U.S. Marshals (Special Edition)

Amazon.com

An ultimately futile attempt to make lightning strike twice, this so-called spinoff from 1993's blockbuster The Fugitive avoids the label of "sequel" by forging ahead without the first film's star, Harrison Ford. The idea is to showcase the return of Tommy Lee Jones in his Oscar-winning role as tenacious U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, this time testing his mettle against a covert government operative (Wesley Snipes) accused of murdering two secret service attachés. Unfortunately, Jones and the entire cast have been trapped in a rambling plot, and the underdog status that made Ford such a compelling hero is sacrificed to an evenly matched and eventually tiresome game of cat and mouse, with a villain whose identity is far too predictable. With no dramatic buildup and several superfluous characters to distract its focus, the film's momentum plays out like a rote exercise compared to the high stakes of the earlier film. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Ladies and gentlemen, be alert. We are going to initiate a hard-target search for a fugitive in an ever-widening perimeter. We will wade through swamps, prowl Manhattan streets, search every house and doghouse. We'll eat on the run, sleep tomorrow, watch our backs. And since Marshal Sam Gerard leads the hunt, we will experience suspense, action and daring twists every breathless step of the way. Returning to his Oscar-winning role from The Fugitive, Tommy Lee Jones is Gerard, joining an A-team including Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey Jr. and director Stuart Baird. (Executive Decision) to deliver adrenaline-rush excitement. The suspect: armed, extremely dangerous, perhaps linked to a spy ring. The chase: highlighted by an out-of-control 727, a death match in a ship's cargo hold, a 12-story plunge onto a moving train and more heart-pounding sequences. The movie: U.S. Marshals.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by Stuart Baird
Documentary:"Anatomy of the Plane Crash" (14:00) "Justce Under the Star" (12:06)
TV Spot:3 TV Spots - "Trailer Cutdown", "Sam Gerard", & "Manhunt"

Customer Reviews:

Great Action Flick.......2007-08-15

"Get yourself a Glock, and get rid of that nickel-plated sissy-pistol."

Tommy Lee Jones.

Why?.......2007-07-12

I hated the movie, because they gave Wesley Snipes a white girl friend in the movie!
I could live without that BS in live and in the movies!

Very predictable, but good nonetheless.......2007-06-22

US Marshals picks up a few years after the original film (The Fugitive) ended, and sheds light on US Marshal Sam Gerard as he is called to bring in a fugitive accused of murdering two federal agents. Could this be another case of mistaken identity as was the case with the first film?
Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey Jr., and the rest of the cast carry out their performances very well (Tommy Lee Jones is once again amazing in his respective role!).
Overall, the setting, the plot, the dialogues, and the music are all good.
In short, US Marshals is a movie definitely worth watching, as it will surely provide for an evening's entertainment.

Let's get the story straight.............2007-05-13

Out of all of the years that Hollywood has been producing films,it has always been,and always will be,interesting to see film sequels. Whether a sequel to a film does or doesn't live up the original film,it is always interesting to see how everything picks up where it left off. And,with "The Fugitive" being as successful as it turned out to be,how does its sequel,"U.S. Marshals",measure up?

Here,you find Tommy Lee Jones reprising his role as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard. This time around,what is Samuel Gerard's assignment? Being on a plane from Chicago to Tennessee to New York with a large amount of prisoners. The purpose is to get the plane's prisoners to where they need to be,and helping the other U.S. Marshals who are on the plane. While Samuel Gerard is not happy with this assignment,the facts that the U.S. Marshals who are on the plane are nice and Gerard being able to keep himself entertained does not make things too bad.

But,in the middle of the flight,things go from fine to bad. This is when the plane crashes,and leaves Samuel Gerard and his fellow U.S. Marshals with a truckload of responsibility. When one prisoner on the plane,Mark Sheridan(Wesley Snipes)has esacped,trouble finds itself in the face of Samuel Gerard once more,as Sheridan is wanted for the murder of agents. Will Samuel Gerard be able to solve the case with the aide of his trusted and respected U.S. Marshals (the ones that were in "The Fugitive")and Agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.),or will the difficulty of the case lead to Gerard losing to his opposite side? Only time will tell!!!!

