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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Western Legends Live, November 13, 2005
I realized after watching this movie that this was the first live-action movie that I could remember having watched about some of America's larger-than-life legendary heroes. When I was younger I read stories of Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry, among others, but the only place I recall having seen these legends was in animated shorts. Disney brought these characters together in a particular place and time to form a tale of growing up, eras passing, and morality.
The Hackett family lives in Paradise Valley. Daniel Hackett (Nick Stahl, who has appeared in "The Man without a Face," "The Thin Red Line," "Sin City," and numerous other films) is a stereotypical rebellious young boy frustrated by being stuck doing chores on the farm while the young industrial United States seems to be passing him by. Jonas Hackett (Stephen Lang, credits include tv's "Crime Story" and "The Amazing Panda Adventure") is Daniel's father, with a firm belief in right and wrong and the rights of an individual. Jonas loves his son but is frustrated by his son's lack of appreciation for his values.
J.P. Stiles is a railroad man who plans on putting his railroad through Paradise Valley so that the mineral wealth of the valley can be strip mined. However, Jonas Hackett is a pivotal landowner who is at the center of the resistance to selling to J.P. Stiles. J.P. Stiles has men and guns and pressures Jonas, to sell his land, and will use force if he must. Unfortunately, Daniel witnesses his father being hurt by Stiles' men, just after his father gave him the deed to the farm for safe-keeping.
Daniel runs from Stiles' men, feeling guilty that he left his father, and yet needing to protect the deed. Daniel runs to a boat on a lake in the valley, where the rope tying the boat to a dock slips. Soon Daniel awakes in a desert, surrounded by outlaws. Fortunately, Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze) arrives in a tornado to shoot the trigger fingers off the outlaws before they can kill Daniel. Daniel is unwilling to believe his eyes, and sees Pecos Bill as someone or something that belongs in the past.
Daniel and Pecos begin the journey back toward Daniel's home, but along the way the meet with Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt, "Working Girl," "Benny & Joon," and numerous others) and John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown, "Moon Over Parador" and "Robocop 2"), who join with them, though Paul frequently wonders why they are doing anything for Daniel, who seems to want to do nothing for anyone other than himself. During one portion of their trip they encounter a scroungy-looking Calamity Jane (Catherine O'Hara), who only makes a brief appearance, and Burgess Meredith as an old man and William H. Macy as a railroad magnate.
Throughout the journey back to Daniel's home the three legends try to get Daniel to understand the code of the west, which is little more than doing the right thing. I was continually annoyed with Daniel because he seemed to be taking along time to get the point, but just when I thought all was lost, he FINALLY understood.
Unfortunately, I can say little more without spoiling the fun, so I will stop here and say that I enjoyed the ending.
"Tall Tale" is more than a simple morality story. The West, and the United States, is changing. We see a horseless carriage. J.P. Stiles' train is a mechanical monster that exemplifies the lack of environmental concern of early industrialists. Jonas Hackett represents the traditional values. The United States was on the cusp of changes that would take us away from the wild days of the old west and vault us into a world power. You sense that Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry knew that their time was passing, and that other things were replacing them. Yet, the values that they represented, hard work, belief in the individual, and taking care of the weak, represent values that needed to endure dramatic changes, which is the real lesson of this movie.
I have watched this movie twice. The first time I was not impressed. The second time I enjoyed the movie. I am unable to tell you why the big difference, but I think the second time I focused on the legends more than on annoying Daniel, and I found the portrayal of the legends to be good. There is a fair amount of violence in this PG movie, including trigger fingers being shot off (no blood, but you do get to see a finger), a jail break, and more than a little violence, so this movie is probably unsuitable for the younger members of the family and some older children.
In spite of the breakthroughs in technology, film makers have generally overlooked American legends. Perhaps American legends are considered too irrelevant and uninteresting to make a popular movie. It is also possible that children are no longer familiar with these legends that were still well-known when I was a child. But perhaps a good movie like this can inspire a child to pick up a book and learn more. I can only hope.
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