" (James Russo) inquires about the location of a man named "Tom Hanner" (Michael Biehn) and upon finding out heads over to the local church. Its then that Max asks Tom to help him and his companions to find his brother and son who have disappeared a week ago somewhere in Indian Territory. Tom agrees and realizing that he must first get permission from the Tribal elders goes to see a woman by the name of "Sarah Taylor" (Lenore Andriel) who has won the trust and confidence of that specific tribe. But what neither Tom nor Sarah realize is that Max hasn't told them the entire truth and that selfless actions will soon have real consequences. Now rather than reveal the rest of the story I will just say that this turn out to be a rather typical Western film produced during this time period which consists of lesser known actors working within the framework of a rather thin and politically correct plot which makes heavy use of certain stereotypes. Not surprisingly, it isn't one of the better Westerns ever produced. It does, I suppose, have some entertaining value and for that reason I have rated it as just slightly below average.

I keep looking for any Michael Biehn film available because I do like the man's talent and choices of work. Reminds me a lot of Heath Ledger as he takes chances and is never disappointing in his choices even if the film itself doesn't come up to par.

Yellow Rock is somewhere in between a good film and a fair film. Story line could be stronger with more emphasis on Biehn's character. I felt he delivered as much as he could but felt the script fell short in giving him more to do. It seems he started out well and along the way was forgotten about. We got too caught up in the villains and the gold. Sort of a Treasure of Sierra Madre with out the script and/or characters to back it up.

The female lead was not a good choice. She seemed out of place, not belonging in the time era. Too modern or something. Her acting was okay, but not strong enough to carry the film as certainly they didn't give Biehn anything to do to carry the film.

So I give this a 5 for scenery, Michael Biehn and the Old West.

An off beat western with occasional entertaining scenes.