Last Stand at Saber River | |
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DVD cover
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Based on | Last Stand at Saber River by Elmore Leonard |
Written by | Ronald M. Cohen |
Directed by | Dick Lowry |
Starring |
Tom Selleck Suzy Amis Rachel Duncan Haley Joel Osment |
Music by | David Shire |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Michael Brandman Tom Selleck |
Producer(s) | Steven Brandman Mary Ann Braubach Thomas Kane |
Cinematography | Ric Waite |
Editor(s) | William B. Stich |
Running time | 96 minutes |
Production company(s) | Turner Network Television |
Distributor | Turner Network Television |
Release | |
Original network | TNT |
Original release | January 19, 1997 |
Last Stand at Saber River is a 1997 American made-for-television western drama film directed by Dick Lowry and starring Tom Selleck, Suzy Amis, Haley Joel Osment, and Rachel Duncan. The film also features Tracey Needham, Keith Carradine, David Carradine, and Harry Carey Jr.. Based on the 1959 novel of the same title by Elmore Leonard, the film is about a Civil War veteran who tries to put the pieces of his life back together but finds himself fighting a new battle on the frontier. Seeking to reclaim his Arizona homestead from rebel pioneers who sympathize with the Union war effort, he joins forces with his Union adversary to make a last stand for the one thing worth fighting for, his family. In 1997, Osment won a YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Made For TV Movie. In 1998, the film received the Western Heritage Awards Bronze Wrangler for Television Feature Film.
As America recovers from the Civil War, Paul Cable (Tom Selleck) returns home to Texas after being away from his family for years while fighting for the Confederacy. His wife, Martha (Suzy Amis), is a pretty but strong-willed frontier woman, whose independence makes her a force in and of herself. She had been told that he was killed in action. Upon her husband's unexpected return, she once again devotes herself 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.
Despite having loved each other since childhood and being married, Paul and Martha are now like strangers to each other, and the tension between them is evident. During his absence, their youngest daughter died from a 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, but she stands her ground, never backing down from her stance on the subject. Her father knows her well, and subsequently leaves the subject alone.