Crossfire Trail is a Turner Network Television film starring Tom Selleck in the role of Rafael "Rafe" Covington, a wanderer known for his honesty and steadfastness who keeps his word to a dying friend despite great adversity to himself. The tagline of the picture is "A hero is measured by the enemies he makes." The film is based on Louis L'Amour's 1954 Western novel of the same name. Crossfire Trail was originally broadcast on cable television on January 21, 2001.[1]
Selleck has also starred in other L'Amour novels adapted to films, including Sackett and The Shadow Riders with Sam Elliott, another veteran of L'Amour motion pictures. Selleck is believable in his portrayal of the laid-back cowboy certain in his beliefs, which he reveals were taught by his mother who hoped that her son would have become a Jesuit priest. Covington, however, said that he has difficulty with the lesson on "turning the other cheek" when faced with evil.[2]
L'Amour's short story "Hondo" was the first of his voluminous works converted to film through a 1953 picture starring John Wayne and Geraldine Page. Hondo won L'Amour an Academy Award nomination. His books eventually sold over 260 million copies.[3]
Simon Wincer, the director of Crossfire Trail, also excelled with Lonesome Dove, Quigley Down Under (another Selleck film), and Free Willy. Wincer stresses character stories in a Western drama. The film also has beautiful photography given its setting, but it was filmed at a ranch near Calgary, Alberta, Canada, not in Wyoming.[4]
Storyline
In the story line, Covington meets and befriends another honorable man, Charles Rodney, who is shanghaied and beaten to death on a sailing ship off the coast of California. On his deathbed, he implores Covington to take care of his wife, Anne Rodney (played by Virginia Madsen), and his ranch, which he claimed to have been mortgage-free. Covington hence travels to the friend's small Wyoming town with two companions, Rock Mullaney and J.T. Langston, played by David O'Hara and Christian Kane. Rock is known for his dry humor, such as "God invented the whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world." Once the three reach Wyoming, they discover the dead friend's ranch has been abandoned, and his widow is living in town, where she barely makes ends meet by teaching school. Covington finds a petroleum pool on the ranch, the commodity then valued for use as kerosene and in asphalt paving.[5]
The town is under the control of an ambitious saloon owner, Bruce Barkow (played by Mark Harmon), who in contrast to his role on CBS's NCIS television series, is considered his best when playing villains. Cowardly Sheriff Walter Moncrief, who answers strictly to Barkow, is played by Barry Corbin, (who was the father in NBC's 1983-1984 drama series Boone and later costarred with Rob Morrow on CBS's Northern Exposure in the role of Maurice Minnifield). Moncrief admits that his failure to stop corruption in the town is "not my finest hour." The role of Joe Gill, the old cowhand who worked the Rodney ranch, is played by Wilford Brimley, who sides with Covington in the ongoing dispute. When it becomes clear that Covington will not be deterred, Barkow hires a mercenary, Beau Dorn (played by Brad Johnson, to kill Covington.[6]
Virginia Madsen is given the task of determining the sincerity of the stranger Covington and the familiar Barkow, who had hid his dark side from her. By the end of the film, Harmon's role as a slick, manipulating villain has terrorized the whole town. At least two citizens, however, speak in opposition as Barkow tries to force Ann into a farcical public "wedding". [7] The bartender Dewey, placed by William Sanderson, is shot to death for speaking his mind, and a store owner, Gene Thompson, played by Ken Pogue, gets an ounce of courage to rise against the enemies, to the relief of his wife Melissa, played by Joanna Miles.[3]
The 95-minute film ends with Covington killing the hired gun Dorn and Anne shooting Barkow in the back as Barkow aims to shoot and kill Covington. The implication is that Anne and Covington find potential blissful wedded happiness, and conditions in the town return to civic peace and optimism.[3]
Cast
References
