Outlaw Justice

Starring:Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Travis Tritt, Waylon Jennings, Chad Willett, Sancho Gracia, Jonathan Banks, Bill Holden (II), Manuel San MartÃn, Aldo Sambrell, Jorge Bosso, Lance Kinsey, Tony Isbert, Pablo Scola, Leonor Watling, Alito Rodgers, Marina Saura, May Heatherly, Danny Sullivan (II), SimÃ³n Andreu
Director: Bill Corcoran
Studio: Pepin/Merhi Entertai
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

A classic offbeat western
"The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" is hard1y a milestone for Huston...
The Law West of the Pecos
The most surrealist film of John Huston!
A timeless treasure by one of Hollywood's greatest directors

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Starring: Ned Beatty , Fred Brookfield , Jim Burk , Gary Combs , and Bennie E. Dobbins
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00008WJBI
Release Date: 2003-06-03

Amazon.com essential video

A remarkable blend of otherwise disparate philosophies about legendary men, this 1972 film was inspired in part by the epic dimensions of a John Milius (The Wind and the Lion) script, which was toned down by Paul Newman's charmingly eccentric approach to the title character, who in turn was deepened by director John Huston's sensitivity to the subject of fleeting dreams. The story concerns the famous outlaw-turned-lawmaker who rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town. The film follows the quirky Bean's episodic adventures as the years pass and a variety of colorful characters come and go, including the muse who captivated his soul, the actress Lily Langtry (Ava Gardner). Huston's textured approach has an almost Altmanesque feel to it, though he demands more (and rewardingly so) obvious performances from the cast, particularly a hilarious cameo by Stacy Keach as the one tough-as-nails SOB who makes Bean a tad nervous. Highly entertaining. --Tom Keogh

Description

Roy Bean's life for a span of 30-odd years is recorded with all the excitement of the era.

Customer Reviews:

A classic offbeat western.......2007-02-15

This is one of my all time favorite western movies. I recommend it to Paul Newman fans and western fans. Notable for first appearance of Victoria Principal.

"The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" is hard1y a milestone for Huston..........2006-11-06

Bean rides into Vinegarroon, Texas in 1890, and is prompt1y beaten, robbed and hanged by degenerate outlaws and whores... The rope breaks, and he returns, shooting everyone in revenge... Then he declares himself "the Law West of the Pecos," makes the saloon his courthouse, and swears to uphold the honor of his ideal, the beautiful British actress, Lily Langtry...

He takes Marie, a Mexican girl (Victoria Principal), as his mistress, and administers justice by hanging men and confiscating their property to make the town (renamed Langtry) prosperous... Eventually, the community turns against him, and Bean rides out, defeated...

Twenty years later, in 1925, the town is run by Prohibition gangsters and evil oil men... Out of nowhere, Bean, now seventy, appears and purges the town by shooting the criminals...

In a sense, Newman comes full circle from his first Western, in which Billy the Kid also said, "I am the law," and fought evil by becoming judge, jury and executioner... But whereas Billy was a neurotic, pitiful adolescent, Bean is presented as an admirable, mystical character... The real Bean died in 1903, and scriptwriter John Milius presumably changed the date in order to contrast the wild individualist with impersonal twenties gangsters: even though he's a killer, he does it with style...

The film tries to make Bean another lovable character on the order of Butch Cassidy: he hangs and shoots men while quoting the Bible and delivering wisecracks, and he punctuates their deaths with punch lines...

Newman does his best with the material... His funniest scenes are with a huge bear named Bruno, who, like Bean, is grizzly, guzzles beer and deals violently with outlaws; at one point he delightfully evokes Bean's wrath by drunkenly licking Lily's poster... In William Wyler's "The Westerner," Walter Brennan as Bean upstaged Gary Cooper; here Bruno upstages Newman... In any case, the outrageous gallows humor and broad caricatures fail to disguise the fact that unlike Butch, Bean is a vicious fellow...

"The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" is hard1y a milestone for Huston, who portrayed hopeless dreamers more effectively in films like "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Asphalt Jungle."

The Law West of the Pecos.......2005-12-04

Solidly entertaining, whimsical biography of the hangin' judge west of the Pecos. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN stars a growly and bearded Paul Newman in the title role, guide to the life of a legend of the Old West and host to a revolving series of guest stars.

`Whimsical' seems kind of an odd word now that I think about it. After all, it connotes a lightness of spirit, and that's a hard choice of words to use for a movie that features an on-screen hanging or five. `Whimsy' is defined as `an odd or fanciful or capricious idea,' and `whimsy' begets `whimsical', which is made of sturdier stuff that its pappy - `Whimsical: adj. Erratic in behavior or degree of unpredictability.' I'll let the word stand. John Huston's JUDGE ROY BEAN is erratic and unpredictable enough. John Milius wrote the original screenplay. With movies like `Jeremiah Johnson' and `Geronimo: An American Legend' among his credits, Milius has given ample evidence that he's a `print-the-legend' type of writer. And he takes his heroes seriously. Underneath everything - and everything piles high in this movie - there's a script that wants to make a legendary hero out of its title character.

That serious intent is subverted by Newman, whose charm is unsuccessfully buried beneath a beard and gruff exterior, and Huston, who peppers the whole thing with darkly humorous vignettes. In fact, JUDGE ROY BEAN is more or less a series of disconnected incidents, from Bean's massacre of a bar full of desperados who rolled him for his (stolen) cash and left him for dead to his circa 1920 explosive showdown with an unscrupulous eastern lawyer played by Roddy McDowell. In the interim he appoints himself judge, the law west of the Pecos, peppers the bar with posters of the beloved Lily Langtry (Ava Gardner,) adopts a black b'ar dropped off by Grizzly Adams (John Huston,) takes up with pretty young Marie Elena (Victoria Principal,) and witnesses an assortment of quirky cutthroats pass under the shadow of his well-worn noose.

If Milius wanted to plant Bean next to Geronimo and Jeremiah Johnson in the pantheon of American legends he must have cringed when Stacy Keach appeared for his twenty-minute segment. Gigged out in white pancake make-up and an Edgar Winters' fright wig, Keach plays the albino outlaw Bad Bob, who's so tough he drinks boiling coffee directly out of the pot. Bad Bob has come to call Judge Bean out, and hurls a series of insults about Lily Langtry in the attempt. I liked the darkly, surreally, humorous Bad Bob character, but he doesn't belong in a movie that's trying to keep things real. Worse, much, much worse, is the `Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' like musical interlude, also known as `Picnic with the B'ar.' Newman, Principal, and their 300-pound black bear co-star cavort along the Pecos River, accompanied by Andy Williams singing the saccharine "Marmalade, Molasses and Honey." I don't know for a fact, but I believe "Marmalade, etc." effectively killed the use of cheesy musical interludes in the middle of westerns. If it didn't, it should have.

