Broken Trail is a 2006 Western miniseries directed by Walter Hill and starring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church. Written by Alan Geoffrion, who also wrote the novel, his story of an old cowboy and his nephew who carried 500 horses from Oregon to Wyoming to sell them to the British Army. Along the way, their elaborate horse's impulses became complicated when they rescued five Chinese girls from a slave merchant, saving them from prostitution life and indentured slavery. Driven to do the right thing, they took the girls with them as they continued their dangerous journey across the border, followed by a group of vicious killers sent by the brothel mum who initially paid for the girls.
The Broken Trail established two historic events: Britain bought horses in West America at the end of the 19th century and Chinese women were transported from the West Coast into the interior to serve as prostitutes. Filmed on location in Calgary, Alberta. Miniseri originally aired on American Movie Classics as his first original film. Broken Trail received 4 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Miniseries, Extraordinary Casting for Miniseries, Movies, or Starring Actor, Best Actor in Mini Serial or Film (Robert Duvall), and Superb Actor in Mini Serial or a Movie (Church of Thomas Haden).
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Plot
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In San Francisco in 1898, many Chinese girls were sold to slavery and brought to the West of America to live as prostitutes among miners and railway workers. Captain Billy Fender (James Russo) arrived in San Francisco and bought five Chinese girls for sale as prostitutes in Idaho.
In southeastern Oregon, Prentice "Prent" Ritter (Robert Duvall), an old cowboy, arrived at Gap Ranch to tell his nephew Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church), that his mother died. Exiled from his son years before after he left the family farm to become a bear, he left an impersonal brief note telling his son that he left everything in his will to his brother Prent. Uncomfortable with his unjust decision, and wishing to reconnect with his nephew, Prent tells of his plans to haul 500 horses from Oregon to Sheridan, Wyoming, where he will sell them to the British Army. He offers Tom 25% of the profits if he joins him in the business venture.
After buying 500 horses from various farms in the area, Prent and Tom went east with a herd towards the Idaho border. Along the way, Prent sends Tom to a nearby town to buy supplies. At a local diner, he bought three bottles of whiskey. When the bartender tried to get out an Irish violinist named Heck Gilpin (Scott Cooper), Tom intervened and kicked out the bartender. He hired a fiddler to accompany them in their business.
Back on the path, they meet Captain Billy Fender and his five Chinese girls. Fender asks if he can follow and Prent agrees. That night, Fender offers a sex cowboy with one of the Chinese girls, but they refuse. Then, Fender drank the cowboy whiskey, and when they slept he stole their money and the horses that were burdened and fled with one of the girls, leaving behind the other Chinese girls behind. The next morning, the men realized what was happening, and Tom went looking for Fender. She finds her drunk after she rapes the girl. Tom hung Fender from the tree and returned to the camp with the girl.
Meanwhile, Prent became acquainted with the Chinese girls who were taught to call him "Uncle Prent". Unable to bridge the language gap, Prent scores the girls, naming Ghee Moon (Jadyn Wong) # 1, Mai Ling (Caroline Chan) # 2, Sun Fu (Gwendoline Yeo) # 3, Ye Fung (Olivia Cheng) # 4 , and Ging Wa (Valerie Tian) # 5. Once Tom returns with # 4, the group continues east past Idaho. As the oldest girl, # 3 explains to others that these guys are good and will protect them. Along the way, Tom teaches # 3 how to ride a cart, and Prent teaches # 5 how to ride a horse. One night, # 2 developed a flea fever. While Tom is watching him at night, he dies. The next morning, after they buried him, Prent spoke on the grave: "We are all travelers in this world, from sweet grass to packing house, from birth to death, we travel between immortals."
Meanwhile, a hit man named Ed "Big Ears" Bywaters (Chris Mulkey) climbs to the town of Caribou City, Idaho where he meets "Big Rump" Kate Becker (Rusty Schwimmer), the woman who runs the city and illegal activities. Fender was supposed to deliver five Chinese girls to Kate, who gave him money. He offers to pay Ed to bring the girls back to him, but he's more interested in abusing one of Kate's prostitutes, Nola Johns (Greta Scacchi).
Back on the trail, Prent and his clothes meet two strangers, one of whom Prent identifies as Chicken Bob, and proceeds to shoot him. He orders Tom to kill his partner and his horse. Chickenpox Bob infects thousands of Indians by selling them with a blanket infected with smallpox. After that, they burned Bob and his partner and their horses and blankets. As the flame rises, the ghosts of their Indian victims dance on the fire. That night, # 3 noticed there was a torn hole in Tom's shirt, and he repaired the shirt while he slept. Quiet attraction has grown between the two.
