DVDFile

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2006 / 184 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: June 10, 2008

Just as many rock and roll acts eventually wind up revisiting the genre’s roots by doing a blues homage at some point, a lot of film directors often yearn to try their hand at a sprawling, epic western. As one of the few truly American film genres, the western is something of a movie icon in itself, and giants like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Sam Peckinpah have all left their indelible mark on the form. Since their passing, however, audiences have been less interested in the genre and only directors with enough clout like Clint Eastwood have been able to even get projects made through the contemporary Hollywood studio system.

Thankfully, there are still talented and driven filmmakers out there who strive to keep the western tradition alive, and we’ve actually had something of a mini-renaissance in the western genre of late. Movies like Clint Eastwood’s award-winning Unforgiven, Lawrence Kasdan’s underrated Silverado, George P. Cosmatos’ riveting Tombstone, and even more recent work like James Mangold’s great 3:10 to Yuma and Kevin Costner’s Open Range have all been impressive examples of solid westerns that have also achieved a modicum of success.

One veteran director who’s always flirted with westerns is Walter Hill (The Long Riders, Wild Bill), so it made perfect sense that in collaboration with producer/star Robert Duvall, he would be able to deliver not only a solid entry, but one of the best contemporary westerns I’ve seen in the form of Broken Trail, a two-part original miniseries made for the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel in 2006. Hill’s prior experience with everything from Geronimo: An American Legend to HBO’s Deadwood series and Duvall’s previous work in True Grit and Lonesome Dove seemed to signal something special, and the final result is a film that’s both true to the traditions of the genre and satisfying to a contemporary audience.

The film is set in 1898 and follows aging cowboy Prentice “Print” Ritter’s (Robert Duvall) attempt to herd some 500 mustangs from Oregon to Wyoming to sell them to the British army. To assist him in this task, he recruits his nephew Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) who’s fallen out of favor with the family after leaving the home ranch years ago. Tom’s mother and Print’s sister has since passed away, leaving everything to Print, although that doesn’t sit well with him. In an effort to soften the blow, Print takes Tom on as a partner in the venture – although the trip becomes much more than a simple business arrangement.

While traveling cross country, the duo first takes on an additional hand in the guise of Henry “Heck” Gilpin (Scott Cooper) to assist with the large herd, and then encounter a vile slave trader named Captain Billy Fender (James Russo), who’s taking his own “herd” to market: a group of five young Chinese girls he plans to sell off as prostitutes. Since they’re traveling in the same direction, the two teams share a camp stop along the way, only to waken the next morning to find Captain Billy has stolen their money and some of their horses, leaving four of the girls behind. Tom sets out after the thief and retrieves the stolen goods along with the girl he’s taken. Miles away from the nearest town and still miles to go before their herd is delivered, Print takes on the added responsibility of getting the Chinese girls somewhere safe, which initially strikes Tom as a bad idea.

Meanwhile, the woman expecting delivery of the girls, a whorehouse owner named “Big Rump Kate” Becker (Rusty Schwimmer), starts to get suspicious when her property doesn’t arrive as planned. When Tom and Heck unwittingly stumble into her town to get supplies and possibly find a safe house for the girls, Kate confronts them and demands that they turn her property over to her. Tom and Heck refuse and leave with the girls, along with another of Kate’s prostitutes – a woman named Nola Johns (Greta Scacchi), who desperately wants to get away from an ex-con named Ed “Big Ears” Bywaters (Chris Mulkey). Frustrated, Kate hires Ed to go after them and retrieve her property and Nola in the process.

The latter half of the film becomes a race against time, as Print and Tom struggle to keep everyone safe while also keeping their horses healthy and pristine for delivery in Wyoming. With Ed’s posse hot on their heels, though, it’s only a matter of time before they confront him. Along the way Tom takes a liking to Sun Foy (Gwendoline Yeo), the eldest of the Chinese girls; while Print and Nola also begin a casual romance. But the key relationship here is the one between Print and Tom – the uncle/nephew bond that skews more toward a father/son attachment. Without a wife or children, Print’s only family is Tom; and having lost his parents, Tom only has Print. Although they initially butt heads over business details, they soon learn to watch each other’s backs and, more importantly, to forgive and forget. There’s a touching scene near the end where Print tells Tom the only reason he took him along on the job was to make things square between him and his mom. When Tom asks if things are square between Print and him, Print responds: “More than square.” It’s a nice, subtle moment of acknowledgement that Duvall delivers with great authority.

