Broken Trail (2006)

I don't remember where I heard about Broken Trail, but I definitely know why I wanted to watch it: Robert Duvall; Western.

Thomas Hayden Church is becoming one of my favorite actors too. He was great in Sideways and actually made me care about the Sandman. He's not a pretty man, but he's a brilliant actor and he's perfect for the role he plays here.

Tom Harte left home as a kid and his mother -- the widow of a wealthy rancher -- never forgave him. Now Tom's a directionless, middle-aged man working as a hired hand. When the movie opens, we find him castrating and branding cattle. Or rather, Robert Duvall finds him doing that. Duvall plays Tom's uncle, the brother of Tom's mother, who's come to tell Tom that his mom's dead and that she willed the ranch to Duvall.

Duvall's got a plan though and it includes helping Tom get on his feet. They buy a herd of horses and head off cross country to sell them for a nice profit. The rest of the movie is essentially the story of the horse drive, but with an important twist. Along the way Tom and his uncle meet a man who's transporting five Chinese women from San Fransisco to a gold-mining town where they're to be turned into prostitutes. I won't go into detail about how it happens, but Tom and his Uncle Prentice wind up with custody of the girls and what the movie is really about is how the girls change them and how they change each other.

It's a beautiful story and like I said, Church is perfect as Tom. He starts off as a sad, serious man who's never found his role in the world and it's a joyous thing watching him start to figure that out.

Robert Duvall is Robert Duvall and watching him act is like eating chocolate chip cookies. No matter how often you do it, it's still fun and somehow comforting.

Chris Mulkey is chillingly evil as the man hired to relieve Church and Duvall of their new charges. Hell, everyone in this mini-series is top notch.

And the scenery is gorgeous and the sets are painstakingly realistic. It's an absorbing, uplifting, and fascinating mini-series. There's even a shoot-out or three. I can't think of a single flaw.

Five out of five horse stampedes.