I watched this movie recently and it was a pleasant surprise. I had never heard of it, and that's coming from someone who is a huge movie fan and has been to a lot of movies. For those that have not seen it, I would recommend getting the DVD to watch. Worth the price. Very inexpensive. The movie is basically in the mold of The Karate Kid. A High School football player moves to a new town: Kanab Utah. His father is in Jail there and the family moved there to be near the father. The townspeople look down upon families who have someone in jail. The star is an actor named Jason Wiles. Amanda Peterson is a love interest and her character's father is also in Jail. It causes both of them grief and sorrow. On a unique note, Jason Wile's character is trained for football by the ghost of the great 20th century athlete and Native American Jim Thorpe. It was nice to learn some history about Jim Thorpe and one gem was he was coached by Pop Warner! Russell Means is the actor who plays Jim Thorpe. I thought he was fabulous in the role and probably stood out more than anyone in the movie. The movie was filmed in Kanab, Utah and the scenery was beautiful. Rocky cliffs, and beautiful moonlit streams,... many movies have been filmed here dating close to 100 years. Margot kidder plays the star's mother, Bruce Weitz of Hill Street Blues fame is great as the Football coach and gives a great speech at halftime of the championship game. Jake Busey is good as the foil of Jason Wile's character. Max Casella, of Doogie Howser fame, plays the friend of the star. Incidentally, Max played opposite Amanda Peterson in a funny Doogie Howser episode where he went on a date with her and she was temporarily blind and when she regained her sight she did not want to date him, lol. There is also a mystical, white wild horse that our hero needs to catch to help Jim Thorpe get to his Spirit world to be with his people. The part Amanda Peterson plays is that of a high school girl who has pain because her father is in Jail and the townspeople, students look down on her because of this. She has some nice scenes with Wiles, especially one where he takes her at night to see this wild horse in the cliffs and running through the stream in the moonlight. The musical score for this movie is very good. This movie is definitely worth a watch. Probably needed some star power in the lead role if it was going to be a box office success. I think it ended up being a t.v. movie. Maybe a Matt Damon or Ben Affleck could have provided that star power but they were really just beginning their adult careers at this time, too. Jason Wiles was good, just not a star. I don't know how much money was spent making this movie, but the scenery is so good it looks great. One mistake I thought was made was how Jason Wiles was used by the football coach. However, I don't want to give that away for people who have not seen it. The Football scenes are pretty good. Obviously sometimes Hollywoodized. For fans of Amanda Peterson, it won't be lost on you that this was the last thing she did in Hollywood. At times you may think about that and get a little sad. Interesting in this she was 22 playing an 18 year old as opposed to most of her movies she always seemed to be playing someone older than her age. The movie had the potential to be really good, but just could not quite get there. But it is pretty good and worth a watch for the beautiful scenery alone.
