David_Porta

I saw this so long ago, when it was first on TV, and I have never forgotten that I really did enjoy it, and that it starred James Brolin (who I knew from the big-screen movie, "Westworld").

It is not a shoot 'em up western. It's not a cowboy movie, despite the title.

It is set in a contemporary rural America. I forgot the plot, but ReelzChannel.com says it is about ex ghetto teacher Brolin hiring rodeo guy Danson to fix up the ranch he has moved to; and the conflict with the locals.

Mainly, I remember this for Brolin's character and performance having a quiet, contemplative vibe, his being a guy who wants peace, is slow to anger, and harbors no ill will. A man of stillness and deep integrity.

And cinematography with beautiful country images. Fir trees. Barn. Boulder overlooking mountain vistas. And the overall presentation evoking a love of the country life out west.

If it makes its way back to the land of broadcast or video, it is worth catching.

The last episode of Season 1 of "Cheers" aired 31 March 1983, exactly one month prior to this TV movie.

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Vote for it here - tvshowsondvd.com/shows/Trials-OBrien/4368

Middle-aged, saddled with alimony, and a gambling habit. This is a lawyer show?

It was a lawyer show, but a far cry from The Defenders or Perry Mason, which were the successful lawyer shows that preceded it. Where there's a market for 1, there's a market for 2 or 3 or 4...but with a twist to distinguish each one. Where Perry Mason was a whodunit, The Defenders gave us a weekly sermon on some hifalutin liberal social issue. But O'Brien? He was just trying to keep the wolf from his door. On CBS. The Tiffany Network.

I was 11 years old when this was on, so my bedtime was no longer 7pm. Now it was 9pm. This was an hour show that aired at 8:30. But I would have been more inclined to watch The Rifleman or Ensign Pulver or Burke's Law or The Man from U.N.C.L.E., anyway. Or The Outer limits, or Space Family Robinson, or Batman.

But this was what Mom and Dad wanted to watch. Mom was a fan of Peter Falk's, and she would always tell us he had a glass eye. Dad, after the war in the late '40s, lived in Greenwich Village studying art at the Art Students League, and he used to hang out in the White horse Tavern tossing the bull with the other young turks, his drinking buddies, of whom Peter Falk was one.

For me, as a boy, it, Trials of O'Brien, was what was on TV. And sometimes I was allowed to stay up and watch.

So, from an 11-year old's perspective...

This show had a really hilarious opening sequence every week, in which the protagonist, a New York City street lawyer who likes hanging out with his cronies (and gambling) is in a floating crap game that gets raided by the police, and you see the cops rushing in, and all the miscreants, of which our lawyer protagonist is one, dispersing and fleeing the authorities. Very funny stuff! Opening sequence. Every week.

Also funny was that this was no Brooks Brothers -wearing, respectable, successful-wealthy attorney like the lawyers on The Defenders and Perry Mason were. This was a street lawyer who was always behind on his alimony payments, and his ex-wife would be pestering him to fork over. So, when he WOULD get a case, he didn't get to hold on to the paycheck for very long.

That's it. That was the character. This was a show about a working-class guy who had passed the bar exam. His main connection to Columbo would be the seedy appearance. But Columbo was a straight arrow family man dedicated public servant. O'Brien is closer to Joe Pesci's character in My Cousin Vinnie, but older, and more inclined to hanging out with his cronies than a girlfriend. But, like Cousin Vinnie, this was a legal mystery show cloaked in comedy. And, like Cousin Vinnie, O'Brien was loaded with New York City atmosphere.

And what a boat-load of talent from week to week!

DIRECTORS. Richard Donner. Abner Biberman.

GUEST CAST - ACTRESS. Faye Dunaway. Jessica Walter. Estelle Parsons. Cloris Leachman. Tammy Grimes. Barbara Barrie. Joanna Pettet. Britt Ekland. Zohra Lampert. Alice Ghostley. Sheila MacRae. Angela Lansbury. Rita Moreno.

GUEST CAST - ACTOR. Gene Hackman. Frank Langella. Martin Sheen. Alan Alda. Charles Grodin. David Carradine. Robert Blake. Roger Moore. Robert Loggia. Tony Musante. Nehemiah Persoff. Lou Jacobi. Norman Fell. Harold J. Stone. Alejandro Rey. Barnard Hughes. Philip Bosco. Vincent Gardenia. Kenneth Mars. Reni Santoni ("Poppy" on Seinfeld). David Doyle. Dana Elcar. Michael Constantine. Conrad Bain. Thayer David. Simon Oakland. Tony Roberts. Frank Converse. Claude Akins. Theodore Bikel. Brock Peters. Jack Albertson. Will Geer. Pat Hingle. Buddy Hackett. Mischa Auer. Milton Berle. Burgess Meredith.

...to name a few.

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An excellent war story (a tragedy), engagingly told, that illustrates the meaning of SNAFU, while showing the heroic bravery of the fighting man, and the sober efforts of his field officers. I saw this on the big screen when it first came out. Now on DVD in a variety of options. As part of the World War II Heroes Film Collection (Run Silent, Run Deep / The Great Escape / The Battle of Britain / A Bridge Too Far) at a pretty good price coming to under seven bucks per movie. Or under five bucks per flick as part of the United Artists 30-Disc Deluxe Giftset. Support IMDb and click on the IMDb link to shop.

A British production, based on the bestselling 1974 book, A Bridge Too Far, by Cornelius Ryan (and faithful to the bestselller's tsunami of detail, a montage of fragments that spell "war" -- fragment: white robed inmates of a bombed mental institution drift through the woods like wraiths) beautifully directed by Richard Attenborough. Loaded with big name stars in every major role and minor roles, too. This is fun to watch, just for that alone, historic facticity aside.

D-Day had turned the war around. The German army was on the run. Enter Field Marshal Montgomery's folly. Operation Market-Garden: an army, 35,000 Allied airborne, with vehicles and artillery, dropped in the Dutch countryside still occupied by Germans. Goal: take five bridges and the road connecting them so Montgomery's Second Army would triumphantly reach the last bridge at Arnhem, thence into Germany. All the bridges but Arnhem Bridge were taken.

If only everything had gone strictly by schedule, it would have worked, but 75% of Montgomery's plan was left to chance. For example. Supply drops and reinforcements delayed by weather. Break-down in radio communication. German panzer divisions resting in Arnhem because it was "a peaceful sector where nothing was happening" -- a deadly coincidence, that. And so on. A week later, Operation Market-Garden became a withdrawal, after the Allies lost 17,000 troops.

A bit of trivia not mentioned (as of this moment) in the IMDb trivia page for this flick? This was a pivotal film for Sean Connery's agent. Other major movie stars signed on to be in the movie -- at respectable movie star salaries -- only after hearing that Connery had been signed for the film, and that they would be in a film with Sean Connery (so cool for them). Connery HAD been signed to the movie, the first star the producers got, but at 60% what the other stars ended up getting. Connery's agent underestimated Connery's worth.

So, Mr. Connery, what did you do when you found out what a bad deal your agent had secured for you? "I didn't pay my agent commission, and I sacked him." Heh. seanconneryonline.net/art_af0589.htm Jeopardy answer: "What typewriter was strapped to Cronkite's body when he parachuted into Europe during WWII?"