"U.S. Marshals" has received a mixed response from people,so let me set the story straight. Like most films,"U.S. Marshals" has its up and its downs. The plot for "U.S. Marshals" is well written,interesting,and creative. It succeeds at remaining close to--but not too close to--its predecessor. The acting here is top notch,the script provides a lot of suspense and surprises along the way,makes its viewers ask a lot of questions,and wait for an appropriate amount of time for the questions to be answered.

But,where does "U.S. Marshals" fall low? There are a couple of scenes in this film that make it a bit predictable,something that no film should contain. Don't the plane crash and train scenes recycle two of the most important scenes that were in "The Fugitive"? These are things that could have and should have been easily patched up in the script for "U.S. Marshals". "U.S. Marshals" really falls low by the fact that it fails to live up to be what it is:a sequel. While most film sequels find a way to talk about the events of this previous film to let viewers know where it is leaving off at and to make the film more interesting,"U.S. Marshals" fails to do this. Sure,the characters and actors that were the U.S. Marshals in "The Fugitive" are to be found here. Yes,there is one certain scene with Tommy Lee Jones and Joe Pantoliano here that does take one back to "The Fugitive" in a certain way. Yet,nothing in "The Fugitive" is mentioned at all. I understand that "U.S. Marshals" film is not "The Fugitive",and I am not asking it to be. But,the intention of a sequel is follow up on where the sequel's predecessor left off. Unfortunately,"U.S. Marshals" fails to do so,and becomes its own film throughout its running time.

Overall,nothing special,but worth a look if you enjoyed "The Fugitive".

A New Fugitive, A New Chase..........2007-05-03

In 1993, Warner Brothers studios released an incredibly successful movie called "The Fugitive" starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, and based on the hit TV series of the same name. 5 years after the success of that film, the WB decided to release a semi-sequel/spin-off to the film focusing on the further exploits of the character of U.S. Marshal, Sam Gerard, played by Tommy Lee Jones. It was surprising that Warner Bros. wanted to explore this supporting character further, in fact it was just as surprising that they felt there could even be any chance of success with having a sequel/spin-off to a movie that was completely self-contained. But, the decision was made and Warner Bros. actually managed to re-sign Tommy Lee Jones, along with the rest of the actors that comprised his original crew of deputy U.S. Marshals, and adding Wesley Snipes and talented, yet troubled actor Robert Downey Jr. to the mix. With the cast all set, the story greenlit, and acclaimed editor turned director Stuart Baird ("Star Trek: Nemesis") helming the picture, it was time to see if Warner Bros.' gamble would pay off with "U.S. Marshals".

"U.S. Marshals" follows U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) as he pursues yet another fugitive on the loose. When a truck driver named Mark Roberts (Wesley Snipes) is involved in a car crash, the police reporting on the scene discover that this truck driver is actually wanted for a double homicide of two federal agents in New York City, and has been living in Chicago under an assumed name for the last several months. During the transfer flight from Chicago to New York, an assassination attempt on Mark's life takes place causing the plane to depressurize and crash into a river. As the police officers, including Sam Gerard who was aboard the plane overseeing the transfer of his latest prisoner, struggle to release the prisoners before they drown, Mark is released and succeeds in escaping without being noticed until the next morning. Now, Sam and his team of deputies are pursuing yet another fugitive, but they will soon find out that this is no ordinary case of murder, as the federal government gets involved by sending in an agent (Robert Downey Jr.) to oversee the pursuit, and it turns out that Mark Roberts is a former agent of the very same agency as that of the two men he is accused of murdering.

