The Desperate Trail (1995)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The Desperate Trail is directed and co-written by P. J. Pesce with Tom Abrams. It stars Sam Elliott, Craig Sheffer, Linda Fiorentino and Frank Whalley. Music is scored by Stephen Endelman and cinematography by Michael Bonvillain. Plot sees Fiorentino and Scheffer team up as wanted fugitives out on the lam, pursued by lawman Sam Elliott, who will so anything outside the law to get his way.The violence is loaded and film aspires to be a Leone and Peckinpah hybrid, so much so it would be easy for the casual Western viewer to believe they were witness to something special in the genre. Slow motion action and explosive blood squibs are the order of the day, throw in some genre staples and you are good to go. After a great opening, a false dawn if ever there was one, Pesce's (From Dusk Till Dawn 3/Sniper 3) picture suffers from bad direction, bad editing, awful musical scoring and the biggest problem of all, gross miscasting. Fiorentino, a fine actress and a fine looking woman, is no rooting tooting vengeance seeking blood spilling cowgirl, while Scheffer? Seriously? Who thought that was a good idea? And Endelman scores it like it's the bastard son of science fiction and Australia outback.Elliott is good value, he almost always is, but even he at times looks to be wondering just what he is doing in such poor fare. Bonvillain's photography holds up well, with some nice broad lensing of the Santa Fe and Tesuque Pueblo locations; with one gorgeous red sky shot particularly impressive, and the final shoot out is competently staged. But this is a bad Western film, even by TV movie standards. Cribbing from better movies and better film makers does not a good film make, case in point, The Desperate Trail. 3/10

Conagher, with Sam Elliot, is much better. Don't know if I've ever seen such phony, bogus gunfights. Everybody shoots everything they can to supposedly kill each other, but only one person seeming dies from it. But this is a "politically correct" tale of a woman who murders her man. Making bad choices of men is not new, is it? The cinematography & costumes including some cool hats are nice, so much so you might want to put on a slicker & be tough with a gun or two. Ha! DejaVu, all over again? This movie is not for the cerebrally gifted, more for those, including feminist apologists, holding on to the past/their "stuff", like possibly blame, the belief in violence, revenge, glorifying the "good old days".

awesome western--amazing action. fiorentino is quite good and for the first time sam elliott is a bad guy (and a very convincing one) frank whaley continues to be one of our greatest actors. the direction and writing are really great--why hasn't anyone seen this movie?

I don't like westerns, and I absolutely hate Sam Elliot, beyond words. But, I actually enjoyed this. One of the few feminine westerns out there. All westerns usually seem so macho pig, with no story line, and gunfights galore. All the acting was pretty good, except for Sam Elliot, who I don't see why everyone says he's so good, and I'm not saying Frank Whaley was bad in this, but I did see hints of Swing Kids, every so often. But, overall, it's good, and worth watching even if you hate westerns.