WHEN THE LEGENDS DIE (director: Stuart Millar; screenwriters: Robert Dozier/from novel by Hal Borland; cinematographer: Richard Kline; editor: Louis San Andres; cast: Richard Widmark (Red Dillon), Frederic Forrest (Tom Black Bull), Luana Anders (Mary), Vito Scotti (Meo), Tillman Box (Young Tom Black Bull), Sondra Pratt (Angie), Garry Walberg (Superintendent), John War Eagle (Black Elk), John Gruber (Tex Walker); Runtime: 105; 20th Century Fox; 1972)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An interesting contemporary view of cowboys and Indians, told through the relationship that develops between a hard-living old timer on the rodeo circuit Red Dillon (Widmark) who is barely getting by and a young Ute Indian boy, Tom Black Bull (Forrest), who has an affinity for horses and uses this knowledge to get off the reservation.
When Tom's parents die, he's too young to be left alone on the mountains and is brought by a friend of the family, John War Eagle, to the reservation. He is told by the white superintendent that he must learn about the new ways before he talks to him about the old ways, and the young boy is forced to learn the white man's ways at the school against his wishes. He reluctantly stays on the reservation, eventually becoming trained to only do manual work as a sheepherder, until he is spotted by Red while horse riding. Red gets the 18-year-old a permit to become his guardian, which he must do until he is 21, at which time he becomes a free man. He gladly moves in with Red, where they go on the rodeo circuit in the small venues out West. Tom develops into an outstanding bronco rider, while Red spends the money Tom earns on booze and women, cheating Tom out of his share. He also gets Tom to dump bronco rides so that he can then bet on him in other bronco rides and get odds. After being on the road for a few years, Tom dumps Red in a gas station and takes his car, leaving him stranded with $10 and a bottle of booze, realizing that he has learned a trade and that even though he has a warm spot in his heart for Red...but, fully realizing that Red can't change...he will always be a boozer. Tom is determined to make his mark in bronco riding... honestly.
Spoiler in the next paragraph.
In the next few years he becomes a big star on the top rodeo circuit, though developing a reputation for riding his horses so hard that he killed four of them. The introspective, reticent boy, experiences relations with white women and learns how to dress as a dude, but his dreams come crashing down when he has a bad spill on a ride and is hospitalized and put out of action for awhile. After a brief relationship with a divorced nurse, he returns to Tom's small ranch and watches as Tom goes on one last binge and dies. He then buries Tom with the expensive saddle he brought him as a gift to show Tom his appreciation for what he meant to him, and he burns down Tom's squalid ranch as a symbolic gesture to cut his bridges and move on. He feels lost and imprisoned, but this time it is not by the reservation or by Tom, but by being lured into the American Dream.
Widmark is outstanding as the aging cowboy, who could be generous as well as a bully, and who turns out to be the only friend the Ute has. Frederic Forrest captures the spirit of the noble savage trying to understand and survive in the civilization he is forced to live in. Their superb characterizations about the cowboy's hard life and romantic visions, living as loners, often traveling on dusty roads into one-horse towns while hanging out in tawdry bars, gives this film a special force, filled with a moody noirish atmosphere.
REVIEWED ON 12/10/2000 GRADE: B
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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