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The three hour plus two part mini-series was just about the right time that was needed for Louis L'Amour to tell his tale about the Sacketts. His fictional family encompassed a few of his many western novels and the ground covered here is covered in two of his stories.

One brother Sam Elliott has already gone west and now Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage have to go west because of a killing of a family member who have a feud going with the Sacketts. Their mother played by Mercedes McCambridge sends the boys off with her blessing and a promise that they'll send for her when they can.

One thing I liked about this film is without being sanctimonious or preachy The Sacketts does manage convey the strong moral values the men were raised with. That slips all too often in the rough and violent west when it could become a dog eat dog matter of survival.

Elliott is involved with prospecting and he runs afoul of a band of brothers named Bigelow when Elliott shoots one of them for being a card cheat. Selleck and Osterhage sign on to a cattle drive that is ramrodded by Glenn Ford who is wise in frontier ways. They settle in Santa Fe where they get caught in the middle of a feud between the new American immigrants led by John Vernon who includes among them a number of gunfighters and Gilbert Roland leader of the Mexican settlers who were there before.

Let's say that the brothers help each other out in their different situations.

A lot of familiar western names support Selleck, Elliott, and Osterhage and it's always a pleasure to see any one of them in a film. Ben Johnson plays another grizzled veteran of the frontier. Glenn Ford's character is probably the most morally ambiguous of the lot and in his long career Ford did play a few people who were not heroes, Lust For Gold and The Man From Colorado come immediately to mind. And Mercedes McCambridge's few scenes at the beginning are memorable.

Fans of Louis L'Amour novels and western fans in general will enjoy The Sacketts