The most surrealist film of John Huston!.......2004-12-01

Once upon a time in Texas a roguish Judge :Roy Bean magnificent acted by Paul Newman . And also a weird preacher : Anthony Perkins and an albino gunman named Stacy Keach .
Blend this cocktail and you will obtain a clever, ironic and unencumbered film winking to Luis Buñuel.
Watch this hidden and treasured movie .

A timeless treasure by one of Hollywood's greatest directors.......2002-12-14

The 60's and early 70's produced several great comedic westerns i.e. Cheyenne Social Club, Dirty Dingus Magee, McClintock, Great Scout, The Rounders, Evil Roy Slade, Support Your Local, etc. The list goes on and on. Those movies were all great, but pretty much one dimensional and set the tone for some collective disappointment over the content of Judge Roy Bean.

Amazon.com

Not many movies can take credit for bringing about the demise of a movie studio--but Michael Cimino's ego-driven, overblown Western is one of them. These days, its $40 million budget would barely cover the cost of an Adam Sandler film--but in 1981, it virtually put United Artists out of business. Cimino, fresh from an Oscar for The Deer Hunter, spent months assembling this ultimately gorgeous and confusing story of the Johnson County cattle wars of 1881, with a cast that included Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, and many more. Almost four hours in its original form, the film was cut to less than three for an abortive commercial release, then restored for video. Anyway you look at it, this is a mess better viewed as a curiosity than anything else. --Marshall Fine

Description

"Richly textured and visually compelling" (The Hollywood Reporter), this lavish, epic Western retells the true story of Wyoming's infamous Johnson County Wara brutal conflict during which wealthy cattlemen, backed by the U.S. government, hired mercenaries to murder 125 immigrant settlers. From the incredible beauty of the magnificent landscapes to the explosive violence of the bloody battle itself, Heaven's Gate combines breathtaking cinematography, Oscar(r)-nominated* Art Direction and memorable performances by Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert and Jeff Bridges in a spectacular, panoramic and ultimately haunting look at the reverse side of the American dream.

Customer Reviews:

worst of revisionist rewrites of history.......2007-05-22

This is the worse movie I've ever seen! I knew the reviews were bad
but I got the movie finally because it was filmed in the area where my wife and I had once lived in a tipi with our three kids while I worked in the woods as a logger back in '78. Since I had not taken many pictures of the area I wanted something as a record. The area I worked is where the house of ill repute was ( actually filmed on the North Fork of the Flathead river across from Glacier Park). Some of my friends worked as extras during the filming. Anyway my wife and I viewed it some but found it hard to follow...I suppose because of the heavy editing.
Because I have worked on farms, and in the woods, and survived on venison and rhubard, and built cabins, and cooked over campfires... I found the themes pretty silly. The acting seemed to follow some revisionist theory of how things must have been.
If you want to learn about the Johnson County War, research it and read about it...don't bother with this movie.

Beware! Non Anamorphic!.......2007-04-29

At this stage of video technology development, one would think that a Widescreen label on the DVD should necessarily mean Anamorphic, Enhanced for 16X9 TVs, etc. If not, then what's the point of a widescreen release? Furthermore if studios are going thru the trouble of relasing movies in widescreen format, not making the transfer anamorphic is just plain dumb. In any case, if non anamorphic versions are still being released they should be clearly labeled NON ANAMORPHIC instead of placing the responsibility of finding out too late it's not on the unaware consumer. Heaven's Gate? Give it a chance and don't listen to the "critics". Time puts everything in its proper place. After all, it's taken movies like Mankiewicz' Cleopatra 45 years to claim its proper place in cinema history against the vitriolic reviews of the critics of the time (which to a large extent had nothing to do with its artistic merits). The Movie: 4 stars; The DVD: until a proper version is released, 1 star.

Title should be "In Heavens Name".......2007-04-09

What in "heavens name" were they thinking? Probably the most gorgeous western ever filmed and they chose to release it in non-anamorphic format?
This is unthinkable! Never mind that this epic flopped because of a viewing public with the attention span of a gnat, this film deserved to be released in the best format possible. This edition is the best so far but sorely lacking English subtitles. After repeatedly backing up the scenes in busy downtown Casper I am still to decipher much of the dialogue. The audio mixing could have been better here. What has happened to the directors hand in this release? Was he banned access to this film for all time? This is not the only film for which I have been awaiting a deserving release. The studios often have themselves to blame for their losses when butchering a directors vision simply because they think that the public doesn't have the potential to appreciate. "Reds" was another epic film that failed at box office, yet here it is 25 years later with it's long overdue proper release on DVD. I hope it won't take that long to see the proper release of this film.

Far, far better than the idiot critics stated...the film was a victim of vicious and biased muckraking..........2007-03-04

I have now seen the film four times including twice on it's original run over 25 years ago and all I can say is that see it and judge for yourself - you will be pleasantly surprised. Apart from the first 20 minute sequence which tries to create a mood of halcyon days but fails somewhat, the rest of this beautiful film (and it is stunning visually) ranks alongside many other westerns favoured and promoted by the same critics who maligned this one. In fact, it presents a far truer picture of 'how the west was won' and shows how the social, economic and political factors mainly determined by greedy easterners were manipulated to their own ends although this is my own opinion as this elegiac western is actually ambiguous in pointing blame and much of the morality is anything but black and white. It does, however, clearly show how the stockholders were more than willing take advantage of their status, class and wealth to bend the law and even redefine it to achieve their objectives. So not much has changed in the last 100 odd years then since the events of the film.

Kristofferson, Walken and Huppert get the most screen time, individually and in pairs, but the rest of the cast is top notch too and both Waterston and Bridges shine in their smaller roles.

As I stated above the film is visually stunning thanks to Vilmos Zsigmond, but the emphasis is firmly on the story and characterisation. Although "Heaven's Gate" is nearly four hours long, it never feels like it and once you are immersed in the story and visuals the picture never wants for pace. The music is not overblown but actually plays a part in setting the mood more so than being suggestive of what emotions we should be feeling and being relentless as in most modern epics. Musical highlights include when Ella first drives the Studebaker carriage, the picnic and later during the roller derby line dance sequence.

There is much to enjoy in this fine film and I can honestly say that what the establishment critics said at the time of the film's initial release is unfounded and unfair and reeks of a witch hunt.

If you have a multi-region dvd player, I suggest you seek out the Region 4 version (Australia) as it is anamorphic.

