This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Action, Movie Reviews, Thriller/Mystery, Western. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Tom Gries
Starring: Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland, Charles Durning, Ed lauter
Director Tom Gries, who also worked with Bronson to make Breakout (another pretty good film), does a fair job in turning this Alistair Maclean novel and screenplay into a pretty good western mystery. Bronson plays his usual appealingly cool steely eyed thinking man and is backed up by a strong supporting cast of familiar character actors, and of course, his on, and off, screen companion, Jill Ireland. The story, here, is a cut above the usual 70s action fare. The first two acts of this film are a pretty taut, and intriguing, classic mystery, though act three falls back onto some mediocre action.
Charles Bronson is John Deacon, an accused murderer who is captured by a rugged Marshall (Ben Johnson). The two of them mange to get on a medical supply and troop train that is also carrying the Governor (Richard Crenna) and the lovely Marica (Jill Ireland). Deacon’s journey to his own hanging, soon turns quite eventful, however, when people on the train start dying of non-natural causes. The classic setting of a moving train for a murder mystery, is perfect and there are some nice wilderness shots and some decent action worked in, as well. As mentioned above, the third action gets a little tired, but still not bad.
Breakheart Pass is a different kind of western and a different kind of mystery, so fans of both genres may find it worth renting, or staying up to catch on a late night feature. Bronson fans will like it, as well, but I imagine they have already seen it and I’m not telling them anything new. That seems like as good a point as any to wrap this up. I have to get going if I’m going to head them off at the pass…
