Conagher

Conagher is a western based on the Louis L'Amour novel (that I haven't read) and on watching the film you get a very strong sense it was sticking very closely to that novel... and whilst I have read high praise for this by fans of the book I personally think it was a mistake for the film.

Sam Elliot (tough cowboy) as Conn Conagher is supposed to come 'in and out of the life of' a widow (played by his real-life wife, Katharine Ross) and slowly fall for her... personally I'm not sure if he falls slowly (it is set over a long period of time) or really quickly given the amount of time they actually spend together before the end of the film - they actually only meet for the time it takes to eat one meal and then not again in the first 1 1/4 hours of the film.

During their long time apart it seemed to me that the book would have been describing their thoughts of each other whilst telling their separate tales (their stories are linked only by the widow attaching notes of her thoughts to tumbleweed and letting it head off into the wilderness, which Connagher occasionally finds) but the film has great difficulty getting their feelings and thoughts about each other over to the viewer unless that viewer is one of those that's read the book already.

Mis-sold (in my opinion) as an actioneer on the cover, there are a few low key fights but essentially for the two leads the main storyline comes across of more of a Mills & Boon romance than anything else. There are some excellent character pieces centring around the ethics and actions of Elliot as he moves through the authentic feeling story, and some very good work from Ross too as she struggles in her new life. In fact both roles are very well acted but they're just never together on screen long enough for me to get any real sense of their feelings about each other and it's all too low key.

With Conagher if you've read and like the book the I think you'll like the film, because it remains true to the novel and you'll also be able to fill in the film's blanks, but otherwise only go for it if you're willing to do a lot of the director's work for him and are not expecting a lot of shoot 'em up, tough guy action.

The DVD (UK, Region 2):
A made for TV movie from 1991 this is presented in its original 4:3 aspect ratio and with the audio in Dolby Digital Surround.

Optionally you've got a mono French dub and subtitles in just about every language you're likely to need; as well as English there's Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish and Turkish!

Sadly, being a TV movie, there's just some trailers for other Warner Home Video products as an extra.