Sweeping Metaphorical Narrative.......2007-02-27

It is hard to believe that this film almost took down a major film distributor. It virtually bankrupted United Artists and destroyed the career of upcoming and then "golden boy" director Michael Cimino for excessive expenditures on this production. I do not think HEAVEN'S GATE is a bad film. The negative press that Michael Cimino endured and the fact that the film was generally released in a heavily edited version actually hurt this film's acceptance on any artistic level. The diverse cast looks very seasoned, the detailed production designs are highly convincing, the photography is lush yet gritty and the script is visually enthralling and captivating. This is a big budgeted low key telling of a struggle for land, a place to live, yet where ideologies clash over the ownership and use of the environment. Some images of SHANE come to mind. It is the same ideological struggle of the West but devoid of the passion that George Stevens injected into SHANE. Cimino's vision is a bit muddled and seems rather self centered on some individualistic higher moral standard. The film is emotional but Kris Kristofferson's central character lives in an artificial world. This is metaphorically represented at the film's conclusion as Kristofferson is depicted living out his days in a mundane existence shown aboard an opulent steam launch in almost surrealist looking tranquil New England waters. The film never seems to come to a satisfactory conclusion or resolution of the conflict in the traditional sense of the Western. Kristofferson is a flawed character somehow having taken up a cause with never really understanding the fight.

Average customer rating:

It's About Time
Great Classic
the return of frank james
Terrific Western
Lang On the Range

The Return of Frank James
Starring: Henry Fonda , Gene Tierney , Jackie Cooper , Henry Hull , and John Carradine
Director: Fritz Lang
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000G6BLEM
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Amazon.com

Henry King's 1939 Jesse James sidestepped history to embrace folklore's version of the outlaw as a populist hero. This sequel is pure dime-novel fiction, with Jesse's brother (Henry Fonda) getting even, albeit reluctantly, with Bob Ford (John Carradine), "the dirty little coward" who back-shot his leader to win amnesty. The revenge theme would seem tailor-made for 20th Century-Fox's newly signed directorial talent, Fritz Lang, to whip up a fine Teutonic frenzy. However, the maestro of Die Nibelungen treated the material straight, like the good, impersonal Hollywood craftsman he was eager to be taken for, at that point in his career. Besides, Lang loved the West and Western lore, and was happy working in the Western genre. (Check out his next Fox assignment, Western Union, for a richer confirmation of this.) The Technicolor is vivid, nowhere more so than in the red lips of Gene Tierney in her screen debut. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

Fabled Missouri outlaw Frank James, brother of the legendary Jesse James straps on his six-shooters and rides out for revenge in director Fritz Lang's The Return of Frank James, the thrilling 1940 sequel to the Western classic Jesse James. From the green Missouri hills to the rugged Rockies their steps are dogged by Frank James, riding hard on the vengeance trail in the wild and woolly era when there was no law for folks except at the end of a gun.

Customer Reviews:

It's About Time.......2007-05-14

I have been waiting a long time to have this Henry Fonda Movie on DVD. It is one of those movies you can watch over and over again. Henry Fonda as Frank James is one of the cooles cowboys ever. The supporting cast of characters makes the story that much better. You will cheer for Frank James in the end.

Great Classic.......2007-05-14

Wonderful movie. Needs to be seen after "Jesse james". Henry Fonda is great.

the return of frank james.......2007-05-12

I thought it was an excellent sequel to the first movie.
Henry Fonda was excellent as Frank James.

Terrific Western.......2007-05-08

This sequal to Jesse James bring back a number of castmembers from that film. Henry Fonda gets the chance to be the star here. He does a fine job as Frank James, making viewers care for him and understand his need for revenge. Very good color transfer. If you are a fan of old westerns this one is a worthy addition to your collection

Lang On the Range.......2007-05-07

Fritz Lang's "The Return of Frank James" is best-viewed as a warm-up exercise for "Rancho Notorious." As a tale of "hate, murder and revenge" it falls flat because Henry Fonda is too nice a guy to be a genuine outlaw and the infrequently-glimpsed John Carradine is not nearly a ferocious-enough villain as Bob Ford. (By contrast, Barton MacLaine's evil progress-hating brother in Lang's "Western Union" gave good brother Randolph Scott a worthy adversary to overcome.) "The Return of Frank James" is beautiful to look at, but it gives the sense of being a mere appendage to Henry King's earlier romantic celebration of the James Brothers, "Jesse James." Characters from the King film are retained or dropped randomly. Thus Donald Meek's cowardly sneak of a railroad baron returns, while Randolph Scott's virtuous lawman does not, and Henry Hull's cantankerous newspaper editor becomes a cantankerous country lawyer. I don't dislike "The Return of Frank James," I just wish it were a better film than it is. As it stands, it is definitely the weakest of Lang's three westerns.

Average customer rating:

Outlaw Justice
a cast of singers, but only a couple of songs
A self-entertaining with too much money to throw away?
Travis is a great actor
Bill Corcoran's Outlaw Justice

Outlaw Justice
Starring: Willie Nelson , Kris Kristofferson , Travis Tritt , Waylon Jennings , and Chad Willett
Director: Bill Corcoran
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Songwriter

ASIN: B00008RUZV
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Description

In the tradition of THE WILD BUNCH and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN comes this fast-paced, action-filled western with unforgettable performances by an all-star cast: Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Travis Tritt and Waylon Jennings. All hell breaks loose in this riveting story when a group of former outlaws with bad attitudes teams up to catch a killer with murder and revenge on his mind. After Tobey (Jennings), a retired member of the group, is brutally gunned down by former member and killer, Clinton Reese, our band of reformed gunslingers, Lee (Nelson), Tarence (Kristofferson) and Dalton (Tritt), sets out on Clinton's trail. They are joined by Tobey's reluctant young son Bryce. Following the trail of the killer, our heroes are lured across the border straight into Clinton's ambush. Clinton, aided by the Mexican army, squares off against our band of heroes. The action explodes as the ultimate sacrifice must be paid for justice...outlaw style!

Customer Reviews:

Outlaw Justice.......2007-01-14

Not a grammy winner but if you like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt and Kris Kristofferson, you will like this movie. It is entertaining. A really enjoyable DVD with some great one liners.

a cast of singers, but only a couple of songs.......2004-06-02

Rated R: Not for sale to persons under age 18.
Studio: Lionsgate/Fox
Video Release Date: May 20, 2003

Cast:

Willie Nelson
Kris Kristofferson
Waylon Jennings
Travis Tritt
Chad Willet
Jonathan Banks
Sancho Gracia as Holden (the bad guy)

A bunch of former outlaws (Willie, Kris, Tritt) are bent on revenge when one of their former "business associates" (Jennings)
is murdered by another outlaw, Holden (Sancho Gracia). They extract their own version of justice when Holden lures them below the border, with hopes of causing their deaths.

I don't know why the "R" rating. The violence was almost non-existent, no bad language, and no nudity or anything you would be ashamed for your mother or children to see.

Only Tritt and Willie sang in the film, and the motivation of Holden was ill-defined. Altogether a poorly motivated plot, with the cast providing the backbone of the film. They did their parts well, making it an adequate Western to watch and kill some time, thanks to them. Not a great film, or particularlt memorable.

