Miracle at Sage Creek

Miracle at Sage Creek

Movie Review for the Cowboy Chronicle, International monthly publication for SASS (Single Action Shooting Society)

By Steve Shaw

Rarely are Westerns made for television these days. The few exceptions attempt to recast the Western in a bitter, physically violent role, oftentimes with offensive language. Westerns the entire family can enjoy are difficult to find…they just don't make 'em anymore. Miracle at Sage Creek is a rare, welcomed change. This well-developed story, with fine acting, has you speculating about the miracle, since several materialize; a splendid and appropriate family-oriented film for the Christmas holidays. The story is set in 1888 Wyoming with David Carradine portraying rancher Ike Franklin, a hard-nosed, ruthless old man, embittered with the death of his wife at the hands of a Sioux war party ten years earlier. Just before Christmas, Ike hatches a scheme to legally remove neighbor Chief Red Eagle (superbly underplayed by Wes Studi) and his family off their small adjacent homestead with the use of US Cavalry. Red Eagle's son-in-law, John Stockton, a one time suitor of Ike's daughter Mary, perhaps the only man that could reason with Ike, is ambushed, shot and left for dead by villainous road agents while on his way home from town. Ike's daughter Mary and her husband, Seth, operate the Sage Creek Station, a stagecoach stop on the road between Lush and Chadron. Ike disapproves how the two are raising their two young sons, and of course, feels Seth not good enough for his daughter. When their youngest son, Kit, becomes infected with scarlet fever and is not expected to recover, Ike's despondency intensifies. How these two families overcome their prejudices and the tragedies befalling them is capably told. This film will elicit a tear of two, as should any well-told Christmas story. David Carradine is at his best, supported by, arguably one of the best actors to portray an Indian, Wes Studi. Familiar names and faces sustaining these two veterans are Buck Taylor, Tracy Nelson, Michael Parks, Irene Beddard, and Tim Abell. The film, shot at Old Tucson Studios' Mescal movie site in Arizona, is directed by James Intveld, by a script written by Thadd Turner. Turner should be familiar to many of you. His well-researched, non-fiction book "Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood City – End of Trail" was reviewed and recommended by this author in a previous Cowboy Chronicle issue. Thadd was a national level competitor in Cowboy Action Shooting from 1995-2001 and was a contributing editor for True West Magazine from 2001-2003. Through his production company, Talmarc Productions, Turner produced this film and also served as stunt coordinator and co-lead wrangler. In fact, if you look close, you will see Turner as one of the US Cavalry troopers attempting to evict the Indian family. The film has been picked up by American World Pictures for distribution through Hallmark with a release date of January 2006. Check your local listings.

Wouldn't call this curious offering great, but won't call it bad either. It was a relief to see a small scale modern Western that didn't see the need to go down the Clint Eastwood trail of super nasty, so called cowboy 'art'....

This story concentrates more on the daily living standards of 'pioneers' than simply the rough oater types. It's main problems, regarding story, lie in the fact it doesn't properly introduce us to the characters. It's difficult at times to figure out who's who. The movie has the look of a show that may have been longer than it's final release.

The first signs of this come with some badly timed edits that don't gel with the general good look and flow of Virgil Harper's fine Cinematography. There are also several characters who tend to disappear when you are expecting them to feature much more than they do.

The location shots are a treat for the eye with vistas and grand horizons filled with majestic skies. The Director: James Inveld (Brother of Ricky Inveld who was Ricky Nelson's drummer, who also died in the same plane crash) has gone for a deliberately paced unfolding of the story, a bit like the classic 'Shane' used to such good advantage. There are odd bursts of violence that remind us that this is still an untamed land, but mostly it's content to follow the personal lives of settling families.

Acting is surprisingly good, especially David Carradine as the bigoted landowner. He is matched by Actor, Producer, Musician and Emmy winner: Daniel Quinn, a performer with solid acting training in the UK. Lovely Sarah Aldrich is also good as his wife. The youngsters do well and turn in quite convincing performances. Pity the usually interesting Michael Parks has so little to do (edited out perhaps?) Also good to see Wes Studi making an all too rare appearance, giving the picture a better balance to the Native American Indian side of the story.

The Music score: partly composed by the Director (with Michael Turner) adds some fine atmosphere to a film made by semi-professional independent producers. This won't please gung-ho action fans or those who lean towards being more technically aware, but should be enjoyed by seekers of undemanding family fare.

Interesting to note: The actor playing the nasty, gun happy, racist cavalry recruit: Thadd Turner, also holds writing, production and technical credits for this film, and is himself, a sharp shooting champion.

I'm watching the movie right now, so I don't know how it ends.

Um, Christmas-time in Wyoming, and there's green leaves, green grass, flowing water, shirt-sleeve attire, no breath fog.. meaning, it's not very cold in Lusk, Wyoming in December?? WHAT? The Indian woman was washing clothes outside, sleeves rolled up, in December, in Wyoming. Wyoming has long, wicked-cold, windy winters. That immediately took a lot of the reality away. It was filmed in Arizona, they should have just set the story there, as "Wyoming Territory" didn't have much to do with the story. There were homesteaders and Indians in Arizona, too. It's just too unbelievable. Maybe later it snows in the movie, but I've been to Wyoming, and seen it snow in JUNE, and I've been there in February and it was very cold and windy. Nobody went out in just light jackets.

They filmmakers must take us as people who all live in LA or NY, people who know nothing about geography and what places look like, and people who don't ever travel. I've seen some movies supposed to be Wyoming, but filmed in Canada, and you can't tell. The terrain in THIS movie didn't look at ALL like Wyoming.

Bad acting, especially the Grandfather Indian character. Unneeded choppy "Indian Accent". Words used I don't think someone new to the language would use.

Here's another: A mother and her son are sitting right by a fireplace that has a good crackling fire in it. She feels his head and determines he has a fever. How could she tell? Being a mother, I know better than to forehead-feel a kid for a fever when they're a few feet from a fire.

Snore.

You want a good western? See Lonesome Dove. See Tombstone. See Open Range. See anything else.

OK a hundred things wrong with this movie; and a hundred things right. But, in the end everything works out the way everyone wants. The high point of the film is David Carradine, an exceptionally under-rated actor. His character transformation is too sudden, but hey John Ford didn't direct this. There is nice cinematography and good acting all around, backed by a story that is fairly believable and satisfying. Wouldn't watch it again, but didn't feel cheated watching it this time.

From reading previous comments it seems as though every relative, friend, and casual acquaintance of anyone even remotely connected with this movie has pulled out every superlative in the book to recommend it.

In actual fact this is a slow, plodding, uneventful film without out a single character to identify with. It has too many characters -- none of which have really been developed sufficiently for us to care about any of them -- too many stories going on at the same time, and too many clichés. Add to this continual references to God and prayer and one gets the feeling we're being not so subtly preached to.

We'd all like to see clean and wholesome family oriented movies but that doesn't mean we'll settle for substandard fare.

A fine cast is totally wasted here. Rent this film before you consider buying it. I'm betting you won't put out money to own it.