by Christopher Bourne
On June 24-25, AMC will premiere its first original miniseries, "Broken Trail," a large-scale Western for television.
In his opening remarks at the red-carpet premiere at the Loews Lincoln Square in New York City, Ed Carroll, president of Rainbow Media Services – which operates AMC – described this movie as "a throwback to the big, wide open, beautifully shot, well crafted stories and beautifully acted stories -- Western stories -- that Hollywood is really not making anymore these days."
Indeed, although every once in a while there is an attempt to revive the genre, Hollywood has mostly been content to cede this territory to television. Since the iconography of the American Western has become ingrained in the popular culture to the point of cliché, a hook is usually necessary to distinguish it from the many previous versions.
"Broken Trail"'s
variation concerns the plight of Chinese women brought over to the Midwest
in the late 1800's to serve as prostitutes in mining camps and brothels.
The parallels to today's global sex trafficking are obvious. The fate
of five young women being sold for this purpose is the fulcrum for the
main action of the film. The women, transported by a cruel trafficker
(James Russo), cross paths with Print Ritter (Robert Duvall) and his nephew
Tom (Thomas Haden Church) as they cross from Oregon to Wyoming to sell
cattle. It becomes a violent clash, after Tom kills the trafficker for
stealing his money, and Print and Tom, along with a fiddle player Tom
employs as a hired hand, decide to take responsibility for the young women.
Veteran director Walter Hill is certainly no stranger to the Western,
having already essayed the genre in such films as The Long Riders, Wild
Bill, and Last Man Standing. His comfort and skill with the material are
evident, as much of the film consists of long montages of horse and cattle
crossings, running streams and rivers, mountains and sunsets. Even though
this film was shot in Canada and doesn't quite approach the grand vistas
of John Ford's or Howard Hawks' westerns, Hill makes the most of his material.
He also equips himself well in the numerous action sequences, including
the violent showdown at the film's conclusion.
Robert Duvall, as the wise, world-weary Ritter, fits his role like a comfortable
shoe. Duvall developed the story with screenwriter Alan Geoffrion, and
he effortlessly inhabits his character using a quite authentic dialect
that convincingly portrays how such a man would act, talk and think. Thomas
Haden Church, while far from Duvall's equal, handles himself well here.
The standout among the Chinese actresses is Olivia Cheng, who gives a
moving performance as the most abused of the young women, who is repeatedly
raped before even reaching her place of slavery. Her haunted eyes speak
volumes.
While "Broken Trail" is certainly to be applauded for calling
attention to this little-known facet of American history, one wishes more
illumination could be brought to bear on this story. Even though I did
appreciate the fact that the women spoke Mandarin instead of halting,
broken English, there isn't much probing into their previous lives other
than the fact that they were sold by their families and had bound feet.
Other than the scenes in which they talk to each other, and their limited
interaction with their benefactors, they mostly exist as silent sufferers
who must be saved by the white characters, whose conflicts are prominently
foregrounded. One would think that in the course of four hours, there
would be some time to explore the women's characters a little more deeply.
That said, "Broken Trail" nevertheless is an entertaining and
well-acted movie that is worthy of viewers' attention, and hopefully it
will encourage other filmmakers to uncover other aspects of the American
West that have yet to be examined.
Broken Trail airs on Sun., June 25 and Mon., June 26, on AMC at 8 p.m./7 p.m. Central. For more information about the movie, go to http://brokentrail.amctv.com/.
Christopher Bourne is a writer and incurable cinephile living in New York City.
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