The Quest

Tim Matheson and Kurt Russell star in this TV movie (which later became a series) about two brothers who roam the west trying to find their sister, who was kidnapped by Indians as a child. This variation on the John Wayne movie "The Searchers" can stand on its own two feet; it's a sharply-written, beautifully photographed, well acted film, smoothly directed by Lee H. Katzin, with some welcome humor amid the seriousness and a memorable segment featuring old pros Brian Keith and Cameron Mitchell. Keith plays a crusty old outlaw and Mitchell the lawman--and his old friend--who leads the posse that tracks him down and surrounds he and his gang in their hideout. Matheson and Russell work well together, and it's obvious why this became a series. Unfortunately, the series didn't live up to its potential and didn't last long, but this is definitely one of the best made-for-TV westerns to have come out of the '70s--or any other era, for that matter--and could easily have stood on its own as a feature. If you're a western fan, or if you like a good story told well, don't miss this.

The '70s was a bad decade for the television Western. Bonanza

was cancelled a year after the death of Dan Blocker, The Cowboys, based on the John Wayne movie, which was based on the book, was cancelled, and it's too bad this series, based on the John

Ford movie The Searchers, was also cancelled. Why? Low ratings, for one reason, and probably Vietnam, for another. It's the story of two brothers. Quentin Bodeen, played by Tim Matheson, the voice of Jonny Quest in the 1960s, and Morgan Two Persons Bodeen, who, with their unnamed sister, were taken from a west-bound

wagon train by Indians when they were little. Morgan, who was

raised by the Indians, meets his brother, Quentin, a cowboy, ten years later. Neither knew that the other existed. Morgan tells him that they have a sister, who was also taken from the wagon train. The two of them set out across the West to find her and bring her back to white society. Did they find her? I don't know. The show

was cancelled after three or four episodes.

The acting was atrocious. The ending was as hokey as can be. How was this film ever made, an embarrassment to westerns. They tried to make the ending climatic and heartfelt - what a joke and laughable at best. The hanging, the chopping down of the tree - wtf. I wish I never saw this - I'm scarred for life. Literally the guy at the end of the movie is about to be hung and he's reading a cheesy poem that is ridiculous. If you have 2 hours of time to kill don't waste it on this. If there was a zero star I would have selected that. I cant believe there are those that rated this movie more than one star.