The Sacketts

Trying to merge two books into one miniseries I think led to most of the problems. What I found remarkable was how authentic the costumes were and how believable the construction of the town of Purgatory was. Most westerns have the characters running around in their Sunday go to meeting clothes 7 days a week with never a smudge on the clothes or the people. This one was a LOT more true to what I think it would really have been like. I suspect this was from Louis L'Amour input. He is famous for the authentic settings in his books. It is a pity we dont have more westerns of this caliber. Then again it is hard to find an author that does as much good research.

What's not to love when you have Sam Elliot and Tom Selleck in this old western min-series. Throw in a good classic plot and you have a good movie on hands.

After a deadly encounter that has left two members of a rival clan dead, two brothers by the names of "Orrin Sackett" (Tom Selleck) and "Tyrel Sackett" (Jeff Osterhage) are forced to leave their home in Tennessee and head out west. As luck would have it, they join a cattle drive headed by a ramrod named "Tom Sunday" (Glenn Ford) and another veteran cowboy by the name of "Cap Rountree" (Ben Johnson). Within no time, the four of them become good friends, and when the cattle drive is over, they all go into business together and, along the way, stop off in a small town in Colorado. Meanwhile, their oldest brother "Tell Sackett" (Sam Elliott) has had the unfortunate experience to become involved in a gunfight against a card shark named "Wes Bigelow" (James Gammon) which ends up with Wes dead and Tell having to quit his job as a miner to avoid any further trouble from Wes' brothers, who are rumored to be nearby. It's then that Tell arrives in the same town in Colorado, where he meets up with his two brothers and their two new colleagues. What none of them realizes is that the Bigelow brothers are close behind and have recruited several gunmen to help them in their quest for revenge. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a very good Western which managed to capture the flavor of the Old West quite well. That said, however, because it is a mini-series, the overall running time was quite long, and in addition to that, certain scenes tended to run on a bit. But even so, I found it to be very entertaining, and for that reason, I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Hollywood western so often just leave really behind, but this movie is different. The sets, scenery and buildings really added a lot of realism. Also I liked that the riders lead pack horses, got dirty and didn't always run around clean shaved. Riders didn't leave their horses loose but tied them up and ran out of ammunition and had to reload. Again realistic. The plot has a few holes and leaves some questions unanswered but even if you don't get all fired up about the story, just watching for the set designs is worth it. Firearms, saddles, building construction and costumes for the most part were period correct. And for the most part, the named actors rarely used stand-ins. In my younger days, I had the chance to ride with Slim Pickens, and that man could ride!

The best part of the Sacketts is the cast. Including 5 members of the Western Performers Hall of Fame. Sam Elliott ( Tell Sackett), Tom Selleck ( Orrin Sackett), Glenn Ford ( Tom Sunday), Ben Johnson ( Cap) and Jack Elam, so it is fair to say the producers put an effort into casting. The funny thing is though the main character is the youngest brother Tyrel ( Jeff Osterhage), and he is the one who obviously is not well known like the others. I also give the producers credit by casting actual Mexicans Gilbert Roland as Mexicans Don Luis and Ana Alicia as his granddaughter Drusilla. It certainly helps when it comes to the authenticity of the characters. While The Sacketts was well above average, the thing that prevented it from being great was too many open plot lines. I actually went to Wikipedia and found out that Tyrel married Drusilla in the book, and Orrin was definitely not as lucky with the woman he fell for ( Laura) . In the film she ended up in a saloon serving drinks and in the books she married him and tried to have him killed.. if they would have spent more time on Drusilla it would have improved the movie because the Drusilla scenes with Tyrel were some of the strongest in the movie. Anyway, I give it 8/10 stars mostly for the cast.