Optimum ***
SAM Shepard's eerie western will always enjoy a macabre significance as the final film appearance of the tragic River Phoenix, but it deserves much wider recognition.
Prescott Roe (Richard Harris) is a tough old plainsman who will go to any lengths to comfort his son Talbot (Phoenix) who has been traumatised by the death of his Native American wife in childbirth.
There's no reasoning with the boy so Prescott returns to carny showman Eamon McCree (Alan Bates) who sold his eldest daughter to Talbot in the first place.
It's not exactly action-packed - Shepard's directorial style tends towards languid when epic may have suited the subject better - but it's determinedly involving.
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