I am always impressed by Kris and Willie when they team up. Kris is good at "looking menacing," and Willie is entertaining.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

A self-entertaining with too much money to throw away?.......2003-01-11

Loose script with holes as big as the Black Hole. At certain clippings, there were potentials to evolve into a good movie but always fell short. I could clearly see that none of the actors had put heart into this movie but just acting by wearing cool dark or black gears. Son of Tolby didn't know how to handle a six shooter but suddenly became a fast-draw gunfighter and shot to kill the tough gunslinger without even had to aim. The loud mouthed tough outlaw with fast draw was beaten by the young man due to ending was coming and had to die. Nelson and Chris just cash in for their cool images. There was no storyline whatever I could see, just contrite and joking around performance. The country singer sang a pretty good song but acting poorly with good western Texan accent. What's the deal between the Mexican officer and that look-tough-but-got-nothing-to-cash-in when the chips were down? Don't treat a viewer like me as a pea brain or even brain dead, OK? The script was obviously a die-trying by a high school drop out. What impressed me most is the snorings of these two old hombres. That's the only thing I could remember and visualized for this pathetic movie.

Travis is a great actor.......2002-10-21

Hi my name is Barbara and I'm from Canada and I think Travis is a great actor, just by the way he talks in his interviews tells you, what ever you buy of Travis you'll never go wrong. Thanks

Bill Corcoran's Outlaw Justice.......2002-05-27

Waylon Jennings, looking like Joe Spinell, is killed off in the first scene of this half baked western. He is the lucky one. His son, Chad Willett, decides to take revenge on Jennings' killer, a former member of Jennings' outlaw gang. Willett is joined by two other former outlaw gang members Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, making like Abbott and Costello, and they ride after the bland villain, taking poor Travis Tritt (a third gang member).

Nelson and Kristofferson do the same old TV western movie routine they have been doing for years- flat delivery, down home humorous bickering, and goofy grins. Tritt tries what he can, relying on all the acting chops he earned in his music videos. He has onscreen charisma, it would be interesting to see what a professional director might mold with him. Willett, probably the only real actor here, is okay. After getting killed, Jennings does what he does best- voiceover, as his son reads his diary.

The Unmagnificent Four get involved in little unthreatening scrapes here and there on their way to meet the villain. They are held up, but get their stuff back with the help of some friendly Native Americans they helped save. Willett finds romance, because if you are young and cute in a western, you must fall in love. Of course, that philosophy does not explain how Nelson manages to do the same thing. He falls for a local senorita in a town where the villain burned down the church. These happy outlaws help rebuild the church in one of those saccharine scenes that must be seen to be believed. The actual climactic shootout is dull, thanks to some really bland direction. At one point, Willett has a perfect opportunity to finish the villain off, thereby sparing Mexico and the audience from further torture, but he does not! The added "mystery" about the true identity of Willett's real father is never resolved, either!

This is just dumb entertainment for people who find "F Troop" too deep. I am warning you now, Nelson has a bathtub scene. No nudity, but proceed with caution. "Outlaw Justice" is an injustice.

Description

When Cheyenne Rogers (Glenn Ford), a hunted gunman, rides into Red Valley, he meets and falls in love with Allison MacLeod (Evelyn Keyes). Trying to go straight, Cheyenne is enmeshed in a web of intrigue and killing that leads him to the brink of a lynching. Escaping with Sheriff Upton's (Randolph Scott) help, he returns to Red Valley long enough to learn about the underhanded dealings of some of the town's supposedly respectable citizens. With the sheriff jailed for his part in Cheyenne's escape, the gunman returns amid the thunderings of a wild horse stampede to free him and clean up the lawlessness of Red Valley. The Deperadoes was Columbia Pictures' first technicolor feature film.

Customer Reviews:

"The Desperadoes (1943) ... Randolph Scott ... Columbia Pictures ".......2007-04-04

Columbia Pictures presents "THE DESPERADOES" (1943) (86 mins/Cinecolor) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes & Edgar Buchanan --- Directed by Charles Vidor and released in May 5, 1943, our story line and film, Into Sheriff Steve Upton's peaceful Utah town rides outlaw Cheyenne Rodgers with trouble right behind him. When he finds romance with a local woman, and renews an old friendship with the sheriff, he is determined to turn his back on his old, lawless ways. But when the local bank is robbed, all fingers point to the innocent Rodgers --- An A league western thanks to Charles Vidor's direction and clever support play from Glenn Ford & Claire Trevor --- some wonderful early film character actors grace this oater with Charles King, Charles "Slim" Whitaker, Francis Ford, Glenn Strange, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Edgar Buchanan, Evelyn Keyes and Claire Trevor.

Under Charles Vidor (Director), Harry Joe Brown (Producer), Max Brand (Short Story Author), Robert Carson (Screenwriter), Allen M. Davey (Cinematographer), George B. Meehan (Cinematographer), Morris W. Stoloff (Musical Direction/Supervision), Gene Havlick (Editor), Lionel Banks (Art Director) - - - - the cast includes Randolph Scott (Steve Upton), Claire Trevor (Countess Maletta), Glenn Ford (Cheyenne Rogers), Evelyn Keyes (Allison MacLeod), Edgar Buchanan (Willie MacLeod), Raymond Walburn (Judge Camer-on), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Nitro Rankin), Porter Hall (Stanley Clanton), Joan Woodbury (Sundown), Bernard Nedell (Jack Lester), Irving Bacon (Dan Walters), Glenn Strange (Lem), Ethan Laidlaw (Cass), Edward Pawley (Blackie), Chester Clute (Rollo), Charles King (Outlaw), Charles "Slim" Whitaker (Tolliver), Francis Ford (Hank) - - - - Randy Scott had a quiet gentleman nature about him which is not seen in the films of today ... Randy took his job and his responsibility to his audience very seriously ,,, would not settle for anything less than his best ... same was true in his personal life.

SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. Randolph Scott (aka: George Randolph Scott)
Date of birth: 23 January 1898 - Orange County, Virginia
Date of death: 2 March 1987 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

Special footnote, George Randolph Scott better known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s ... his popularity grew in the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in such films as "Gung Ho"! (1943) and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1938); but he was especially famous for his numerous Westerns including "Virginia City" (1940) with Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, "Western Union" (1941) with Robert Young and "Ride the High Country" (1962) with Joel McCrea (a coin was flipped to see whether Scott or McCrea would receive top billing, and Scott won despite having a slightly smaller role) ... his long fistfight with John Wayne in "The Spoilers" (1942) was frequently cited by critics and the press as the most thrilling ever filmed; they were fighting over Marlene Dietrich ... another smash hit film together that same year called "Pittsburgh" (1942) once again with Dietrich, Scott and Wayne --- Daniel Webster defines "Legend", as being a notable person, or the stories told about that person exploits --- well by the time Randolph Scott made his best films he had long established himself as a legend in the film industry --- they say practice makes perfect, if that is true by 1958 at 60 years of age he was the master with these oaters from the 50s ... "The Cariboo Trail" (1950), "The Nevadan" (1950), "Colt .45" (1950), "Santa Fe" (1951), "Sugarfoot" (1951), "Fort Worth" (1951), "Man in the Saddle" (1951), "Carson City" (1952), "The Man Behind the Gun" (1952), "Hangman's Knot" (1952), "Thunder over the Plains" (1953), "The Stranger Wore a Gun" (1953), "Ten Wanted Men" (1954), "Riding Shotgun" (1954), "The Bounty Hunter" (1954), "Rage at Dawn" (1955), "Tall Man Riding" (1955), "A Lawless Street" (1955), "Seven Men from Now" (1956), "Seventh Cavalry" (1956), "Decision at Sundown: (1957), "Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend" (1957), "The Tall T" (1957), "Buchanan Rides Alone" (1958), "Ride Lonesome" (1959), "Westbound" (1959), "Comanche Station" (1960) --- Scott's age seemed to matter little, they only came to see another Randolph Scott film and always got their money's worth --- Scott's films were good and getting better becoming classics --- so if you ever wonder "What Ever Happened To Randolph Scott", just rent or purchase one of his films and you'll see he's never left us.

2. Claire Trevor (aka: Claire Wemlinger)
Date of Birth: 8 March 1910 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 8 April 2000 - Newport Beach, California

3. Glenn Ford (aka: Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford)
Date of Birth: 1 May 1916 - Sainte-Christine, Quebec, Canada
Date of Death: 30 August 2006 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, California

4. Evelyn Keyes
Date of Birth: 20 November 1916 - Port Arthur, Texas
Date of death: Still Living

5. Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
Date of Birth: 26 April 1899 - Decatur, Texas
Date of Death: 6 June 1962 - Burbank, California

6. Edgar Buchanan
Date of Birth: 20 March 1903 - Humansville, Missouri
Date of Death: 4 April 1979 - Palm Desert, California

7. Charles Vidor (Director)
Date of Birth: 27 July 1900 - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)
Date of Death: 4 June 1959 - Vienna, Austria.

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 86 min on DVD ~ Sony Home Video ~ (4/05/2005)

Worth watching but not great..........2006-08-18

Maybe the other reviewers are right about the historical significance of "The Desperadoes," but I'm in it for the entertainment and this film was only three-stars-worth. Except it was fun seeing Glenn Ford so VERY young and I could watch Randolph Scott jumping off his horse at the well over and over and not get at all bored. When men were men and all that jazz...

Not a "B" Western.......2006-08-09

"The Desperadoes" (1943) is a genuine classic, not for its story (which is fairly routine), but for its technical production elements. This was a landmark western, the biggest ever at the time of its release and all the more unique because it was a Columbia production-a lightweight studio with a bottom feeding reputation. Only Fox's "Jessie James" (also starring Randolph Scott) from a few years earlier gave anywhere near this lavish a treatment to the genre. Although it would be eclipsed in a few years by "The Searchers" and "High Noon", "The Desperadoes" was a ground breaking effort and a historical treasure.

In 1863, the economy in the town of Red Valley, Utah is based on rounding up and selling wild horses to the Union Army. The script gets a little messed up here with references to the railroad (which was several years away in Utah's future) and Custer's Last Stand (Custer was busy fighting Stuart in Pennsylvania at the time) but these are not important plot elements.

Red Valley has an honest sheriff, Steve Upton (Scott), but the banker and several citizens are corrupt; robbing their own bank each time the government pays for a herd of horses. The town is visited by Cheyenne Rogers (Glenn Ford), a famous outlaw who is an old friend Steve's. He wants to go straight, especially after falling for the pretty livery stable owner Alison McLeod (Evelyn Keyes). Cheyenne's partner "Nitro" Rankin (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) is mainly there for comic relief as are Uncle Willie McLeod (Edgar Buchanan) and the town judge (Raymond Walburn who models his character on Frank Morgan's "Wizard of Oz" crystal ball faker).

Taking no chances with their huge budget Columbia packed this thing with tons of action and every western movie element but Indians and covered wagons. There is the best wild horse stampede ever filmed, a spectacular barroom brawl, an explosive climax, romance, and three-strip Technicolor. All this stuff doesn't necessarily fit together but who would have cared back in 1943. Unity is a problem as it tries to be both a serious action western and a comedy.

The cinematography was probably the best ever at the time of its filming. The indoor scenes are solid but it is the naturalistic outdoor photography that is truly impressive; both the lyrical static shots and the moving camera filming of the action sequences.

Scott and Claire Trevor were top billed, but the studio clearly wanted to promote Ford, who would soon be their biggest star. And Director Charles Vidor utilized the film to showcase his new wife Keyes (whose portrayal of Scarlett's sister in "Gone With the Wind" had connected with audiences more than any small part in the history of films).

The Ford-Keyes dynamic is "The Desperadoes" most unique and important feature. Rather than go for the cliché "love triangle" with Scott and/or Trevor (which it first appears will happen), the entire romantic focus is on the two younger actors. This was probably the best role Keyes ever got and she makes the most of it. Playing a tomboyish but extremely sexy young woman who looks great in both leather pants and dresses, and who rides and fights like Kiera Knightley's character in "Pirates of the Caribbean". This was revolutionary at the time and coincided with the 1942 formation of the WAAC for WWII military service.

"The Desperadoes" is one film that has been well taken care of and the print looks like it is brand new. Unfortunately there are no special features on the DVD.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

A Pleasant, But Not Great Western.......2005-02-24

This is one of those early films where they just seemed to throw in a little bit of everything in hopes that they would draw large audiences.

Briefly, Glenn Ford is a young outlaw who is supposed to ride into a town and rob a bank. He gets delayed, and by the time he gets there, the bank has already been robbed by his gang members. The local sheriff, Randolph Scott is an old friend of his, and they get reacquainted while Ford tries to figure out what to do next. Edgar Buchanan is an avuncular town mainstay who befriends Ford. And from there, it gets even more complicated.

The Desperadoes isn't a bad film. It's not unpleasant. It's just not up to the best of either Scott or Ford, who were two of our greatest Westrn movie heroes.

Blockbuster from Columbia...........2000-04-06

THE DESPERADOES was Columiba Pictures first technicolor production, and the studio spared no expense to make this a truly signal event. Randolph Scott, a young Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, and Edgar Buchanan head a fabulous cast. THE DESPERADOES, in a sense, was Columbia's answer to Fox studio's JESSE JAMES, another epic western. The results are very enjoyable--the dialogue crisp, the action fast, and the acting well above average. And the technicolor print is superb; THE DESPERADOES is one of the best shot pics of its time. A classic.

