Last of the Dogmen

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Last of the Dogmen

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tab Murphy
Produced by Joel B. Michaels
Written by Tab Murphy
Narrated by Wilford Brimley
Starring Tom Berenger
Barbara Hershey
Music by David Arnold
Cinematography Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Editing by Richard Halsey
Studio Carolco Pictures
Distributed by Savoy Pictures
Release date(s) September 8, 1995 (1995-09-08)
Running time 118 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $7,024,389[1]

Last of the Dogmen is a 1995 Western adventure film written and directed by Tab Murphy and starring Tom Berenger and Barbara Hershey. Set in the mountains of northwest Montana near the Idaho and Canadian borders, the film is about a bounty hunter who pursues escaped convicts into a remote region and encounters an unknown band of Dog Soldiers from a tribe of Cheyenne Indians. The film was shot on location in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Distraught but skillful bounty hunter Lewis Gates (Tom Berenger) pursues three armed escaped convicts into Montana's Oxbow Quadrangle, followed by his faithful companion called Zip, an Australian cattle dog. All Gates finds is a few scraps of cloth, some blood, and an old-fashioned Indian arrow. He takes the arrow to anthropologist Lillian Sloane (Barbara Hershey) who identifies it as a replica of the arrows used by Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. Gates doesn't think it's a replica and, after some library research, develops a long list of people who have disappeared into the Oxbow and a story of a "wild child" captured in the woods in the early 20th century. Now he's convinced that the fugitives were killed by a tribe of Dog Soldiers, a hardy band of native Americans who had somehow escaped the 1864 Sand Creek massacre and survived for more than a hundred years secluded in the Montana Wilderness.

Gates convinces Sloane to join him in a search for the band. Just as they are preparing to return empty handed; the Dogmen surprise them, take them prisoner, and lead them back to the band's encampment, where they must convince the reclusive band's elders that they intend no harm. An immediate "salvation of one vs. salvation of many" crisis situation gives them the opportunity to prove their honorable intentions but also threatens to attract the attention of the outside world.

Gates and Sloane soon realize they must protect the secret of the band's existence from the outside world, beginning with the local Sheriff Deegan (Kurtwood Smith) who is now leading a posse into the Oxbow in search of both the fugitive convicts and Gates.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

Filming locations

[edit] Reception

Last of the Dogmen currently holds a 69% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[5]

[edit] Alternate releases

The American theatrical and home video releases of this film included narration by Wilford Brimley, which is absent from the UK version. The DVD allows the viewer to choose.

[edit] Rights issues and availability

Dogmen is one of the few Carolco productions whose rights have been retained by its original distributor (in this case, Savoy Pictures). HBO released the film on DVD, which has been discontinued. As of March 2010, neither HBO or Focus Features, the latter of whom has begun to acquire some of Savoy's films, has announced any plans to release a new DVD of the film. For these reasons, used copies of the original DVD have gone up for as much as $30 online.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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