weezeralfalfa Guess I have to blame it mostly on book author Louis l'Amour. I was disappointed in the one dimensional characterizations, especially of the baddies, and the very familiar formulistic plot, where the contested woman initially falls for the familiar handsome urbane, locally powerful, but discretely evil baddie and is initially put off by the overtures of the unfamiliar, unwashed cowboy who wanders or intrudes into her life, and ultimately saves her from being shackled to the baddie or cheated out of her substantial inheritance(both in this film).One look at Mark Harmon and I knew he had to be the oily boss of the baddies. Strange he's listed at the bottom of your list of players?!The main characters were well cast and the marvelously photographed mountains and plains Alberta landscape largely makes up for the predictable or deficient screenplay. Wilford Brimley makes a loyal, if overweight and non too animated, sidekick. With his long hair, dark looks, robust body, and generally serious manner, Selleck looked like he might be a fearsome badman. Thank goodness, his character instead personified l'Amour's standard hero :well practiced in all cowboy skills, tough with his fists, exceptional with firearms and horses, used to right wrongs. Seems that the husband of Anne Rodney traveled from his huge northern WY ranch to SF to get some money to pay off the mortgage note being held by Mark Harmon's Bruce Barkow. The story going around is that Anne's husband was ambushed on the way back by Sioux, who took his body, and has presumbably been dead for a year. On the other hand, Selleck's Rafe Covington much more recently was with him when he died from a brutal beating by the captain of the ship on which he and Covington had been serving as shanghaied hands. He requested Covington to go take care of his ranch and wife for a while. After beating up the captain, Covington and a couple of partners abandoned the ship, near shore, bought some horses and rode to this ranch, which looked rundown. Covington encountered Anne in town who disbelieved his story and was not thrilled to learn he was preparing to get the ranch back on its feet, fearing he might be planning to try to steal it while she is busy in town teaching school. Reeking with thinly disguised sarcasm toward detailed eye witness descriptions of Rodney's demise, the nosy Covington soon makes enemies of Barkow's evil henchmen. Drunk, one challenges him to a street gun duel. Laughably, he misses Covington's broad back several times, before the latter turns around to give a demo of marksmanship. This prompts Barkow to send for a famous gunslinger(silent, self absorbed, dressed in all black , with distinctive flat hat, sporting a huge telescopic sight for his custom-made rifle) to take care of Covington and his 3 friends.Of course, we know that eventually Covington and friends will have a showdown or two with Barkow and his gang, whom we suspect were involved in the robbery of Anne's husband before he was shanghaied. We also know that widow Anne will eventually see Barkow for the monster that he is behind his suave exterior, and switch her allegiance to the unlikely fearsome-looking Covington, who buys the rifle Rodney special ordered, to do in most of the baddies.The main showdown occurs in town with various participants hiding behind windows or outside at the corner of buildings, etc. : very dangerous for other townies, if not terribly novel in westerns. Covington and friends even release the cattle from the pen at the edge of town to add more confusion and danger to the scene. At least they didn't stampede through the town, as in some westerns. See the film to discover the meaning of my review title. The scene in which Barkow drags Anne across the street, caveman style, to force her to go through a marriage ceremony before a crowd is especially unbelievable. This finally demonstrates his true motive in pursuing her and how cruel he is. Prior to this, Barkow had the bought marshal charge Covington and friend with raping the daughter of chief Red Cloud, to cover up her presumed rape by 3 of his gang, who presumably broke her leg in the process. This is a bizarre move since Covington did a crude reset of her leg(we could hear the crunch of the bones)after discovering her predicament and made friends with Red Cloud who happening along just then. For a woman in such a state, she seemed remarkably well dressed and calm when two other unknown white men came upon her out in the bush. In any case, this incident served to further characterize Barkow's gang as thoroughly cruel and opportunistic. Presently, part of a small Tom Selleck westerns DVD collection.

ctomvelu1 Now this is a Western movie! Tom Selleck plays a cowpoke who promises to look after a buddy's ranch and missus after the buddy dies. Standing in his way Mark Harmon, who has his eye on the ranch and the widow, especially since the ranch sits on a vast amount of oil, which was a prized item even back then. The always fetching Virginia Madsen plays the widow, and familiar faces like Barry Corbin, David O'Hara, Wilford Brimley and Brad Johnson play key supporting roles. Selleck makes one heckuva of a cowboy, and is right up there with the likes of Sam Elliott, Kevin Costner, Sam Sheperd and Robert Duvall as a believable cowpoke. Who says the Western movie is dead? Not I!

oldgal67 All of the comments about Tom Selleck that have been made by other posters are absolutely right - he is the ultimate western hero. This film is the other half of "Quigley Down Under" and comes very close to being as 'painterly' as regards locations, lighting and photography as "Heaven's Gate". There was nothing about this film to alarm even the most delicate sensibilities and, for those with sons growing up, exposure to these two Selleck films might give the lads a glimpse of the kind of man it could be a matter of pride to emulate rather than the dubious 'heroes' of modern film and fiction whose crass brutality does none of us any good. L'Amour had a very precise understanding of what it took to be a man and everyone involved in "Crossfire Trail" translated his ideal perfectly onto film.

saddlebredfraser I own this movie and I watch it all the time.I'm a big Tom Selleck fan and I appreciate him doing these western style movies.I especially like the choice of music,it makes the movie well worth watching.The cast is a strong group of actors that I've been watching for a lot of years.Hat's off to the casting company and Tom Selleck and all off you who were involved in putting this movie together.It was a smart move on casting Mark Harmon as the big bad guy in this movie.Who else could pull off the line quote "We'll continue this conversation when you've calmed down a bit" unquote.You'll have to see the movie to get it.Does anybody remember him in Flamingo Road, I do.William Sanderson and Marshall Teaque are two of my all time favored character actors,and look at the grace Joanna Miles brings to this movie.Thanks,this is a great movie the whole family can watch together and not be offended.