After his mother is murdered, a gun-slinging bounty hunter finds the father he never met who is battling a range war against a powerful land baron.After his mother is murdered, a gun-slinging bounty hunter finds the father he never met who is battling a range war against a powerful land baron.After his mother is murdered, a gun-slinging bounty hunter finds the father he never met who is battling a range war against a powerful land baron.
- Awards
- 1 win total
Stephen Bridgewater
- Jonesy
- (as Stephen W. Bridgewater)
Featured reviews
"If I get a hint that he had something to do with mom's death I will kill him." After Wes (Brown) returns home he is told of his mother's death. After being told of who may be behind it he rides off for revenge. At this point I could almost just write one blanket review for every western that comes out and just change the movie titles. LONG GONE are the days of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and even at this point Kevin Costner westerns. I'm not sure what happened but somewhere along the way the genre got relegated to made-for-TV movies on the Hallmark channel. I'm not saying that Hallmark movies are a bad thing but when you want to see a western a little roughness is needed in them. The swagger of John Wayne is replaced by the pretty boy look. The intensity of Eastwood is replaced with soft emotion laden characters that don't seem to fit in the west. If you want to get your wife or girlfriend to watch a western with you then show her the new ones. If you want to show her what a real western should be show her anything by John Wayne. Overall, another dagger in the genre that used to be known as western. Apparently all it takes to be a western now is people in cowboy hats riding horses. I give it a C.
The thing about reviewing every single film you watch, is that occasionally you run out of things to say. Such is the case now.
Shadows on the Mesa is a made-for-TV western which is roughly fifteen times better than I thought it would be. It has a good plot, characters that have more depth then you'd expect and a Star Wars-esque twist on your typical 'love interest'.
The shoot outs aren't that great, but that's because this was originally made for The Hallmark Channel, which is targeted at all the family. So don't expect any blood, swearing or other material that might make it unsuitable for those out of nappies to watch.
It doesn't need them anyway, as the movie is good enough to not have to bother with trying to attract a more 'adult' audience. I liked it. End of story. 6/10
Shadows on the Mesa is a made-for-TV western which is roughly fifteen times better than I thought it would be. It has a good plot, characters that have more depth then you'd expect and a Star Wars-esque twist on your typical 'love interest'.
The shoot outs aren't that great, but that's because this was originally made for The Hallmark Channel, which is targeted at all the family. So don't expect any blood, swearing or other material that might make it unsuitable for those out of nappies to watch.
It doesn't need them anyway, as the movie is good enough to not have to bother with trying to attract a more 'adult' audience. I liked it. End of story. 6/10
The main character Rawlins has 1 more facial expression than Arnold as the terminator. He smiled once, maybe twice. His acting chops are wooden and I think the only reason they chose him is because he has those "squinty" gunfighter eyes that are in vogue for these types of movies. All of the costumes were not "aged" properly, same for the hats. Rawlin's holster was brand new, it looked like it was fresh out of the box, it had no evidence that he had used it before enough to be a "fast draw." It certainly didn't look like he had practiced with it. The rifle shots would have gone straight through the buckboard and hit the men taking cover behind it. And if I ever see another movie where a building blows up while the actors never look back it will be more irritating than the whole of this movie was. I can't see how this movie got good reviews. The acting was horrible.
My husband and I really love this movie. We consider it to be a classic western with excellent acting on the part of Kevin Sorbo, Wes Brown, and Gail O'Grady. The editing is excellent throughout and the tug of emotion is carried through very well from beginning to end. Wes handled his role so well, carrying such a grudge which becomes very understandable as the movie unfolds. We've watched the movie over and over again and the one thing that amazes me is that it never gets OLD!! Somehow there is a freshness about this movie that remains no matter how many times we have watched it. I'd have to say that my husband has watched it at least 20 times, I've watched it probably 8 times. I highly recommend it and dearly hope they will make a sequel!!!
A movie is a collaboration of many technicians and artists working together to involve the viewer in the story the movie portrays. This collaboration failed because there was a strange paucity of motive or plot to the final conflict between the Dowdy's and the Eastman's. The movie that I was able to watch was, as an earlier viewer said, a collection of scenes cobbled together with little rhyme or reason for the characters actions. A their best they managed to be in chronological order. Mr. Martin, the writer, did manage some smooth and believable dialog, but without a plot or believable subplots the movies is just a hash or melange of scenes that fall apart without any believable motivation for characters actions or plot for the scenes to fit in. Maybe he can improve, since this was his first effort, but he need to learn a lot about structure and plot of a movie or play. The director, Mr. Cass, has directed a pretty good western in the past, "The Johnson County War." However, he must share in the lack of plot portrayed in the final film. The credits list a "Bronze Wrangler" Western Heritage Award,but it must have benefited from a lack of competition. If you don't expect a full story and can settle for watching the good scenes with some familiar television genre actors; and reading a book or newspaper until the next good scene then this will fill the bill. The sets, settings, costumes and actors were fairly good with a few inevitable anachronisms and contradictions, The western movie genre lost a lot of expertise in western period costumes and props with the death of the old studios systems.
Did you know
- TriviaOne scene shows a wind turbine in the background.
- GoofsThe structure at about 49 minutes looks exactly like a modern wind turbine. The "tin" cans used as target practice are not of the period. The ribbing on the cans looks current.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Home & Family: Wes Brown/Kim Greenwood/Rebekka Johnson (2013)
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Amenaza en la sombra
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 1h 30m(90 min)
- Color
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