Movie Review: ***^Shadow Riders (1982)

 A Louis L'amour after the Civil Ward movie.  Mac (Tom Selleck) fought for the North and his brother Dal (Sam Elliott) for the South.  When they get home they discover a band of "Rebs" has stolen their sisters and headed to Mexico as they are not yet prepared to give up the war.  They make a deal, trading the cattle the stole, and the women and men for slaves to a businessman from Mexico who promises to give them guns to continue their war.

Of course Mac and Dal decide to go after and find them on the beach.  They meet a brother, Jesse (Jeff Osterhage) who was also taken prisoner but manages to escape.  The women and a couple Confederates have already sailed to Mexico.  They also come upon Kate (Katharine Ross) who was also taken, but left behind for fear she would be trouble.  She was the fiancé of Dal before the war.  They also recruit Uncle Jack Black (Ben Johnson) who is a bit of a criminal.  They have to break him out of jail.  But he knows Mexico from his criminal days.  

This movie is great fun with three brothers working together to save their family.  It has dynamite and gun play, and dressing up like a num to effect the rescue.  

Movie Review: ***^Conagher (1991)

This is a made for TV movie based on a Louis L'Amour novel.  This film centers around two people, a widowed frontier woman (Katharine Rice) with two children, who lives on the edge of society, in Indian territory.  This lead to a confrontation.  At first, her home is used as a stage station, until the station moves.  Conagher (Sam Elliott) is the other character.  He is an honest cow hand, but faces many cattle rustlers and other outlaws who want to get ahead off of the efforts of someone else.  His loyalty to his boss leads to several interesting situations.  They are both lonely.  The widow writes poetry, and places them on sage brush to ride the wind.  She has to talk to someone.  They both live in separate worlds, and the question is if they will ever get together; will the even survive?