The next day, Prent orders Tom and Heck to take the girls to Caribou City and look for someone to take care of them. In town, after finding a room for girls, Tom meets Lung Hay (Donald Fong) who is able to talk to the girls in their native language. Lung Hay explains to Tom that the girls do not want to leave Tom, Prent, and Heck - that they do not feel safe without them. Later in the saloon, Tom and Heck meet Kate's "Big Rump", who offers them one of his prostitutes. After they refused, he demanded that they hand over the Chinese girls he paid when he hired Fender.
Back in the girls' room, three men broke in and attacked Chinese girls who wanted to rape them. Nola Johns hears screams nearby and rushes in to help them, only to be hit on the face by one of the attackers. Tom and Heck hurried inside, throwing one person out the window and beating the others. They throw a third person on the floor, and Tom shoots his two thumbs. Nola begged Tom to take her with them for his protection. As they were all preparing to leave town, Kate and his men approached, but Tom withdrew his gun and guarded his party as they went. Kate vowed to take revenge.
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Prent and his group recovered from their ordeal, when Tom stitched the wound on Lung Hay's head, and Prent treated Nola's broken nose. They decided to spend a few days resting the horses on the banks of the Snake River. Prent saw two men fly fishing and hoped he could try it one day. At night, the men talk about unexpected women's mysteries, and they all enjoy listening to Heck's violin music. They began to reveal more about themselves. Lung Hay left his wife in China many years ago to follow the gold promise in America. Nola turned to prostitution after her husband committed suicide. Heck was educated back east, but the adventure prospect took him to the west. Prent and Nola start spending more time together, but Prent - who remembers his dead wife and his seven-year-old daughter still haunts him - is careful about his feelings for him. Tom and # 3 also spend time with each other, going for a walk together. No one is aware of getting depressed and withdrawing. One afternoon on the path, he stepped in front of the horses that punched him and killed him.
Prent and his shirt continued east through Wyoming, meeting a group of Crow Indian who demanded payment to pass through their land. They demanded two horses. Prent insisted only one, but gave the Indian statues of carved horses he made as a second horse. Next, Prent and Tom felt that they were being followed. That night, Prent sat alone by the fireplace while others were hiding nearby. Ed and his gang went up to the camp. They were employed by Kate to bring back Chinese girls and kill the rest. Pretending to Become a Smallpox Bob, Prent makes them scared with the help of Tom and Heck providing protection.
After passing Cody, Wyoming, Prent decides to head north through the Big Horn Mountains and pass a steep path known as Pope Back to avoid Ed and his gang. Tom wanted to face the horse thieves and kill them, but Prent persisted. Although the road was steep, they managed to finish it with the horses safely. Eventually, Prent led his horse safely to Sheridan, Wyoming, where he closed the deal with Malcolm, who bought the horses on behalf of the British Army. After that, Prent and the others relax, bathe, and enjoy good food at Malcolm's house. That night, Prent gave Tom his share of the profits so he could start a new life.
The next day, after Tom went to gather in the wilderness, Ed and his gang appeared in Sheridan and killed Heck. In the next weapon battle, Ed took Nola, Lung Hay, and hostage girls, forcing Prent to drop his rifle. Just as Ed was preparing to torture and kill Prent, the aging cowboy screamed at warnings to Tom, who had just arrived back at the farm. Tom rushed to the scene, directed, and shot members of gang and Ed's wound. When a bully assassin aimed Tom, Prent took a heavy hammer and Ed's club to death.
Some time later, Nola and the girls prepare to take the postal train to San Francisco. Tom said goodbye to # 3 when the soft snow fell over them. She hugged Tom and climbed the stage, but at the last minute, overwhelmed by feelings of love for the young cowboy, came down with his bag. As the stage farther away, Tom saw him standing there, and he smiled.
In 1912 at Siam Bend in Snake River in Wyoming, Prent was fishing on his ranch when his old friend Hay approached a letter from Nola, who had been with him for fourteen years. She writes that the girls are okay, and that her love for her has never wavered. In 1913, Heck's parents had lost his body and were buried again in Richmond, Virginia. Ging Wa (# 5) studied medicine at Stanford University and moved to China with Ghee Moon (# 1) to start a hospital. They got lost in Mao Zedong's revolution. Tom Harte and Sun Fu are married, and their grandchildren are still farming in Wyoming. Nola Johns is buried in Siam Bend on the Snake River. Prent rests on his side.
