Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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102 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard Hitting, August 25, 2002
Noble Adams (Kris Kristofferson) is a retired tracker. He runs a ranch and has a wife. He wants nothing to do with his former life. An old friend is calling in a favor and Noble must return to the hunt one last time. Noble's son Tom (Mark Moses) has just graduated from college and has come to tell Noble that he will be living in the east and practicing law. When he finds his dad is going on a track, he headstrongly joins the chase. They will be tracking Red Jack Stilwell (Scott Wilson), a self professed Morman Avenging Angel that just broke out of prison and has been on a violent rampage. He is travelling with a kidnapped women and child. Noble doesn't really want his son along. He doesn't think the boy can handle the brutality of the land and is worried about the brutality that his son may see in him. Noble Adams is not just any tracker, he's the best tracker ever. The law's avenger, the army refers to him as Nemisis (The God of Vengeance). Even the indians fear him. So Noble, the aging sheriff and Tom Adams, the eastern college boy set out to hunt down the ruthless Red Jack Stillwell and his gang. Far from a typical father son bonding movie, Tom sees Noble as a cruel, harsh and exceptionally unforgiving man. But he comes to understand that the land has made him that way. Tom turns out to be just as hard but not quite as cold blooded as his father. Hard men in a hard land, doing a hard job. This unhearalded HBO production stands up as one of the great westerns of all time. More people need to see this movie. It is a classic with no shortage of action or suspense. Although filmed a number of years ago, HBO would do well to provide us with a sequel of equal caliber. Watch it and enjoy.
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34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Tracker, March 25, 2000
One of the 10 best westerns ever made. If you like Burt Lancaster's "Lawman," Henry Fonda's "Tin Star" and "Warlock," you love this movie. The attention to detail, from the script to the way they make coffee, is right on the button. Kristofferson's best performance.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good morality tale, October 23, 2005
Westerns seem uniquely well suited for the presentation of (near) epic morality tales. Even when made for television they lend themselves to the Big Issues. Beautifully filmed in New Mexico, THE TRACKER is a 1988 HBO production that touches on the stuff with deep roots - need and obligation, trust and home. Mostly, though, it about vengeance and the fine line between the Good and the Bad.
The Bad is ably portrayed by Scott Wilson, who's probably best remembered as Robert Blake's killing-spree partner in In Cold Blood. Wilson plays fervent Danite and general sicko Jack `Red Jack' Stillwell. The legendary Danites, as the movie explains, were a perverted branch of Mormons who cleansed the Earth by indiscriminate murder. When Red Jack and gang invade New Mexico Federal Marshal Lane Crawford (David Huddleston) is called on to track them down, dead or alive. But Crawford isn't as young as he used to be, and he needs help. He calls on old friend and renowned tracker Noble Adams (Kris Kristofferson - `even the Apaches were afraid of Adams.') Although inwardly reluctant, Adams agrees to track down the bad guys. Even more reluctant is he to allow his half-son Tom (Mark Moses) to tag along, but the young man is set on it. And so it is three hunting six - four bad guys and two female hostages.
Although Kristofferson sometimes comes across a little detached he doesn't do anything here to embarrass Kevin Jarre's smart script or John Guillermin's taut direction. Noble Adams is more complex than Kristofferson plays him. He's a reluctant avenger, a brutal killer when the situation demands it, a man who sends his son off to college and learns that his return home may not be permanent. It's the type of character western fans like to cheer for, one that's best developed by an actor who can play all the angles. We cheer for Adams, alright, but we're a lot more interested when Wilson's Red Jack is on the screen. All that doesn't make THE TRACKER any less a very good western, nor one that I wouldn't hesitate to heartily endorse.
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