What message?

Ponticar

This film does a decent job of creating the feel of the late 1800s in the Wyoming territory and there are some decent performances.  Having said that, I have to disagree with the posts that suggest this had some sort of redeeming message.  What was it?  The "bad guys" won-Cusack's character managed to get his wife killed (very predictable but the whole scenario was not even close to being consistent with the "Old West", or with Cusack's character up to that point) and to get himself hung for a crime he didn't commit, making his young son an orphan.  The villain in the movie gets off with only two years in prison.  How is that a good message?  There were other problems as well.  Cusack has a Crow Indian working for him, (eating at the same table with the family in one scene) and is not ostracized by the other people in town.  Highly unlikely, given the treatment of Indians by white settlers everywhere (but very PC).  There is a black man who is treated as an equal by a powerful rancher and a judge, even more unlikely in 19th century America.  All in all, a film to miss.

score /10

Ponticar 20 August 2001

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0596128/