Director Stuart Baird really had his work cut out for him with this movie, not only was he tasked with the job of directing a semi-sequel/spin-off to a highly successful movie based on a TV show, but he was also forced to find a way to have Sam Gerard pursue yet another fugitive without the story seeming too much like the previous movie. Surprisingly, he succeeds rather well, there is the glaring similarity in that both fugitives only escape due to an accident (Richard Kimble escaped due to a train wreck and Mark Roberts escapes due to a plane wreck), but this can be overlooked as being a necessary plot device to realistically propel the story into motion. Otherwise, I couldn't complain about the direction of the movie, I felt that for this type of movie Stuart Baird did an overall great job of handling the material, keeping a similar tone to the first film, and yet making this one a standalone movie that doesn't require the audience to have seen or remember any of the events from "The Fugitive".

The cast for the movie was terrific. Tommy Lee Jones was wise to return to the character that won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor 5 years prior. I believe that ever since this movie, and even "The Fugitive" for that matter, Tommy Lee Jones has essentially played this same character in every other movie he's been in (with the exception of his role of Two-Face in "Batman Forever"), and still manages to entertain audiences with the same exact performance. The supporting actors that comprised the rest of the U.S. Marshals were just as good, if not better than they were the first time around, especially Joe Pantoliano who was given much more screen time and injected several bits of humor to lighten things up throughout the movie, while still delivering some really dramatic scenes with Tommy Lee Jones. The additions of Robert Downey Jr. and Wesley Snipes to the cast were very good choices as both are accomplished actors who handle both drama and action very well. Sometimes in sequels or spin-offs the new cast members tend to stick out a little bit because they are replacing a cast member that didn't return, so their performance seems to be a little too much like the person they are replacing instead of making the characters their own. In this instance though, both new actors do excellent jobs of making their characters their own, and quickly draw the audience in to their aspects of the story.

Even though I felt Warner Bros. had made a mistake in making this film, Stuart Baird and company managed to prove me wrong, and I must say that I completely enjoyed "U.S. Marshals", and that it was a worthy sequel/spin-off to the equally impressive film "The Fugitive".

"U.S. Marshals" is rated PG-13 for violence and language.

Average customer rating:

The running men

The Fugitive / U.S. Marshals (1998)
Starring: Harrison Ford , Tommy Lee Jones , Sela Ward , Julianne Moore , and Joe Pantoliano
Director: Andrew Davis , and Stuart Baird
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000JYW5BE
Release Date: 2007-01-02

Description

Harrison Ford is desperate prison escapee Richard Kimble, wrongfully convicted of his wife's murder; Tommy Lee Jones is relentless lawman Sam Gerard (and an Oscar winner to boot, earning 1993's Best Supporting Actor statue for his performance) - and the chase is on! Andrew Davis (Under Siege) directs The Fugitive [Side A], combining an 11-on-a-scale-of-10 train wreck, a daring waterfall plunge, a cat-and-mouse gambit through Chicago's St. Patrick's Day Parade and the kinetic fire of his two main stars into one of the most exhilarating manhunt movies ever. The adrenaline-rush hour continues when Jones reprises the role of Gerard and Stuart Baird (Executive Decision) directs U.S. Marshals [Side B]. Wesley Snipes plays a murder suspect who's on the same 727 aircraft as Gerard. Buckle up, action fans!

Customer Reviews:

The running men.......2006-12-12

More than a decade on, The Fugitive holds up surprisingly well, managing to neatly avoid the usual pitfalls of TV-series-to-movie crossovers by opting to tell a single self-contained story rather than trying to set up a new franchise. Thus Harrison Ford's Richard Kimble doesn't go on the road helping strangers resolve their problems because he's too busy trying to evade capture, prove his innocence and catch his wife's killer, making for an entirely satisfying manhunt thriller that stands on its own merits. Chief among them is Tommy Lee Jones, taking over from a dying Richard Jordan and walking off with the movie as his dogged pursuer, getting all the best lines and effortlessly outshining the film's star.

