Conagher (1991)

Real-life Western with Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross RELEASED TO TV IN 1991 and directed by Reynaldo Villalobos, "Conagher" stars Sam Elliott as taciturn noble cowboy, Conn Conagher, who contends with rustlers (Gavan O'Herlihy, et al.) while concerned about a struggling widow raising her two kids on a remote homestead (Katharine Ross). Although this was a Turner production (TNT), it doesn’t seem like a TV movie and harkened the realistic Westerns that were to come, including TV Westerns like “Monte Walsh” (2003) and TV shows like Hell on Wheels. Of course realistic Westerns which illustrated the hard, mundane life of people in the Old West weren’t anything new, as witnessed by movies like “Shane” (1953), “Will Penny” (1967), “Hombre” (1967) and “Bad Company” (1972), but there’s something about “Conagher” that especially smacks of the way it really was, which is akin to “Son of the Morning Star,” released earlier the same year. The quaint, mundane score helps in achieving this tone. While the music doesn’t trip my trigger, as it’s just too humdrum, it fits the feel of the film. For those not in the know, Elliott and Ross have been married since 1984, which probably helped with the palpable “love at first sight” element. Speaking of which, whilst this is a realistic Western about the many challenges of life in the Old West (sudden death, loneliness, hard outdoor work, the elements, Indian threats, corruption, outlaws, gunfights, etc.), there’s a romantic component with Evie Teale (Ross) attaching snippets of poetry to tumbleweeds that Conn inevitably finds (unbeknownst to Evie). THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 34 minutes and was shot mostly in Arizona, but also Colorado (Buckskin Joe Frontier Town & Railway). WRITERS: Louis L'Amour (novel) and Jeffrey M. Meyer (teleplay) with additional dialogue by Elliott and Ross. GRADE: B