Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Broken Trail


I finished watchin' part two last night of this really good TV show called "Broken Trail" on the AMC channel. It was a two part series starting on Sunday night with "limited" commercials (which was nice). I highly recommend this TV western. Not your typical western of shoot-em-ups (though there are some), but a real story telling experience. Turns out some of it is based on historical events too, which I did not know until the end of the show.
One of the things I liked about the show was the cinematography. Some of the filters they used to get the "golden sunsets" were a bit too much, but some of the scenes were very nicely filmed. There was one scene in particular that looked like an early morning shot with a golden glow of a bunch of horses roaming in a field of hay with their breath showing in the cold morning air. Nice.
The acting was terrific, with Robert Duval stealing the spotlight (well earned too). Thomas Hayden Church also did a great job, but his character was a bit flat and one-sided. But in the moments where he took charge he did a great job.
AMC is going to re-broadcast this (probably more than once) on July 6th (mark your calendars) and I highly recommend it. It's not just another "Clint Eastwood" western. Duval was Duval, a hard nosed tough guy with a heart of gold. I have one criticism though... the "showdown" with the bad guy was a bit anticlimactic and short.
What I don't understand is how this quality show was headed right for TV. This should have been on the big screen.

Here's the official website on AMC

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I watched the movie and loved it as well-great acting, great scenery and a wonderful story. In fact, I cheated a bit and read the novel by Alan Geoffrion first (saw something about this in the Washington Post), and thought the book was even better. The writer captured a part of history not known by many people, and tells a terrific page-turner of a story!