Structurally the follow-up, U.S. Marshals, is a reworking of the original, fulfilling the classic sequel brief of "the same but different": the producers substitute an incredibly impressive plane crash for the incredibly impressive train crash, a fall from a tall building for a fall from a dam and government defense secrets for drugs trials while throwing in the same plot device of an ally who turns out to be an enemy. The main difference here is no Harrison Ford, more Tommy Lee Jones and added Wesley Snipes (presumably on the run from the taxman) and Robert Downey Jr. (who really should have kept the sunglasses on until he finished rehab). There are no surprises, it's somewhat overlong and you won't remember it a day later, but it's energetically directed by Stuart Baird and superbly edited by Terry Rawlings and does its job effectively enough while you're watching it.

Average customer rating:

The Lone Ranger and U.S. Marshal
Starring: TV Classic Westerns
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Television | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Television | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0007CEXG8
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Charles Bronson: Cabo Blanco/U.S. Marshal

Average customer rating:

Well, at least the music is good...
Change of pace for Bronson.
Good Movie; Very Good transfer (for a budget dvd)
Casablanca...sorta

Charles Bronson: Cabo Blanco/U.S. Marshal
Starring: Charles Bronson
Manufacturer: Delta
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Action & Adventure | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00000I1M0
Release Date: 1998-12-15

Description

CABO BLANCO Bronson has come to Cabo Blanco to escape the world and its worries...but a menacing ex-Nazi throws the sleepy fishing village into disarray.

U.S. MARSHAL Bronson is an AWOL private who is being pursued by a U.S. Marshal.

Includes an intro by Tony Curtis and the trailer for Bronson's The Great Escape.

Menus: English • Spanish • Chinese • Japanese
Subtitles: Spanish • Chinese • Japanese

B&W/Color
Running Time: 112 min.

Customer Reviews:

Well, at least the music is good..........2006-09-01

There are so many bad reasons to see films that seeing CaboBlanco simply because it has (along with The Salamander) one of Jerry Goldsmith's most obscure scores doesn't seem quite such a stupid one, especially since the score is pretty good. Although it never matches its magnificent Ravelesque opening, let alone the extraordinary work Goldsmith was doing at the same period (Star Trek, The Boys From Brazil, The First Great Train Robbery, Magic, The Swarm, Masada, Poltergeist), it's another case of a composer being inspired by a bad film to turn out a good score that's still head and shoulders over 99% of film scoring today.

The film itself is certainly an oddity, an attempt to do a Casablanca in post-war Peru, but Charles Bronson, Dominique Sanda, Simon MacCorkindale, Fernando Rey and Jason Robards were never likely to offer much competition to Bogie, Bergman, Heinreid, Rains and Veidt even had the script been better. (There's no Dooley Wilson or As Time Goes By, but Nat King Cole is playing on the jukebox singing The Very Thought of You.) Sanda in particular, as usual in her English language work, is so staggeringly awful you half-expect her to bump into the furniture, although she gets strong competition from MacCorkindale in the who-can-give-the-worse-performance stakes, but an easygoing Bronson at least is good value.

Feeling more like one of RKO's mid 50s SuperScope South of the Border treasure hunt movies than anything from Warners' golden age, the film at times feels like its suffered some last-minute editing, jumping into some scenes apparently midway while some characters are never introduced properly (prominently billed Clifton James never appears at all), and the ending - involving a parrot, a secret code, a stuck record on a jukebox and a cyanide pill - is one of the most absurd endings in screen history. Still, there's some fluid and impressively composed Scope camerawork and the scenery's nice, although both suffer in the DVD transfers. It's an unlikely candidate for restoration, but it's worth noting that the German DVD available through Amazon.de does at least boast a good 2.35:1 transfer and extras (trailer, 25-minute making of and hardback book style packaging), though the soundtrack doesn't fare so well.

Change of pace for Bronson........2004-12-22

I have watched this Charles Bronson movie several times and enjoy it more each time. On first viewing, it's hard to see Bronson in a straight acting role in the same vein as Lola or Someone Behind The Door, which are two excellent straight acting Bronson movies. Some reviewers have pointed out that this movie is very similar to Casablanca. On this point I can not comment as I have never watched Casablanca. Cabo Blanco for me was a good movie that I never found boring. It also features an enjoyable performance from Jason Robards who also appeared with Bronson in Once Upon A Time In The West. If you are more of an action man Bronson fan then you may be disappointed with this.

