Tom Berenger and Barbara Hershey star in this interesting, infuriating variation on Capra's "Lost Horizon." Dreadfully stiff dialogue rapes nearly every scene, yet the story is so fascinating the tendency is to forgive and enjoy. The film tackles some incredibly large, difficult subjects and does so with intelligence and integrity, yet it can't seem to make any of the characters sound like humans.
I have to assume that the goal was to make a family film, which in the hands of a lesser-writer tends to get dumbed down, with soap-opera style dialogue to make sure everyone understands what they're supposed to understand. But this writer is no dummy-- Tab Hunter has built a complex story dealing with First Nations assimilation, genocide, oral history, and so much more. And to take it to another level, he is directly referencing a classic Hollywood film, using its concept of "Shangri-La" as a powerful example of what life was like and what life could be on this continent. This is a brilliant metaphor, bringing Capra's ideas on infinite life onto a more relevant, realistic stage-exchanging the infinite life of one, to the infinite life of a culture.
Maybe he's just bad at dialogue?
I'm not even sure of that--the occasional terrific line pops out of nowhere, such as "What happened was inevitable, the way it happened was unconscionable." This is not the dialogue of a Disney film. He is also smart enough to leave large portions of the film indecipherable-spoken in Cheyenne without subtitles. To make them speak English or interpret their words is to steal their power, and Hunter clearly respects his subject to much for that.
I guess I'm just terribly confused with what happened to this movie and I don't have the answers. The photography is stunning, and although you could do better than Tom Berenger, Barbara Hershey as your leading lady is as good as it gets. For whatever reason, the entire film is one long game of count-the-cliches, right up to the birds flying free into the sky in the final shot. Westerns are supposed to have stock characters, not stones. I don't need Tarantino conversation, I just need to feel that the actors aren't cracking up in laughter as soon as the director says cut.
Ed. note: Wilford Brimley narrates but is not seen; "That 70's Show" dad, Kurtwood Smith, has a prominent role as "the evil sheriff;" look closely for Canadian rising star Molly Parker in a tiny speaking role as a nurse.
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