Winter People (1989)

Absolutely the worst movie.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Ted Kotcheff directs "Winter People". Set during the Great Depression, it stars Kurt Russell as Wayland Jackson, a clockmaker who enters a small, Appalachian community. Here Jackson falls in love with Collie Wright (Kelly McGillis), a single mother whose child was fathered by a violent clansman."Winter People's" first act is interesting, well shot and boasts impressive location photography. By its third act, however, the film has morphed into a pretentious Shakespearean drama. Derivative of "Broken Lance" and "The Big Country", it sees stubborn, warring clans reconciling over the birth of a child. By the time a needlessly long last-act home invasion takes place, Kotcheff's script has both degenerated into clichés and entirely lost its shape. Lloyd Bridges co-stars.7/10 - Worth one viewing.

This was a surprisingly wonderful movie. I love the mountains, and the way these people lived was incredibly awesome.This story makes me feel like going to the highest mountains to live. The actors were perfect for each part.The way these folks dealt with real life was real justice. They did it the way it should be done. The way they tracked down all the evidence was amazing. Their skills were uncanny. At the end, GODS hand turned even the hardest heart into a soft one. The decency was there, and things were as they should be.If you haven't seen this movie, please take time to watch it. It is GREAT.

Deceptively marketed as a "Deliverance" retread, it has, in fact, more in common with Peter Weir's "Witness" and Richard Pearce's "Heartland". Kurt Russell plays Wayland Jackson, a humble widower who begins a new life with his daughter in North Carolina. When he meets and falls in love with Collie Wright (Kelly McGilis), he must prove his mettle to her father (Lloyd Bridges) and deal with local animosity towards him.Director Ted Kotcheff, who also made "First Blood", "Uncommon Valor" and the brilliant "Split Image", a scathing look at a religious sect, brings his considerable experience with personal politics to this well made, beautifully acted, snow-bound drama.The film's last act is where the violence flares and the stage is set for several bloody, taut altercations. The film, however, never loses sight of its personal story and focuses closely on the courage and resilience of good, honest folk.John Scott's score is hypnotic.

This is a film that took me by surprise. Impressive in its delicate sensiblity of the human emotions. This is best illustrated at Kurt Russell's outburst when one of his clocks is destroyed. Well directed and well acted. One of Russell's best acting performances. Not an action film, or anything to really rock you in your seat but a powerful human story. A+