The Mountie

My love of westerns, and being Canadian, are likely influencing my opinion of this film. Also known as The Way of the West, The Mountie contains a few flaws and some poor make-up but, overall, I enjoyed it. I found this film refreshing because of the Canadian content and the appearance of the red serge wearing Wade Grayling (Andrew Walker), a Member of the Northwest Mounted Police. I especially loved the unique behaviour of Wade's horse, Halifax, during one scene (I'm trying not to give it away). As westerns go, I found this particular scene new and, as a result, fun. On a negative note, I hate when Wade, knowing he is in danger, doesn't behave as so. After being caught one time without his revolver, you'd think the Mountie would adjust his level of officer safety? Oh well, just let it go. As a matter of fact, if you can let a few things go, you may appreciate this film as well. Especially if you're Canadian.

In 'honour' of the woeful poetry a little girl reads out at regular intervals in Way Of The West, or The Mountie, or The Ranger, or whatever they're calling it these days, I thought I'd compose my own dreadful little ode:

Clichés abound No Surprises in store This Film Is a plodding bore

Good guy with white horse Baddies on black Colour coding This movie doesn't lack

The hero here Is totally vanilla No personality traits Dialogue just filler

The tedium extends To the shoot outs Stay awake? I have my doubts

But before I take My blessed nap Let me warn you Of this piece o'crap

It's in the 99p shop Taking up space Just ignore it and leave With a smile on your face

There we go. Wordsworth, Hughes, Byron... you better watch out... 3/10

Andrew Walker rides into the camp in the Yukon, wearing his red coat and leather hat. He's there to take a look for where the Northwest Mounted Police intend to build a fort. To the west are a motley mix of Russian and Americans. Here, there's only tents, a church being built, and Latvians. Of course, they're looking for gold, and not particular about how they get it; if they have to torture a successful placer for the location of his find, that's all right with them, especially the priest. In the meantime, they raise opium poppies for cash.

All legends can use correction to bring them back to reality, and this movie tries to do so, with children reciting Robert W. Service poem in sing-song, a camera which shows the Yukon as lovely in long shot, but ugly in close-up, and a hero who massacred a large number of Cree Indians. That's civilization for you. Even so, it's better than what it replaces. It tries to protect women and children, and the legend is still there, with a shoot-out between two disgraced Mounties and a bunch of savage Latvian men.

The movie starts out slow. A lot of movies do that, so an increasing pace of editing and action can build from suspense to release. Unfortunately, this one never speeds up much.

I have to admit that the alternate (USA DVD) title "The way of the west" doesn't speak to the movies content. I am certain the only reason they created an alternate title for USA distribution is because "The Mountie" or "Way of the Yukon" or some similarly Canadian title would have little meaning or frame of reference for American viewers. Having said that, I can see how it being in IMDb's category Westerns could be a bit misleading and probably why other reviewers were disappointed. I wouldn't really drop it into the drama category either.

The cinematography is predictably well done, and given the raw nature of the Canadian Territories there are some great backgrounds. I agree that the lead actor (Walker) really does lay on the Clint Eastwood a bit thick. And unnecessarily so. he could have pulled off the role just as easily and likely more believably in a less strained manner.

As for continuity, I had no problems following the story line. I might question the historical accuracy of opium cultivation (which seems to be implied) in the Yukon, but there definitely was an opium trade. One also has to take into account that the story basically takes place in the middle of nowhere so character interaction is limited to the few people in the camp (its not a town).

I found the writing competent and the story engaging. I often shy away from Canadian movies due to their track record in terms of quality, but I didn't find The Mountie disappointing. It not a masterpiece either, but it is entertaining. The cast was well placed and the performances believable. Some familiar faces with Jessica Pare (who was awesome in "Suck"), Pastko and Buza.

All in all its worth the rental fee, I won't be adding it to my DVD collection, but it was enjoyable enough for me. I give it a 6/10. Just don't expect "Hang "em high".

By Canadian standards I am sure this could be considered a work of art, by the rest of the worlds standards it was "meh". This movie appears to be a feeble Canadian attempt at an American "western" type movie, it even has a quite humorous "Canadian Clint Eastwood". I suppose if you go into the movie knowing this and expecting to be a typical "Canadian movie" with a simplistic plot, predictable storyline and less than average actors you will not feel as if you wasted your time. It is not bad for something to do when bored on a Sunday afternoon. If you are a pretentious Canadian however I would expect you would be very excited to see this "film" and it would be a special event in your life ;) I have seen worse movies but I have most certainly seen BETTER. Give it a shot, as long as you do not spend more than $1.00 to view it then you should be okay with the time you gave to watch this movie.