Average customer rating:

Kelly music rings true
Where's the script?
GREAT SOUNDTRACK!
Marked as a child
the music is the thing

Ned Kelly
Starring: Mick Jagger , Clarissa Kaye-Mason , Mark McManus , Ken Goodlet , and Frank Thring
Director: Tony Richardson
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Being Mick
Music in Review 1963-1969
Faerie Tale Theatre - The Nightingale
The London Rock & Roll Show
She's the Boss

ASIN: B00018YC3W
Release Date: 2004-03-16

Amazon.com

Mick Jagger had one of his rare sizable acting roles, as the famed Australian outlaw, in this atmospheric biopic (remade in 2004 with Heath Ledger). The movie has the look and spirit of other Vietnam-era counterculture Westerns, with Irishman Ned Kelly a rebel against the unjust Establishment. Tony Richardson's direction has the free-for-all laxity of the era, though the general sense of mess is tidied up by the often stunning location photography by ace DP Gerry Fisher. What makes the film memorable is the soundtrack, a heavy portion of which is made up of Western ballads written by witty Shel Silverstein and sung by Waylon Jennings; elsewhere, the Amish-bearded Jagger croons "The Wild Colonial Boy." A charitable assessment of Jagger's performance would conclude that he brings an intriguing Pirandellian presence to the role; a more clear-eyed view would say that he simply doesn't have the acting chops to carry it off. --Robert Horton

Description

Rock superstar Mick Jagger makes his dynamic screen debut in this explosive tale from Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning* director Tony Richardson. Based on the fascinating true-life story of the 19th-century Australian Armored Bandit, Ned Kelly is a powerful, action-packed adventure that thrillingly captures a bold and lawless era. When their mother is unfairly persecuted by police, Ned Kelly (Jagger) and his brother Dan earn money for her defense by selling homemade liquor. But what begins as a simple moonshine operation quickly escalates into a series of armed robberies, desperate pursuits and deadly confrontations. Soon, Ned finds himself revered throughout the country as a larger-than-life sagebrush hero even as the law closes in and prepares for an all-out war. *1963: Best Picture, Director, Tom Jones

Customer Reviews:

Kelly music rings true.......2007-06-14

The making of the movie caused something of an uproar in Glenrowan Town - Mick Jagger, a skinny pommie rock singer playing our Ned, a true blue big fella Ozzie bloke. Forget the movie, this soundtrack has been ringing in our ears ever since. No other music has captured the essence of the people, places & history of the stringybark country as this soundtrack has. Shel Silverstein's words & music, Waylon Jenning's gravelly voice & Kris Kristofferson's 'The Kelly's Keep Comin' - its said to this day on the ranges between Benalla and Glenrowan a tall shadowy figure walks thru' the mist of each dawn clanging in his armour, laughing deeply . . . rings true

Where's the script?.......2006-12-28

There were some good things about this movie: the photography was nice. The action scenes weren't too bad. I somewhat liked the music.

If only there had been a real screenplay to hold it all together. I can't tell whether the acting was any good, because they had so little to work with. As for historical content, it's amazing that so much of it was incorrect, given how little of it there was.

I'd recommend this only if you think Mick Jagger looks good with that beard. Otherwise I'd say buy a book on the Kelly gang if you want to learn more, buy the soundtrack if you want the music, or watch the Heath Ledger version.

GREAT SOUNDTRACK!.......2005-05-22

I bought this video for the Waylon Jennings soundtrack. The songs are SUPER! But the movie had too much violence for my taste. So I will look for a Waylon soundtrack CD just to hear the music.

Marked as a child.......2004-08-21

I first saw this movie as a small child. Now, 3 decades later, I have been unable to forget it.

An Australian legend, similar to Brittain's Robin Hood, or America's Jessie James, "Ned Kelly" is a shockingly graphic depiction of freedom and justice.

Waylon Jennings and the soundtrack music is unforgettable. While having an aversion to mick jagger, I believe he contributed much to the feel of this film, and this may be his finest performance.

the music is the thing.......2003-07-15

Okay so Mic Jagger was an odd choice to play Ned Kelly but so what? Before this movie came out most of the world didn't know who the Kellys were. Perhaps the movie made people decide to learn more which is why we now have at least two very good books on Ned Kelly's life. But this is supposed to be about the sound track and I'll get to that. Waylon Jennings was brilliant on this album. Every song moves the movie along and actually comments on the action on the screen. Once you hear it you'll never forget Blame it On the Kellys or Daddy Does His Ranching (Dad's a cattle thief) in the Evening.

Average customer rating:

Breakthrough
Right on the button
Breakthrough
About Bloody Time!!!!
Back in Time With a Prophet

Breakthrough
Starring: Kris Kristofferson
Manufacturer: Oh Boy
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Country | Styles | Music

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Kris Kristofferson - His Life and Work
Live From Austin Texas
Songwriter
This Old Road
The Highwaymen - On the Road Again

ASIN: B00027JYGC
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Product Description

1. Don't Let The Bastard Get You Down
2. The Eagle And The Bear
3. Me And Bobby McGee
4. Burden Of Freedom
5. Aquila Del Norte
6. Third World Warrior
7. Sunday Morning Coming Down
8. The Pilgrim
9. They Killed Him
10. Hero
11. To Beat The Devil
12. Third World War
13. Under The Gun

System Requirements:
Breakthrough is a gripping documentary which clearly illustrates the tireless work of human rights activist Kris Kristofferson. The DVD includes intimate live performances of Kristofferson and his band, the Borderlords. Compelling interviews with the iconic artist demonstrating his commitment to social justice causes round out the story.

Format: DVD VIDEO

Amazon.com

He's a man's man, that Kris Kristofferson, a guy who walks it like he talks it, with a combination of rugged good looks and a songwriter's sensitive soul--all of which is on display in Breakthrough, an hourlong concert documentary that addresses (via music and interviews) his evolution from Vietnam volunteer to disillusioned patriot whose straightforward, unaffected songs reflect a preoccupation with basic notions like freedom and justice. Performing with his band, the Borderlords, Kristofferson is apparently the feature attraction at some kind of activist benefit (although such specifics as when, where, and what for aren't provided); thus the repertoire includes not only "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Sunday Morning Coming Down" but also more explicitly political fare like "They Killed Him," "Burden of Freedom," and "Third World War" (the tumultuous events in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the '80s are of particular concern to the singer-songwriter, who adopted three Salvadoran kids). Kristofferson's songs are quite conventionally-structured, and he is not a great singer; what's more, some of the images in the film footage included here (Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Kennedys, Tiananmen Square) are a bit on the obvious side. But that's just the point. Kristofferson is effective not because he's clever or facile, but merely because he is committed and honest. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews:

Breakthrough.......2007-05-13

The product is what I expected. It arrived on time and in the condition advertised.