As for the DVD transfer, the picture quality and sound is for the most part acceptable with some print damage evident at times but not to the extent that the movie becomes unwatchable. Maybe we will see a restored special edition in the not to distant future.

Good Movie; Very Good transfer (for a budget dvd).......2002-07-23

"Cabo Blanco" is must-have DVD for true Bronson fans--and not the least reason is because you actually get to see the man act. But the most surprising thing about this Laserlight DVD is that the transfer, picture and sound, is actually quite good. And, unlike most budget dvds of contemporary films, this one is presented in widescreen. I know another reviewer mentioned that the film was originally shot in 'scope ("scope" is a term for generic Cinemascope techniques) but the aspect ratio here seems to be the correct one--no panning or scanning, and no actors cut in half on either side of the screen.
Now, it's certainly not a "restored" version of this obscure film, but they did find a very nice print which only shows wear at the reel-change spots.

And, as a bonus, you get to see a very young Bronson in an episode of the 1950s drama series "U.S. Marshall."

This is one of the few budget dvds of a public domain Bronson film that's actually worth buying.

Casablanca...sorta.......2000-06-12

As far as ripoffs of Casablanca go, and I only know two offhand(this film and Barb Wire), Caboblanco is probably the best of the bunch. That's not saying much at all, but I think this film should take whatever praise it can get. So who do we have in place of Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, and Conrad Veidt? Why, Charles Bronson, Dominique Sanda, Fernando Rey, and Jason Robards. Capable actors one and all(yes, even Bronson). But even if Casablanca never existed, Caboblanco would still be a pedestrian movie. Actually, pedestrian would be another compliment. This film is somnabulent. The story just unfolds before you without any enthusiasm(sp?), passion, excitement, whatever. Yet I resist giving it one star because I didn't have any strong hatred for it or found it offensively bad. The photography was nice and Jerry Goldsmith's score was okay. Otherwise, it's like cinematic novocaine, as oppose to truly bad films which make pass out from the pain. As for the DVD, Caboblanco was supposed shot in 'scope, which would mean an aspect ratio of 2.35 to 1. But the disc is framed more towards 1.85 to 1, which means a partial letterbox. Though the case says stereo, I think the movie is just 2 channel mono. The introduction by Tony Curtis is insignificant, which is too bad since he and Bronson made a movie together and it would have been nice to hear some personal recollections about Bronson beyond the standard issue biographical information.

Average customer rating:

Hard-to-find Western series finally makes it to DVD

U.S. Marshal
Starring: Bromfield
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Action & Adventure | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( U ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Shotgun Slade

ASIN: B0001IN0PS
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Customer Reviews:

Hard-to-find Western series finally makes it to DVD.......2004-03-26

John Bromfield stars as Frank Morgan in this violent, modern-day (1950s) Western set in Arizona. For the first two seasons of the series (1956-58), the show was titled "Sheriff of Cochise (a/k/a "The Man from Cochise") in which Morgan was the Sheriff of Cochise County. During the series' final two seasons (1958-60), Morgan became a U.S. Marshal for the state of Arizona and was based in neighboring Tucson in "United States Marshal." The show was more of a crime show with a Western setting and Morgan's transportation of choice was not a horse but rather a station wagon equipped with a rifle mounted on the inside of the driver's door. The episodes included on this DVD include plenty of early performances by future television and movie stars, including Charles Bronson (The Dirty Dozen, Death Wish series), Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie), Mike Connors (Mannix), Martin Milner (Route 66, Adam-12), Robert Fuller (Laramie, Wagon Train, Emergency!), Jack Lord (Stoney Burke, Hawaii Five-0), and Donna Douglas (The Beverly Hillbillies). The series's star, John Bromfield, effectively retired from acting at the conclusion of this series.

