hecklongtree

"Broken Trail," the Walter Hill-directed AMC Western miniseries with Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church is a cross between "Deadwood," "Open Range" and "Ride the High Country." It combines the slowness and talkiness of the first two with the plot of the third. In Sam Peckinpah's "Ride the High Country," Steve Judd (Joel McCrea), Gil Westrum (Randolf Scott) and Heck Longtree (Ron Starr) are transporting gold through dangerous country, when they're enlisted to protect a young woman, Mariette Hartley, from some rowdy miners--one of whom she inadvisedly marries. In Walter Hill's miniseries, Print Ritter (Robert Duval) Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) and "Heck"Gilpin (Scott Cooper)--that's right, the character's name is also Heck--are transporting horses through dangerous country, when they're enlisted to protect some young Chinese women from slavers who want to turn them into prostitutes.

Here's what I liked. In a previous journal entry, I complained about the absence of non-whites in "How the West Was Won." I have to commend the filmmakers for telling a story that included the Chinese. Also, there's beautiful photography. Great shots of Duvall and company driving horses across a majestic landscape.

Here's what I didn't. The script, besides being derivative, is dialogue-heavy. Too many long exposition scenes and scenes where characters sit around telling the backstory. The film simply didn't hold my attention.

I appreciate executive producer Robert Duvall's efforts to revive interest in the Western, but he's unlikely to do so with "Broken Trail."