Grand Nord

In the latter part of the 19th century,Alaska is swamped with people claiming land for goldmines and a struggle ensues between a crooked businessman and a half breed over stolen land. This is in all aspects a western but set in land covered with snow and with sledges more than horses.Film is actually mainly norweigian made but also has other countries involved in it's production,so may even come under the euro western genre.Film is slow paced but also strangely seems rushed at times especially at a rather lacklustre climax.James Caan as the villain of the piece plays it all wide eyed and mad looking which is a little over the top.Some sporadic violence and a couple of OK moments but not enough.

RELEASED IN 1996 and directed by Nils Gaup, "North Star" is a Western that takes place in Nome, Alaska, during a gold rush in 1899. James Caan plays the love-to-hate mogul who denies mining claims to foreigners and attempts to kill a half-breed Indian (Christopher Lambert) for the claim to a cave filled with gold, which the Natives use in their ceremonies. The half-breed ends up abducting the mogul's woman, played by the beautiful Catherine McCormack, who you might remember as Wallace's doomed wife at the beginning of "Braveheart" (1995). The Winter chase is on!

There are elements of other Westerns here, like "Death Hunt" (1981), "Valdez is Coming" (1971), "The Far Country" (1954), "North to Alaska" (1960) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990), but that's to be expected. On the originality side, it's one of the few fully Winter Westerns of which I can remember beyond "The Great Silence" (1968) and "The Hateful Eight" (2015). Of course, films like "Will Penny" (1967), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "A Man Called Sledge" (1970) and a few others have some fairly long Winter sequences.

While Caan's villainy is too over-the-top for my tastes (although he does it well), I found "North Star" to be a well-done Western, except that the final 11 minutes or so feel rushed. As noted above, I was impressed that this was one of the first Westerns I've seen that focused exclusively on Winter conditions. It goes without saying that shooting in the snow is way more challenging than shooting in other seasons; and even more so if the locale is mountainous. The locations, sets and cast are all first-rate even while the storytelling has somewhat of a comic booky Grade B vibe.

But the filmmakers seemed to hurry the ending. Maybe they wanted to just complete the project and keep it under 90 minutes; or perhaps they weren't confident with the closing footage and awkwardly tried to "make it work" in the editing room. But it's not THAT bad and didn't ruin the experience for me. At the end of the day "North Star" is a worthwhile 'modern Western' that attempts something unique even while being a pastiche of the genre.

THE FILM RUNS 88 minutes and was shot in Norway. WRITERS: No less than five scripters are credited to adopting Heck Allen's novel.

GRADE: B-/C+ (5.5/10)

Had "North Star" been made in, let's say, the 60s or 70s, then I would be able to watch it and classify it as maybe an eight or nine-star film. It's got the kind of plot that would suit a 90s movie, but the way it's made is far too reminiscent of the past. And when you mix a film that looks modern with a style of the past, it comes out a bit campy. For example, the screenplay seems like it was written a long time ago and went unchanged until just now. Characters laughing at jokes and stuff that are not even remotely funny were common back in the 60s and 70s, but not in films of the 90s. I hate to say it, but sound effects and stuff in this movie like that are also no better than the Westerns of long ago. Thus, the shootouts aren't that exciting. Some parts of "North Star" go on for too long, some parts whip by way too fast.

There are some positive aspects to "North Star" though. Even though it does seem like it's made in the wrong time and kind of cheesy, it is a film that you can sit down and watch without getting bored. Sure, you'll be thinking a lot, "man, that was...weird" or "that wasn't very thrilling" or "that was disappointing", but it is a film where you want to see the rest of it. That's what made me give this film five out of ten stars for a rating. But it's still heavily flawed and had it been made twenty or thirty years before it really was, I think it would have been better.

I spotted plot elements from at least three other movies in this film- 1)the ruthless landowner/businessman abusing the honest foreigners (Heaven's Gate) 2)the kidnapping of the said baddie's girlfriend (Valdez is Coming) 3)the pursuit of the noble hero through the Alaskan wilds (Death Hunt) James Caan played the heel well and Burt Young stole the show as his henchman. Christopher Lambert, however, looked like he was sleepwalking through his role, which ruined the pacing for me. He could have livened up the movie had he shown some interest in getting revenge on those who wronged him.I don't think Nordic Westerns are going to catch on.

Businessman Sean McLennon is the president of the miners union. He has banned all non-Americans from staking claim to the land. Moreover he is killing off people in order to then buy their claims at auction. However when his men only wound Saanteek and kill an old Indian, Saanteek returns to take revenge on McLennon and to protect his land.

Why did I bother to tape this film? The film industry is a funny thing isn't it – James Caan was at his peak in Godfather and Rollerball, while Lambert had his `peak' with Highlander – but now they both wind up in this, although for Lambert he hasn't fallen too far. The story here is very basic and starts out very dry. Unfortunately it stays that way. The characters never get interesting and the plot never ever gets any tension involved at any level. The way the ending is forced into a face off is clumsy and typical of the whole film.

Caan is OK because he never seems to take it totally seriously – certainly the plot `twists' around his character are impossible to accept without laughing. Lambert is terrible – he seems to be saying all his lines through gritted teeth as if he has his jaw wired up! The rest of the cast are also poor but the leads being bad distract from that. The cast is wooden and even then they are put to shame by the wooden sets being better than them. The sets and costumes are good and set the period well – shame the film lets them down.

Overall this is totally lacking in interest, plot, characters and any sort of action or tension whatsoever. It's not total rubbish it's just made with no conviction, no passion and is worse than bad – it's just barely mediocre.