Platinum Disc Corporation's DVD is a real find as this series has rarely been seen since its original broadcast and was difficult to find on VHS tape. Quality wise, you'll find some film specks and scratches and Platinum's logo which appears from time-to-time in the bottom right hand corner of the screen but, generally speaking, these episodes look and sound good . . . just don't expect modern "high definition" quality. Some of the information included on the DVD cover is incorrect. For starters, the DVD includes 9 episodes rather than the 8 listed on the cover. Some of the episode titles are incorrectly listed and, finally, episodes are said to be 39 minutes long when, in fact, they run approximately 26 minutes each (without commercials) and were produced for a half-hour time slot. These errors aside, kudos to Platinum for releasing episodes from this hard-to-find series, as well as episodes from other Westerns from TV's golden age, including "Stories of the Century" and "Shotgun Slade."

Except as noted, all episode titles are from "United States Marshal." The corrected episode titles include:

The Witnesses
Sentence of Death
Maryjo is Missing
The Fugitives
Trigger Happy
The Champ
Husband and Wife*
The Relatives*
Army Escapee Pursuit

Amazon.com

After the late-career high of True Grit, only The Cowboys and The Shootist escaped the curse of half-baked scripts, recycled material, and lackadaisical filmmaking that characterized John Wayne's last half-dozen years in movies. Cahill is no exception, but it's more energetic than The Undefeated and Chisum (likewise nominally directed by Andrew V. McLaglen), with a certain Gothic tinge. Also, the theme of a dedicated professional who lets his job keep him from being part of his children's lives appears to have had some relevance for the producer-star. Marshal Cahill's two sons (Summer of '42's Gary Grimes and the preteen Clay O'Brien) are so unhinged by paternal "negligence" that they get caught up in a twisted bank-robbery scheme with a very bad guy, a veritable bogeyman (George Kennedy). Cahill has to sort his familial crisis and several outlaw crews, with the assistance of a sardonic half-breed scout (Neville Brand) who teases him mightily. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

The End of the Trail.......2007-02-12

The film begins when Marshal Cahill goes to arrest five men for bank robbery. Resistance is futile. Back in Valentine Texas Cahill's boys are involved with Strothers, who leads them astray. Danny Cahill was drunk and disorderly. His younger brother sneaks into jail to free the prisoners while every man is fighting a barn fire. The boys soon learn there is no honor among thieves, but too late. The clever crooks burglarize the bank, then return to jail for a perfect alibi. Billy Joe will hide the loot, and no one will know anything if they keep their mouths shut. The posse searched the county but could find no strangers. [This is a strange story compared to earlier John Wayne films. The younger generation has gone awry.] Daniel seems to have a mind of his own. Marshal Cahill & son capture a gang who have new money, but can't provide a good explanation. They are arrested. What if the wrong men are punished for someone else's crime?

Back in Valentine the crooks can't find the buried loot and return to threaten Billy Joe. But he can't describe where he hid it. Somehow Marshal Cahill knows the truth! Late at night Danny and Billy Joe visit the graveyard to locate the burial place. The Marshal's surprise fails. [This serious business is played for laughs.] You can sense the double riding that mule. Cahill and Lightfoot track the wagon, and are ambushed by the gang. Why did they lack vigilance? At night the remaining gang members return to the old mine to collect their share of the loot. Cahill's boys are stopped by their father and told what to do. The bad guys return to get the rest of the loot, and get their reward. Cahill's boys learn to do the right thing; there is hope for them. The messy ending is not covered here, not even an deus ex machina would straighten out this mess.

Compared to his earlier films, this is more of a comedy than a drama. Was this to spare John Wayne from strenuous activity? It lacks the singing and dancing found in some old Westerns. A better story makes a better film. You almost know how it will turn out from the beginning of the film. At times there is a roughness to John Wayne's voice that suggests health problems.

A pretty darn good late John Wayne film.......2006-02-15

There is a group of people who love to feel superior by disdaining things that everyday people enjoy. One of those things is a John Wayne movie. I am one who really enjoys John Wayne movies. He had a great screen presence, even when he was older, as he was here, in the Rooster Cogburn movies, and especially in the great movie "The Shootist".

