Last Stand at Sabre River

"Last Stand at Sabre River" was a 1997 western film adaptation of a novel by writer Elmore Leonard. Directed by Dick Lowry, the film starred Tom Selleck, Suzy Amis, Rachel Duncan, Haley Joel Osment, Tracey Needham, and Hollywood legends and brothers Keith Carradine and David Carradine. It also featured legendary western actor Harry Carey Jr..

The film won two awards, one in 1997 and the other in 1998. In 1997, Haley Joel Osmentone won a "YoungStar Award" award for "Best Performance for a TV Movie". In 1998, Tom Selleck, Elmore Leonard, Ronald Cohen, Dick Lowry, Thomas John Kane, Keith Carradine, Michael Brandman, Mary Ann Braubach, and Stephen J. Brandman won "Western Heritage Awards".

Plot

As America recovers from the Civil War, Paul Cable (Tom Selleck) returns home to Texas after being years away from his family fighting for the Confederacy. His wife, Martha (Suzy Amis), is a pretty but strong willed frontier woman, whose independence makes her a force in of herself. She had been told that he was killed in action. Upon his unexpected return, she devotes herself once again to being his wife, but resents him for having left her and their children behind to fight a war she didn't care to understand. Having loved each other since childhood, the two now, though married, are like strangers, and the tension between them is evident. During his absence, their youngest daughter had died from fever, and Martha, having borne that without him, has developed a hatred for her husband. Her father James Sanford (Harry Carey Jr.) scolds her for her attitude toward Cable, to which she stands her ground, never backing down from her stance on the subject. Her father knows her well, and lets the subject alone.

Cable decides he will return to Arizona and reclaim the ranch he owns there. The family, consisting of Cable, Martha, and their daughter and son, load up what belongings they have, bid farewell to her father, and make their way to Arizona. While en route they come into contact with Lorraine Kidston (Tracey Needham), the beautiful cowgirl ramrod daughter of rancher Duane Kidston (David Carradine). While camped at night, cattle headed by her men run stampede through Cable's camp, accidentally, leading Cable and Martha to scold her men. Lorraine agrees that her men were foolish running cattle at night, and scolds them also. Through this interaction, the cowhands and Lorraine learn that the man in front of them is in fact Paul Cable. They had been told he was dead, and since that time her father had assumed control of Cable's ranch.

Lorraine's father, Duane Kidston, was a former Union soldier, as was his brother Vern (Keith Carradine). They had little use for former Confederates, and felt that Cable's ranch now belonged to them. However, upon reaching the ranch, Cable confronts the Kidston men staying in his house, when one attempts to draw on him he is shot and killed from the dark shadows by Martha Cable.

This leads to an ongoing feud between Cable and the Kidston men, during which time several of Kidston's hired guns are killed by Cable. Vern Kidston and Lorraine Kidston, however, begin sympathizing with the Cables, feeling it is better to simply return the ranch to them and let things be. Duane disagrees, but relents to his daughter and brothers wishes. In the end, the real threat to the Cables' new life in Arizona does not come from the Kidstons, but from a one-armed Confederate sympathizer and former soldier, Edward Janroe (David Dukes), who killed Duane, for which of course Cable is blamed.

Despite everything pointing to it being Cable who killed Duane, not even Duane's brother Vern believes it. In the end Janroe kidnaps Cable's daughter as security during an illegal gun transaction with Mexican bandits. Cable and Vern team up and chase down Janroe, killing him, then shooting it out with the bandits, eventually with Cable asking Vern to take his daughter out of harm's way, which Vern does. Cable takes on the remaining bandits alone, with them eventually just deciding to take the guns from Janroe's wrecked wagon and leave.

Cable returns home, wounded, where he is nursed by Martha, who has finally learned to accept him how he is, and to forgive and forget all the animosity between them and love again.

References

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119501/ Last Stand at Sabre River]