Right on the button.......2007-04-17

Best DVD I ever purchased, not just the music which was right on the button but an insight into what makes Kris Kristofferson's day: endeavoring and suceeding in making other peoples's lives worthwhile, fighting the injustices of this world and not caring who he has to fight along the way to achieve that goal. I believe he will keep fighting until the day he dies and only then will he find the freedom he's looking for, and hopefully someone will take over his reins in continuing to seek freedom for others. Best dollars I ever spent.

Breakthrough.......2006-07-01

Any one who is a fan of Kris's will love this dvd.I'v been a fan since he first started recording,and I've never heard or seen him peforme with more feeling than this.If you are reading this,Kris,please put out some more CD's and DVD'S PLEASE.From reading some of the revues you should know there are meany other people who think you are great,and so do I !!!!!!!
bmschaumburg

About Bloody Time!!!!.......2005-01-23

Well, finally fans are rewared with this DVD, not before time. I was a little hesitant about buying it, as it said it was a documentary, however it is well worth having in your collection, as no Kristofferson fan should miss this. I was happy that The Pilgram, Sunday Morning Coming Down, They Killed Him and To Beat the Devil were on this DVD. Hey Kris if you are reading this, it is about time you paid us another visit Downunder, just don't leave Perth, Western Australia off your tour list. The last time I saw Kris was on "the Highwaymen" tour some 4 years ago. As much as I enjoyed the concert, it was Kris with his antics that kept the show rolling and made it so enjoyable. Think it s about time for a full concert DVD. In the meantime, for fans, buy this DVD without hesitation!

Back in Time With a Prophet.......2004-08-30

As I watched this DVD I was taken back to a night in 1972 (don't recall the exact date) in Burris Hall on the campus of VA Tech. My husband and I were talking as the band was setting up their insruments and doing a very informal soundcheck. It took us a moment to realize that the concert had actually begun, because Kris Kristofferson had joined the Borderlords onstage with no introduction and no fanfare. Several moments passed before the mostly college crowd settled down to listen to the music. Once they did, they (along with us) were spellbound. The music was simple and captivating at the same time. The voice was unusual, (for lack of a more complimentary discriptive) but held the audience entranced. When the set was through, Kris told the audience they were free to go if they so desired, but that he and his band were going to play a few more songs because the sound in the old building was too good to waste. Needless to say, no one left.
I had already fallen in love with Kristofferson as a songwriter from the handful of hits by other artists performing his work. Hearing him sing his own songs put an entirely different perspective on his words. My husband and I were hooked from that first time, and traveled hundreds of miles to see dozens of concerts for years afterward.
As I watched the last moments of "Breakthrough," I was enveloped by the same emotion as that night in 1972. I didn't want the music to end. I'm not entirely certain if I have been taken back in time from the present, or if then I was taken into the future by a bonified pilgrim.
The one thing I am sure of is that every American needs to watch this documentary before the November presidential election, and listen closely to the words of a true prophet.

Average customer rating:

San Fernando Valley
Starring: Roy Rogers; Dale Evans; Jean Porter; Andrew Tombes; Bob Nolan & The Sons of the Pioneers; LeRoy Mason
Director: John English
Manufacturer: Reel Enterprises
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Man From Cheyenne
South Of Santa Fe
Nevada City
Romance On The Range
Song Of Arizona

ASIN: B000PC72MM
Release Date: 2007-04-13

Average customer rating:

blind justice
There are no reinforcements!
Superb western with great appeal
Richard Spence's Blind Justice
The Greatest Movie Ever Made

Blind Justice
Starring: Armand Assante , Elisabeth Shue , Robert Davi , Adam Baldwin , and Ian McElhinney
Director: Richard Spence
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Cousin Bette
Link
The Trigger Effect
The Underneath
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

ASIN: B000059H7N
Release Date: 2001-05-08

Description

In this action-packed western, Assante is Canaan, a roving gunfighter, blinded in the Civil War. But justice isn't only blind, it's deadly. Canaan takes on the ruthless Alacran who is holding a small town hostage for a stash of government silver.

Customer Reviews:

blind justice.......2006-11-11

I have had this title on LD for years, but when it was available on DVD, decided to get it. It is unique in the content and I did like the soundtrack, it was unusual. There'I've Said a lot without giving too much away. Regards' Dewarren.

There are no reinforcements!.......2004-10-03

Borrowing freely from westerns traditional and Italian, as well as from the Japanese Zatoichi series (blind swordfighter/masseur), BLIND JUSTICE works much better, and is a lot more enjoyable, than a mere plot description would indicate.
Armand Assante plays Canaan, a man blinded in Civil War. We see him first dressed in a black duster and wearing thick smoked glasses, walking across the desert with an infant bundled in his arms. Three Mexican banditos approach, whooping and hollering and firing their guns in the air. Canaan is dust, and if he manages to get out of this scrape he crawls into myth.
Although we're led to believe that Canaan retains some sight, his condition seems to have enhanced his other senses to a remarkable degree. Enough so that he's able to hear a scorpion walking across a hitching post from twenty feet and shoot it without touching the hand it was about to crawl onto.
The plot demands all of his super acute faculties. Canaan finds himself in a town under siege. A decimated U.S. Calvary unit is holed up in the local church, sitting on a wagon full of silver and threatened by the dreaded bandit king Alacran (Robert Davi) and his merciless minions. Oh, yeah, and there's that nurse Caroline (Elizabeth Shue) that he's got to kind of fall for, too.
Assante is a great actor, and makes his incredible character believable. The action is well choreographed and fast paced, save for a few flashblacks strategically thrown in to fill in Canaan's back story. I'm not sure we need to know how or why Canaan was blinded, but we find out anyway.
BLIND JUSTICE is compelling and an ingenious western.

Superb western with great appeal.......2003-08-02

The plot of this 1994 HBO movie is fairly simple with a sprinkling of more complex sub-plots, but essentially this movie is about a blind man (played by Armand Assante) on a quest. This western works very well with the exception of one mediocre performance in the female role, but very few [if any] of us watch westerns for the love interest. The strength of this movie is in Assante's excellent performance, as well as the universal appeal this movie will have across the board for fans of traditional American westerns and European [spaghetti] westerns alike. The director seems to borrow heavily from earlier ideas of Corbucci, Garrone and Colizzi, with a healthy measure of John Ford and Howard Hawks influence combined, to create a unique film in the western genre. I have no idea what HBO intended when they funded this film, but in a 2003 era of Dungeons and Dragons and a post-democratic society a little grit, guns and gore goes a long way! Highly recommend.

Richard Spence's Blind Justice.......2002-05-24

Although derivative of many Oriental films, this short little western still packs a punch.