This movie is really about fathers and sons, and particularly absent fathers and sons who find the wrong path and try to get back to the right way. Wayne plays the title character, J. D. Cahill. The opening scene is him on the road taking on a band of five bad guys in a shootout that ends the way you would expect the hero to play in a John Wayne film.

Cahill is an older man and we learn that he has young sons, one, Danny, a young teen and the other, Budger, a young boy. Their mother died. In a touching conversation with Danny, regretting his not being around for them, he acknowledges that he has focused too much on his job. He does note that when Danny's mother (Cahill's dear wife) was dying her last words to Cahill were, "Go Get `Em!". And so, he has been ever since.

George Kennedy plays one of his best and menacing bad guys, Abe Fraser. I don't want to get into the plot, but he does suck Danny and Budger into his plans. And it is the boys trying to extricate themselves without letting their father in on their problems that ends up causing most of the problems. The crisis comes when some innocent men are facing death for the crimes the boys know they and Abe's gang committed and they have to get things right in time.

You expect things to turn out a certain way in a film like this. There aren't any big surprises, but there are some funny and some touching moments along the way. And Wayne is still quite good as he holds the screen with his unique presence. And Neville Brand as Lightfoot provides some very fine moments in the film.

I don't think it is one of the best things Wayne did, but it is still better then most films and suitable for families. It can provide some good discussion with your kids, as well.

And it is a John Wayne film.

The critics are too harsh.......2004-10-26

So the Duke is getting a little long in the tooth. His inimitable style, tough-talkin', swaggerin' self is as true here as his more famous films. After all, it IS John Wayne.

In this plot, J. D. Cahill, a widower and federal marshall has neglected the upbringing of his boys - one surmises because of his duty to his country and the wild, uncivilized territory. But in a youthful, rebellious spirit, his boys throw their lot in with some real outlaws. And it spells trouble. Big trouble. The kind of trouble that only Cahill - U.S. Marshall - can fix.

The movie is fun and entertaining. A couple of hours spent lost in a time when the west was young and the nation herself was immature and rebellious.

Cahill - United States Marshal Review.......2004-08-24

John Wayne begins to show his age in this film. On top of that, the story line has been in several other John Wayne westerns. However, this movie is still a good one to watch with the family.

An interesting idea for a western that does not pan out.......2004-07-18

The tagline for the 1973 western "Cahill U.S. Marshal" declares: "Break the law and he's the last man you want to see. And the last you ever will." But we know that because the title character is played by John Wayne, so it really goes without saying that he is as good as it gets. But this is the Duke near the end of his career and while he made a pretty good western the year before with "The Cowboys," he was now just coasting (e.g., "The Train Robbers," "Brannigan") before he actually had some fun making a movie with Katharine Hepburn ("Rooster Cogburn") and found an excellent coda to his legendary acting career with "The Shootist."

Wayne is J.D. Cahill, a tough U.S. marshal who is always on the trail of someone and never at home, which is why his sons Danny (Gary Grimes) and Billy Joe (Clay O'Brien) decide to teach the old man a lesson they go off with Abe Fraser (George Kennedy) and his gang to rob a bank. Actually they have a fairly complicated plan which involves being locked up in jail during the robbery so they have an alibi. Fraser promises no one will get hurt, but of course the sheriff and deputy are gunned down. The younger Cahill hides the loot and if either brother talks, Fraser will kill them both. With the sheriff dead, daddy shows up to track down the bank robbers and takes Danny along with him. They even capture a group of outlaws, who are sentenced to hang for the murders and the robbery.

The pivotal character in the film is actual Danny Cahill, who has to get the hidden loot to Fraser, avoid having four innocent men hung, and try and pray that his father never gets everything to add up. Of course he does, although how the dots get connected is not exactly clear. There was an opportunity for a really good scene here at the big moment, but it just is not there and then Wayne's efforts to make the best of a bad situation kind of gets lost in the film's end game. Basically whatever you think Cahill should do in that situation, he is not going to make you happy, which ever of the two opposing approaches you want him to take.

DVD:

DVD

DVD