"Broken Trail" (2006) TV mini-series

Director:

Walter Hill

Writer (WGA):

Alan Geoffrion (written by)

Release Date:

25 June 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Set in 1898, Print Ritter and his estranged nephew Tom Harte become the reluctant guardians of five abused and abandoned Chinese girls...

Plot Keywords:

Chinese Girl | Nephew | Murder | TV Mini-Series | Rocky Mountains

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 9 wins & 19 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Nov. 28

1:00 PM

AMC

Cast

Robert Duvall	...	Prentice Ritter
Thomas Haden Church	...	Tom Harte
Greta Scacchi	...	Nola Johns
Gwendoline Yeo	...	Sun Foy 'aka' #3
Chris Mulkey	...	Big Ears
Rusty Schwimmer	...	Big Rump Kate
Scott Cooper	...	Gilpin
Valerie Tian	...	Ging Wa 'aka' #5
Caroline Chan	...	Mai Ling 'aka' #2
Olivia Cheng	...	Ye Fung 'aka' #4
Jadyn Wong	...	Ghee Moon 'aka' #1
Donald Fong	...	Lung Hay
James Russo	...	Captain Billy Fender
Todd Allen	...	Marshall Bill Miller
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bill Baksa	...	Store Clerk
Dusty Bews	...	Fly Fisherman
Morris Birdyellowhead	...	Fox-Hide Brine
Duncan Fraser	...	Moncrieffe
Philip Granger	...	Chuck Hyde
Shaun Johnston	...	Small Pox Bob
Sandy Kellerman	...	(voice)
Greg Lawson	...	Bartender
Scarlett Li	...	Additional Voices (voice)
William Marquez	...	Valentín Ugalde
Stephen E. Miller	...	Cariboo Clerk
Donnelly Rhodes	...	Stagecoach Driver
Pat Richards	...	Cowboy Vick
Peter Skagen	...	Dink Yeatman
Patricia Stutz	...	English Rose
Xuefeng Tan	...	Makeup girl in opening scene (red clothing)

Also Known As:

Daughters of Joy (Canada: English title) (working title)

Runtime:

184 min (2 parts)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English | Mandarin | Crow

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:12 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Butcher's Run Films

Goofs:

Continuity: During the last fight, when Print head butts Big Ears Bywater, Big Ears hat flies off of his head, when the camera angle changes it is back on his head.

Quotes:

Prentice Ritter: Without marriage and women we'd all have been drunk, shot ourselves to death, or died of the clap.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Broken Trail: The Making of a Legendary Western (2006) (TV)

Philosophic Western

How does an honest man make his way in a corrupt world? Walter Hill has been investigating this question since his days as a screenwriter, with a couple of stopovers in Dashiell Hammett country (his dauntingly unsuccessful version of Hammet's RED HARVEST, filmed as LAST MAN STANDING), comedies (48 HOURS), but here, in this leisurely western, he has found a perfect vehicle for this problem, and the right actor for the role in the ever-watchable Robert Duvall. And the answer is that you wind up accumulating a pack of people as wounded as yourself, ducking your head against the storm and slogging on through: a nephew estranged from his mother, your sister, a Virginian who can't stop traveling, five Chinese virgins intended for a mining camp's whorehouse... the list goes on. In the midst of a beautiful land -- the magnificent Canadian plains, west of Calgary where they rise to the Rockies -- they slog on, doing their best.

To what end? When death and violence surround you, then the wise man comes to recognize that the effort is all he can offer.

It is a pleasure to watch canny old pro Duvall at work, and to watch Thomas Haden Church, as his nephew, play off against him. And the beauty of moving horses across the Canadian plains is the revival of a seemingly lost art; the westerns, once the myth of America and bedrock of the film industry, are now an occasional production from people nostalgic for the form. But their nostalgia is suffused with a strong sense of film-making and this mini-series should not be missed.