Assante is a nearly blind gunfighter traveling with a baby. He is looking for the baby's mother, asking everyone he finds about the town she is supposed to be in. He stops in one town where a group of soldiers is guarding a shipment of silver, which is being eyed by the local banditos. The soldiers, trapped, send Assante out for help. All hell breaks loose.

Assante is very good as the embittered gunfighter (and often very funny). His blindness never becomes gimmicky, although one has to wonder how he can ride a horse. He uses his hearing and sense of smell to shoot, how does he know in which direction the horse is going? Adam Baldwin, as the soldier's sergeant, is great, as he distances himself even further from the Baldwin brothers (no, he is not one of them, he can act). Robert Davi has his best role since "Licence to Kill" as the main villain. The one cast liability here is Oscar nominee Elisabeth Shue.

Shue delivers all of her lines in a flat monotonal vaguely-Valley Girl accent. She should be banned from doing any period films ever again. She has one embarassing nude scene, if you can call it that. At one point, she is sitting on a bed in her corset, and you can see part of her nipple mashed up out of her undergarment. It does not look erotic, it looks painful. Assante and Shue's forced romance is also the weakest part of the script.

One scene to watch for is in the climax as a major character is blown through the doors of a building. I rewound that three times just to bask in an action shot I had never seen before.

This feels like the first film of a proposed series that never came to fruition, and with an 85 minute running time, you have to wonder what they cut out. However, I do recommend "Blind Justice."

This is rated (R) for physical violence, strong gun violence, some sexual violence, some gore, profanity, very brief female nudity, and some adult situations.

The Greatest Movie Ever Made.......2000-02-29

BLIND JUSTICE is, without a doubt, the greatest movie ever made. More color sequences than CITIZEN KANE, fewer Italian thugs than THE GODFATHER, and by far more horses than CHINATOWN. Above all, it is superbly written. Knauf is a genius.

Product Description

A U.S. marshal goes undercover to thwart a gang of stagecoach robbers.

Customer Reviews:

Not up to par.......2007-07-08

I bought 2 Johnny Mack Brown westerns Lawman and Code of the Saddle and I must say they are not up to Amazon's fine standards for dvd's. The pictures in some of the frames were so washed out and fuzzy you could hardly make out the faces at all.They looked more like the old vcr tapes than remastered dvd's.
Jim Ciampa

"Johnny Mack Brown B-Western Series ... Lawmen (1944) ... Monogram Pictures".......2007-03-10

Monogram Pictures present "LAWMEN" (1944) (digitally remastered), long running Johnny Mack Brown series turned out in the early '40s...the story line has Johnny Mack Brown giving us a better than average western plot at what he does best - fighting, riding and roping the heavies leaving us with pure enjoyment ... relive those thrilling days when Johnny Mack Brown took us down the dusty trails with hard riding and straight shooting hitting the bull's eye with excitement every time ... the Johnny Mack Brown series of B-Westerns were a staple of Saturday matinees in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s ... will the final showdown live up to all we expect from the Johnny Mack Brown feature film series --- another over the top film and gives the B-Western fans all the excitement and drama we long for.

Under Lambert Hillyer (Director), Charles J. Bigelow (Producer), Glenn Tryon (Screenwriter), Harry Neumann (Cinematographer), John C. Fuller (Editor) - - - - the cast includes Johnny Mack Brown (U.S. Marshal 'Nevada' Jack McKenzie), Raymond Hatton (U.S. Marshal 'Sandy' Hopkins), Jan Wiley (Phyliss), Kirby Grant (Clyde Miller), Robert Frazer (Banker Bradford), Edmund Cobb (Slade), Art Fowler (Gus, Chief Henchman), Hal Price ('Pop' Haynes), Marshall Reed (Henchman Killifer), Isabel Withers (Auntie Mack), Ben Corbett (Henchman Simmons), Ted Mapes (Curly Balou, Stage Driver), Steve Clark (Henchman Hardy), Bud Osborne (Henchman Wilson) - - - - released on April 25, 1944, our story line once again has Marshals Nevada and Sandy riding the trail together to catch a gang of bank robbers ... Sandy gets into town in a disguise of a cobbler, while Nevada infiltrates within the gang and everything breaks loose ... the boss man is non other than veteran actor Edmund Cobb, but who is the inside man leaking the information ... one of my favorite sidekicks is Raymond Hatton most often filmed set of partners [eventually 45 titles] in cinematic B-Western history, as undercover U.S. Marshals Jack 'Nevada' McKenzie and Sandy Hopkins ... don't touch that dial until the very last chapter - - - - meanwhile back to another great Johnny Mack B-Western provided by Monogram Pictures during their heyday of the early '30s and '40s.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Johnny Mack Brown
Birth Date: 9/01/1904 - Dothan, Alabama
Died: 11/14/1974 - Woodland Hills, California (cardiac condition)
2. Raymond Hatton
Date of Birth: 7 July 1887 - Red Oak, Iowa
Date of Death: 21 October 1971 - Palmdale, California
3. Kirby Grant (aka: Kirby Grant Hoon Jr.)
Date of Birth: 24 November 1911 - Butte, Montana
Date of Death: 30 October 1985 - Florida
4. Lambert Hillyer (Director)
Date of Birth: 8 July 1889 - South Bend, Indiana
Date of Death: 5 July 1969 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure check out other western double features by Johnny Mack Brown:

JOHNNY MACK BROWN WESTERN DOUBLE FEATURES:
1. Raiders of San Joaquin/Law of the Range (VCI #7226)
2. Pony Post/Ragtime Cowboy Joe (VCI #7238)
3. Brand A Coward/Rogue of the Range (VCI #7244)
4. Guns in the Dark/Partner of the Trail (VCI #7260)
5. Bar Z Bad Men/Between Men (VCI #7282)

Ask Amazon.Com to carry the above five titles as they are not available on Amazon as of yet...you can order and pick up your copy now from VCI Entertainment...if you enjoyed "Law Men" (1944), why not pick up other copies of Johnny Mack Brown Double Features.

Bobby J. Copeland's book on "Johnny Mack Brown: Up Close & Personal" is chuck full of answers to all the questions his fans had from early on...when you went to see him on the big screen, you got exactly what the marquee said...plenty of thrills, adventure and loaded with action...Johnny Mack was a natural for the western, his riding abilities and fight scenes were of the the same caliber as Buck Jones and Bob Steele...Johnny Mack sets the saddle better than Duke Wayne...seems Johnny got better with the more films he made and the scripts were always top notch...he was one of the best-liked people in films, what you saw on the screen is what he really was, a great human being...pickup your copy from Amazon or Empire Publishing both have this in stock.

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 58 min on DVD ~ Alpha Video ~ (2/27/2007)

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Starship Troopers / Starship Troopers 2 - Hero Of The Federation (Special Edition Two Pack)

Smoke

Seduced: Pretty When You Cry (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Look Back in Anger

Rodgers And Hammerstein