Riders of Purple Sage
by Charles Haid
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Amy Madigan, Ed Harris, Henry Thomas, Norbert Weisser, Robin TunneyDirector: Charles Haid
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
Release Date: 2000-10-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Turner Home Ent
Studio: Turner Home Ent
VHS Movie Reviews of Riders of Purple Sage
Movie Review: Wonderful! I can hardly wait to get it on DVD!
Summary: 5 Stars
This made for TV movie was a wonderful surprise! The production is superb and the cast outstanding. In fact, I believe that it would have done well as a theatrical release!
I only take issue with two things:
1) This fine movie has never been released on DVD and it is certainly worthy of such a reissue -- hopefully with some special features.
2) I am a Mormon Studies Scholar and I purchased this video to get acquainted with what is considered one of the definitive, watershed pieces of period fiction literature commenting on Utah Mormonism from a "Gentile" perspective.
This aspect of Zane Grey's novel is hinted at but not explicit in this production - I assume to not offend the Mormons in the 1996 nationwide broadcast audience. However this aspect was a big part of Zane Grey's novel:
"Riders of the Purple Sage was written in 1912 to partly present the influx of Mormon settlers into Utah (1847-1857) as a backdrop for the plot (1871). The Mormons had built the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio in 1831, and Zane Grey would have been familiar with the Mormon sect given that he grew up in Zanesville, Ohio.
Plural marriage was only officially prohibited by the Mormons with the issuing of the First and Second Manifesto in 1890 and 1904 respectively. In 1871, mainstream American society found plural marriage offensive. Even after the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was passed in 1862, Lincoln had no intent to enforce it and the practice had continued. Therefore, Zane Grey described the distaste of the institution through Lassiter in 1912 only after the practice had ended."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riders_of_the_Purple_Sage
So Grey was not only attempting to write a riveting story, he was also attempting to voice his objection to the cruelty of Mormon polygamy - which continues to this day. Just consider this excerpt from the novel:
"I'd like to tell you why I'm goin'," he continued, in coldness he had seldom used to her. She remarked it, but it was the same to her as if he had spoken with his old gentle warmth. "But I reckon I won't. Only, I'll say that mercy an' goodness, such as is in you, though they're the grand things in human nature, can't be lived up to on this Utah border. Life's hell out here. You think--or you used to think--that your religion made this life heaven. Mebbe them scales on your eyes has dropped now. Jane, I wouldn't have you no different, an' that's why I'm going to try to hide you somewhere in this Pass. I'd like to hide many more women, for I've come to see there are more like you among your people. An' I'd like you to see jest how hard an' cruel this border life is. It's bloody. You'd think churches an' churchmen would make it better. They make it worse. You give names to things--bishops, elders, ministers, Mormonism, duty, faith, glory. You dream--or you're driven mad. I'm a man, an' I know. I name fanatics, followers, blind women, oppressors, thieves, ranchers, rustlers, riders. An' we have--what you've lived through these last months. It can't be helped. But it can't last always."
(excerpted from Chapter 23, "The Fall of Balancing Rock")
Without these themes the story is simultaneously more confusing as well as less powerful and socially relevant. I can certainly understand the producer's decision to make this 1996 production "politically correct" but I really think that the movie would have been even stronger if he hadn't.
Never-the-less, this is one the best westerns that I've ever watched. I can hardly wait to buy it on DVD!
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