Disc Reviews

Three-time widower Ben Cartwright  (Greene) runs his famous Ponderosa Ranch with the aid of his three grown sons from three different mothers. There’s Little Joe (Landon), Adam (Roberts) and Hoss (Blocker). Set some time in the mid 1800’s, this long-running series followed the family’s many exploits. In the late 1950’s westerns accounted for six of the top ten programs on TV. Only Gunsmoke had a longer run than Bonanza. From 1959 to 1973, Ben Cartwright and his boys rode across the small screen. Years later in syndication the series re-emerged as Ponderosa, and a handful of TV movies continued the tale into the 90’s.We never have grown tired of the genre that gave us such heroes as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

Unlike many of the 1960's Western television shows, Bonanza was all about the characters. You rarely saw a gunfight. There was often a bit of fisticuffs, but usually it ended with a lesson that violence never pays. The show prided itself on using the Western genre to deliver a family kind of show, and it's no surprise that series star Michael Landon would use many of the same kinds of stories and lessons on his own Little House On The Prairie. The Cartwrights are always helping widows, the wrongly accused, and the local Indian population. That help often lands them in hot water.

Catholic priests are used to hearing confessions, but for one particular pastor in Chicago, the usual confessions about using the Lord's name in vain or stealing a couple of paper clips from the office just weren't exciting enough. Father Dowling loved reading mystery books, and it appears to have sharpened his own powers of observation and deduction. As luck would have it, crimes and mysteries would simply fall into his lap. With the help of Sister Stephanie, better known as Sister Steve, he would step away from his pastoral duties to track down clues that were elusive to the Chicago Police Department. You might just say he was the answer to their prayers. All the while he would attempt to keep the financially-strapped Saint Michael's parish on solid footing.

Tom Bosley was the perfect choice to play the lead character here. America had already adopted him as the television father of an entire generation with his role as Richie Cunningham's father on the hit series Happy Days. He has a quiet and soothing demeanor that is quite suited to a man of the cloth. He had such a gentle way about him that he actually reminded me somewhat of my own childhood pastor and friend. The cast also included the granddaughter of famed 1950's television couple Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and the daughter of their teen idol singer son Ricky Nelson. Tracy Nelson adds the more manic pep counterpoint to Bosley's more easygoing nature. Sister Steve was once a street-wise juvenile delinquent until Father Dowling turned her life around and she became a nun. She was often found rushing headlong into dangerous situations and appeared to be able to score jobs at crucial businesses without any effort or interview. The Father and Sister persona also allowed them to gain the trust of those holding information they might need. Like Columbo, they made a career out of being underestimated.

Just to forewarn you this is not a review for the mini-series that aired on the History channel with Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton.  Instead this is for the bad knockoff that seems to have been released just in time to catch any spillover interest from the Costner version.  So how does this version of the battle between the two feuding families hold up?  Well, not so good, and I’m being generous in saying that.

Taking into consideration this production had nowhere near the budget of the History Channel version, it does what it can to try to pull off this epic tale of love and revenge.  But being ambitious is not enough to make up for everything a retelling of the Hatfield and McCoy story this film is lacking.  Just because you have a limited budget doesn’t mean you can’t pull off a great western; A Fist Full of Dollars and the original Django come to mind as being great iconic westerns done on shoestring budgets for the time.  And those movies are pretty ambitious when you look back at them, and being a little more current El Mariachi (though a modern western) was another micro-budget film filled with gunplay and a story heavy on revenge but effective on using  the most out every dollar and location at hand. I just point this out since just because a film doesn’t have a large budget they shouldn’t be let off the hook for not stepping up to the plate and delivering the film they set out to make.