Maps Broken Trail
Cast
- Robert Duvall as Prentice "Prent" Ritter
- The Thomas Haden Church as Tom Harte
- Greta Scacchi as Nola Johns
- Chris Mulkey as Ed "Big Ears" Bywaters
- Rusty Schwimmer as "Big Rump" Kate Becker
- Gwendoline Yeo as Sun Fu, # 3
- Scott Cooper as Henry "Heck" Gilpin
- Valerie Tian as Ging Wa, # 5
- Caroline Chan as Mai Ling, # 2
- Olivia Cheng as Ye Fung, # 4
- Jadyn Wong as Ghee Moon, # 1
- Donald Fong as Lung Hay
- Peter Skagen as a Bartender
- James Russo as Captain. Billy Fender (Part 1)
Production
Robert Duvall developed a project with Alan Geoffrion and brought him to Walter Hill, with whom he made Geronimo (1993).
Originally intended to be a feature but then perceived it might be easier to raise funds as a mini TV series, so it was brought to AMC. The story was expanded, especially the parts of young Chinese girls and criminals who stole the horses.
It was AMC's first original film.
Duvall said there was a delay in filming, mostly from the rewriting of the new script.
Walter Hill acknowledged there were "some tough moments" arising from transforming the story from film to mini series.
I think that argument arises because nobody wants to make it anything other than what it is. We all understand that if this is going to be a good thing, you have to stick to what has worked up to that point and try to expand it further than introducing an entirely new format and style. But at the same time you will have to change it because if you are going to go from a 125 page script to 160 pages or anything I certainly feel that some more narrative events may not be a bad idea. I think we have a lot of sitting around the fire and talking about things.
Duvall requested that they restore some of the previous focus: "And I said, 'You better get back to it,' and they started rewriting and we rewrote We were forced because it would go out in the wrong direction," Duvall said, explaining that the script the altered one has a new emphasis and, to him, is unwarranted in the "firefight" and the plot device is "very clear, melodramatic" others. "We have to get back on the road [scriptwriter Alan Geoffrion] write it, so when we get it back, I go to work Monday morning."
The miniseries were filmed from August 15th to October 18th, 2005, at the foot of the Canadian Rockies, about an hour's drive from Calgary, Alberta.
Walter Hill later said he was "determined to make it a very large and open canvas".
I know there are two things that are beyond the script element. Unless you really see the country where they go in and also feel the weight of the herd and what the herd does to the decision-making. The fact that these small characters are caught in a bad landscape may not sound controversial, but when you are dealing with a place like a small screen that goes against what many people consider to be a good form. Many people say you way to deal with it is to accommodate reality and play closer and more intimate. But I just think you will lose a lot if you do that and I really feel that you will know the characters so I will not cheat them, but I want to put them in a great landscape.
One of his most proud scenes occurs when a Church character must lay one of the horses by shooting him after a broken leg.
Ratings
Reception
Miniseri received generally favorable reviews from critics. In his review on DVD Talk, Scott Weinberg called the film "a warm and beautiful film that appears to be of great Western-time film-making." Weinberg concluded:
This is one of the best movies I've seen all year. Duvall obviously has his last horse riding horses, Walter Hill did some of his best work over the years, and Tom Church made a very strong case for his place in this genre. Guy made a serious cowboy.
In his review for NPR , David Bianculli writes that "this series gives great performances and rough realism - you can almost smell the skin."
In his review at The New York Times, Alessandra Stanley wrote that the film "is much deeper into Lonesome Dove's debt, probably too much, because it also can not match the legendary epic. Stanley admits, however, that the film "has its own delicate charm."
On the review website Metacritic , the film received a 78th metascore, showing 'Generally Profitable' based on 15 reviews.
Walter Hill then said, "I think this movie is a good movie, I think it can last 10 to 15 minutes shorter, but the idea that we get the number of films in forty-five days is pretty good, I think most of it" , good story, good show. Any. Sometimes windy roads. That's part of the deal, too. "
Accolades
In 2007, at the 59th Anniversary Emmy Awards, the miniseries received 16 nominations, the second most common nominations of the year for a program, following Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
References
External links
- Official site
- Broken Trail on IMDb
- Broken Trail at AllMovie
- Broken Trail in the TCM Movie Database
- Broken Trail at Rotten Tomatoes
- Broken Trail in Metacritic
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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