GUNSMOKE: THE LONG RIDE (1993) - This fourth and penultimate entry in the series brought back HOW THE WEST WAS WON director Jerry Jameson, which I'm sure kept Mr. Arness comfortable, yet it - like the one still to follow - would mark the first time a writer was brought in from outside the classic GUNSMOKE team. The writer in question was Bill Stratton, a veteran TV scribe whose credits included 16 episodes of the original HAWAII FIVE-0, CANNON, and THE BLUE KNIGHT, whose only prior Western credit was the 1986 TV-movie THE LAST DAYS OF FRANK AND JESSE JAMES. Stratton was also the first writer for the movie series who wasn't building his story around flashbacks from an older GUNSMOKE episode; the story it tells is all-new - and, while that's welcome, the deep traction of the previous three films, the feeling of rounding up the old gang to prove they still have it, is generally missing. The film opens with the wedding of Matt Dillon's long-lost daughter Beth (returning Amy Stoch, now Stoch-Poynton) to Josh Reardon (Christopher Bradley) - who somewhat resembles but is not the soldier with whom she was shown to have some chemistry in the previous outing. Of course, weddings and engagements are omens of bad luck in GUNSMOKE lore, and that hasn't changed; as soon as the knot is tied, three deputies arrive from New Mexico to take the Father of the Bride into custody, as he has been n falsely identified as the outlaw responsible for shooting to death a wealthy mining executive while in the act of a recent robbery. Matt still respects the law, so he goes along peaceably, expecting to clear up a simple case of mistaken identity; but things change by the time he reaches New Mexico, where he's found to have a $5,000 price on his head, wanted dead or alive. Once Matt breaks away to clear his name, it becomes the story of enemies and friends met along the way to vindication, and how hard it sometimes is to tell the difference. The primary guest stars are James Brolin as John Parsley, an amiable whiskey priest struggling to find his own way back to being a good man, and Ali MacGraw as "Uncle Jane" Merkel, a widowed tradeswoman whom Parsley loves but on whom he's always been too shy and self-deprecating to stake a claim. The decision to move away from nostalgia towards creating something altogether new is commendable but this also results in the absence of the usual Western guest star veterans, which was an important part of the series' - and this series - overall alchemy. Even so, Arness remains rock-solid, the action scenes are well-handled, and the movie remains above average. If the Brolin-MacGraw romance is a little wobbly as it moves forward, its symmetry of its culmination is still moving. Not great, but still worthwhile. 
GUNSMOKE: ONE MAN'S JUSTICE (1994) - James Arness's swan song in the Matt Dillon role - again directed by Jerry Jameson, and this time written by husband-and-wife team Harry and Renée Longstreet - seems to have learned from the previous outing that some form of sentiment, if not nostalgia, was necessary to the overall recipe of these films. ONE MAN'S JUSTICE achieves this not by accessing old footage as hazy memories, but rather by involving a young character who reminds the aging Matt of himself at a decisive fork in his own life, as well as by studying his ongoing relationship with the U.S. Marshal badge he no longer wears. Here, Matt has settled down as a cattle rancher but he is drawn back into active duty when an orphaned 15 year-old boy of his acquaintance sets off in pursuit of the outlaws who murdered his mother during a brutal stagecoach robbery. As Matt expresses to his daughter, his ongoing belief in the law makes it necessary for him to try to involve himself, to intercede, to prevent the boy from becoming a murderer or from getting murdered in the process. The film allows for more bonding and business with Dillon's daughter and son-in-law (who offer active counterpoint to the main narrative and take part in a tense shoot-out/punch-out sequence) - it's probably Stoch's best showing as an actress in these films. Also along for the ride is Bruce Boxleitner (who played Arness' nephew on HOW THE WEST WAS WON), as Davis Healy, an innocent-seeming traveling salesman who becomes more complex when he proves himself to be surprisingly adept on the draw. The welcome reunion of Arness and Boxleitner strikes a nicely complex chord and Matt is really dragged through the wringer in his doggedness - at 71, he's still taking some hard rides (not to mention new bullets) for a selfless cause. Don't expect a triumphal climax or any acknowledgement of the long history that goes with this character; it's not about providing an ending to that story, or even this series of films. It's a last mission, one last ride, before the happy retirement Matt was entitled to - no more, no less. Truth be told, as endings go, it's a good deal more satisfying than GUNSMOKE's final broadcast episode.
(c) 2021 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to Tim Lucas / Video WatchBlog by Email
If you enjoy Video WatchBlog, your kind support will help to ensure its continued frequency and broader reach of coverage.
