TV-14 | 1h 36min | Drama, Western | 1997
Tom Selleck leads this drama that distinguishes gratuitous violence for its own sake from righteous violence that protects home, family, and country.
Far from Civil War action in 1865, a Texas neighborhood believes that Paul Cable (Tom Selleck) died a Confederate hero. But one day, fed up with his inability to prevent wanton violence in the throes of a dying war, he returns home.
At home are his wife Martha (Suzy Amis) and preteen children Clare (Rachel Duncan) and Davis (Haley Joel Osment); baby Mary died of influenza while he was away. Martha makes no secret of resenting Paul for leaving them to fend for themselves; she puts his warring instinct down to escapism. But her gunsmith father, who taught her how to craft and handle guns, knows differently: “Man goes to war when his country calls.”
Paul and family head out to his Arizona homestead for a fresh start but finds a clan of encroachers. Former Union Army man Duane Kidston (David Carradine) heads up the clan with his brother Vern (Keith Carradine) and unmarried daughter Lorraine (Tracey Needham). Paul confronts them and orders them out. Fearing retaliation, he preemptively gets nearby grocery clerk Janroe (David Dukes) to shelter Martha and the children.
But Janroe turns out to be an embittered ex-Confederate soldier, fighting his own battles even after war’s end. After failing to lure Paul into his gun-running racket, an incensed Janroe finds Duane alone and kills him, hoping to implicate Paul. With Duane dead, hot-headed Vern leads a revenge posse out on Paul. Martha, sensing that their lives are in danger, rides gun in hand to defend her husband. Janroe isn’t done taunting the Cable couple or their children, but the family’s brave last stand for peace brings them the unlikeliest of allies.
Director Dick Lowry’s opening credits silhouettes cowboys on horseback, one rider indistinguishable from another. As his story unfolds, however, he makes it clear that what separates one fighting man from another is the ability to choose righteous over reckless violence. Mr. Lowry doesn’t have the time or the space for comic relief; a brooding Selleck plays a man more fatigued by his wife’s sniping than by the war, war hustlers, and encroachers.
Shot in New Mexico, and supported by a lively score from David Shire, this film has one of the most lovingly compiled showcases of guns in action. Revolvers featured include a modified Colt 1860 Army and the LeMat. Rifles include the Henry 1860, the Spencer 1860 Saddle Ring Carbine, and the Model 1843 Hall-North-Breech-Loading Percussion Carbine. Martha Cable uses a 12-Gauge Double Barreled shotgun.
Restraint Informs Judgement
Despite Mr. Lowry’s many choreographed gun battles, some of his characters draw their guns but don’t fire; sometimes a drawn gun speaks a language that only willfully violent people understand. To Mr. Lowry, the gun is a metaphor for force, or the threat of it. Anyone, soldier or scoundrel, can fire a gun. Only those governed by a moral code know when to keep the safety on, and when to switch it off. Mr. Lowry’s characters demonstrate that.Lorraine tries to seduce Paul to further alienate him from his family and make him more vulnerable to her clan’s encroachment. She prods, “I know you like me.” But Paul demurs, “Sure … but it don’t make it right.” He means that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Restraint informs his judgment.
Vern is about to go on the rampage against Paul when one of the Kidston men, Austin, cautions: Paul’s unlikely to be the murderer because he didn’t kill Austin when he had the opportunity. Paul will shoot first if his family is under siege, but he isn’t looking for a fight.
It’s why Paul rarely errs when deciding if and when to shoot, and at whom and why.
Janroe tries to convince Martha that Paul is a killer because war changes men. After a while, killing becomes “second nature.” Why doesn’t Paul fulfill his “true” nature? Martha cuts him short, “My husband’s a decent man … not a murderer, in or out of uniform.”
Martha first misreads Paul’s war instinct as if it flowed from false macho pride. As danger nears her porch, she realizes that the family is a microcosm of the nation. Soldiering isn’t a pastime. It’s a sacred duty. While at war, Paul was preserving his country’s way of life, just as she joined him later on the homefront in protecting their family’s way of life.
