The Shadow Riders (1982)
Starring: Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, Katherine Ross
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Rating: PG for mild profanity, some suggestive content, and mild action and violence
Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot are two of my favorite western actors. In fact, other than Val Kilmer I don’t think I care for any other western actors . . . we all know I’m hard on western movies and books (though I’ve read none and watched precious few.) Perhaps they don’t always deserve the hard knock I give them, but I’m still mostly unimpressed. What I have found is that the stories bother me, but I enjoy (some of) the actors.
Take True Grit for example. The old version with John Wayne bruised my intelligence with the lack of effort in acting and the plot was bothersome at the very least. The new version offered better actors (particularly Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges) but the same plot with a few changes. Between the two movies, I dislike the plot-line and can handle a grand total of 2 of the actors. If Steinfeld and Bridges had not nailed their performances, I would dislike True Grit even more, which almost doesn’t seem possible.
It’s been ages since I watched it, but I did enjoy Chisum. I remember thinking it was a tad-bit over-dramatic, but so far it’s the only John Wayne movie I wouldn’t mind watching again. Without re-watching to remember the quality of the movie, I believe I would again attribute the success of that movie in winning my approval was the level of skill the actors put forth.
Consider now an old classic with two of the most renowned western actors, The Shadow Riders.
The Plot
Mac and Dal Travern have found themselves on opposite sides of the Civil War. Blood runs thicker than water for these brothers though, and they take company together as they return home when the war ends. But war isn’t over for the Travern family. Rebel renegades have run through the south and Texas in particular, rounding up supplies, cattle, as well as men and women to sell for profit, guns, and ammunition at the Mexico border.
When the Travern brothers learn their sisters have been taken, they’ll stop at nothing to get them safely home to live in the peace that they’ve spent perilous years fighting for.
Shall we take sin so lightly?
The Shadow Riders proves my point quite well. The plot line – while interesting in some ways – lacks luster and heart in others. But the actors? They shine like diamonds in a rough landscape. I have yet to dislike Tom Selleck in anything I’ve seen him in, and the same goes for Sam Elliot (though I’ve watched only two of his films so far.) They fall into brotherly comradery on screen naturally. The smiles and laughter pass between them almost effortlessly, yet they respect each other and their individual decisions. In fact, the respect was so great, a point was made that the Travern brothers do not even care to dwell on the fact that they were on different sides in the war. This would seem an impossible feat these days, even amongst family so closely related.
However, as greatly as I enjoyed the actors and the development of the main characters, the story was driven in a direction that is not necessarily family-friendly.
The womanizer is a familiar presence in westerns (at least as far as I know.) Selleck does us the honor of portraying one of the womanizers in Mac Travern. His “exploits” though not actually shown, are heavily hinted at with two suggestive interactions with women in the first 10-20 minutes of the movie. After that, there is no display of inappropriate behavior. The greater concern is Uncle Jack, who would play the fool with any woman who crosses his path whether she be married or unmarried. This has gotten him in trouble with a local sheriff and landed him in jail (though admittedly he committed far more crimes than just messing around with yet another woman.)
Uncle Jack is hilarious, and he is meant to be. But it is in the character’s hilarity that I find issue with this movie. Uncle Jack is not just a womanizer (and he indeed has a long history of wooing women indeed.) He is a drunken murderous kleptomaniac when he isn’t sleeping around. I am not being over-dramatic in using those words, but I do portray a very different Uncle Jack than the movie does. Jack only provokes serious looks and concern from the others for a few scenes before the tone changes to chuckles, shrugs of the shoulder, and sighs well-timed with a roll of the eyes. Several of the funniest portions of the movie revolve around the things that Jack hasn’t revealed as a reason for a posse to be following closely behind the Travern men during their chase of the Rebel renegades. These include thievery, mischief, drunkenness, adulteries of all kinds, and even murder (though not necessarily intended murder.)
The character is taken so lightly, but worse still is the treatment of his sin. “It’s Uncle Jack” is apparently enough reason to gloss over such serious, complicated, multiplying layers of sin and wickedness.
I have not yet even mentioned the major plot line that drives this film: the selling of the Travern sisters into sex slavery.
Rebel soldiers turned renegades have now taken upon themselves a slave trade of another kind from what they were accustomed to. When allowed to grow, sin never gets better, only worse. Here, though definitely not the intent of the film, we see the Biblical principle unfold: those who allow sin to fester in their hearts will find that sin no longer to be enough, but greater sin must be done to find what they desire. Though there are no sex scenes, though there is actually very little in the way of inappropriate material, and though the suggestive banter is not actually horrifically uncomfortable and disturbing, this issue as a premise is hard to swallow.
God made it to be.
To watch or not to watch . . .
I have watched the gap between my impressions as a movie-goer and my concerns as a movie-critic grow increasingly wider as time goes on. The critic in me takes over at this point and would confirm that this is not a movie you need to watch. Perhaps some would enjoy it (as I admittedly did.) Family movie night can find entertainment elsewhere, however. There is too much mature content, and too light a dealing with sin for this to be worth a conversation with your children.
Perhaps you feel differently than I do. Leave your questions and comments below! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Until the next western jaunt, go read a book. 🙂