The cast here is impeccable and everyone does stellar work. Of course, Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church carry the bulk of the movie and are onscreen almost the entire three-hour running time, rightfully earning their respective Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Emmy Awards for the production. But equally-impressive bit parts are turned in by Greta Scacchi, Chris Mulkey, James Russo, and Scott Cooper (Gods and Generals), who plays the perfect voice of reason between the stodgy old Print and the sometimes hot-headed and impulsive Tom. This is easily one of Walter Hill’s finest directorial efforts, and that’s saying something for a man who also helmed classics like The Warriors and 48 Hrs. Broken Trail would easily rank among the Top Ten contemporary westerns I’ve seen and is the perfect companion piece to Duvall’s other great TV miniseries, Lonesome Dove.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s aspect ratio of 1.78:1 is presented in finely-detailed and very crisp transfer using the AVC video CODEC. This is a first-rate high-def transfer that literally pops off the screen. Shot mostly on location in Canada, which has become the landscape of choice in mimicking the American Midwest, the movie is filled with sprawling and panoramic compositions brimming with lush greens and golden hues. Director Walter Hill and cinematographer Lloyd Ahern II often take advantage of that rare “golden hour” when the sun is just about to set and these scenes, in particular, looking stunningly vibrant and warm. Both extreme long shots and tight close-ups all retained a high level of detail and color balance was consistent throughout. Flesh tones are all natural, and there wasn’t any sign of compression artifacts, edge enhancement, or mosquito noise. Of the many nighttime sequences where Print and Tom’s crew would camp out under the stars, everything remained well-defined and discernible even by the orange glow of a campfire and there was no evidence of black crush or macroblocking. Overall this is an outstanding video presentation.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

While not as impressive as its video counterpart, the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack is certainly above average. Like most westerns, Broken Trail doesn’t have all the explosions and rumbles of a big action film to fill out its sound matrix, but there’s just enough discrete effects to create a realistic sense of time and place. Galloping horse hooves clip-clop from rear to front channels as Print and Tom maneuver their large herd through the prairie. Ambient outdoor sounds like crickets and rustling brush fill the rear channels during some of the nighttime sequences, and dialogue is always clear and concise through the center channel. Even the subwoofer wakes up during some of the key gunfights when shots sound more realistic and akin to mini explosives than the clichéd and dated “ricochet” pinging of classic Hollywood westerns. The original music credited to David Mansfield and Van Dyke Parks is also given a nice stereo and surround presentation and helps to underscore the film’s emotional scenes. Overall, a great audio presentation.

The ample optional subtitles are in English SDH, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Indonesian, Dutch and Arabic.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Although the BD only offers a single featurette, it’s better than the usual EPK material and is quite informative. Broken Trail: The Making of a Legendary Western (23:15) was originally produced and run on AMC to promote the miniseries when it first aired. The sheer pleasure and enjoyment of everyone involved on the project really comes through as the spot offers interviews with director Walter Hill, star/producer Robert Duvall, co-star Thomas Haden Church, and many other cast and crew members. Walter Hill is very engaging and explains why he remains so enamored with westerns and what he feels are the essential components of the genre.

Most of the cast – especially the young actresses who play the Chinese girls – are extremely generous in their praise for Duvall and they all noted how he kept coaching everyone to “pull back” and try not to overact to keep the scenes real. It’s a great bit of advice and thinking back to virtually all of Duvall’s greatest work, he’s really the polar opposite of his fellow Godfather cast mate Al Pacino, who always tends to play things big and loud. Duvall’s own affection for this particular project is evident as he considers it part of his own “western trilogy” which consists of Lonesome Dove, Open Range, and Broken Trail. I have to agree with him, although of the three I clearly think this latter entry is the cream of the crop.

The disc also includes trailers for 21, Vantage Point, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, along with a promo for other titles available on Blu-Ray from Sony.

The original two-part miniseries can be viewed in its separate 90-minute installments or as a single 184-minute feature and each part is divided into ten chapters.

Final Thoughts

I have to admit that Broken Trail clearly took me by surprise and has been instantly elevated to the ranks of some of the greatest contemporary westerns I’ve seen. It’s a refreshing and welcomed return to form for director Walter Hill and a pure labor of love for star/producer Robert Duvall that stands proud alongside his superior work in Lonesome Dove and Open Range. With a top-notch video presentation, a very good audio presentation, and a lean but comprehensive offering of bonus material, this BD is highly recommended.


Here’s a note about the apparent duplicate Buy Guide. Our I.T. people are still hard at work on a large project and have not yet had the time to modify the underlying site database formatting code to accommodate the new 0-to-10 rating scales. So until they do, for HD on disc, I’ll insert this note and a Buy Guide at the end of the review text and leave the conventional 0-to-5 Buy Guide blank.