The Sacketts (1979) User Reviews

If you like Sackett novels you'll love this!

[j-mschaffner · 9/10 · 17 September 2006]

This move was made in the late 1970's before TS achieved fame. So you may see a much slimmer and rougher actor than you may be used to. In my opinion, this is the greatest portrayal of Orrin and Tell Sackett to date. The screenplay remained true to the two novels from which it was taken ("The Daybreakers" and "Sackett"). The portrayal of the times was as authentic as we can hope for without having a camera running in the late 1800's. The supporting actors were so real you could smell the trail dust on them. The screen locations were exactly as I had pictured them in my mind when I read the novels. If you love Louis L'Amour novels and want to see the best that Hollywood has to offer, then take the time to watch this.

A Good Western Mini-Series

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 1 October 2018]

After a deadly encounter that has left two members of a rival clan dead, two brothers by the names of "Orrin Sackett" (Tom Selleck) and "Tyrel Sackett" (Jeff Osterhage) are forced to leave their home in Tennessee and head out west. As luck would have it they join a cattle drive headed by a ramrod named "Tom Sunday" (Glenn Ford) and another veteran cowboy by the name of "Cap Rountree" (Ben Johnson). Within no time the four of them become good friends and when the cattle drive is over they all go into business together and along the way stop off in a small town in Colorado. Meanwhile, their oldest brother "Tell Sackett" (Sam Elliott) has had the unfortunate experience to become involved in a gunfight against a card shark named "Wes Bigelow" (James Gammon) which ends up with Wes dead and Tell having to quit his job as a miner to avoid any further trouble from Wes' brothers who are rumored to be nearby. It's then that Tell arrives in the same town in Colorado where he meets up with his two brothers and their two new colleagues. What none of them realize is that the Bigelow brothers are close behind and have recruited several gunmen to help them in their quest for revenge. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a very good Western which managed to capture the flavor of the Old West quite well. That said, however, because it is a mini-series the overall running time was quite long and in addition to that there were certain scenes which tended to run on a bit. But even so I found it to be very entertaining and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Standard Western fare

[matchettja · 7/10 · 28 June 2011]

This is pretty much standard Western fare with a cattle drive, gold prospecting, town taming and gun play. Sam Elliot, Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage play the three Sackett brothers. The oldest one, Tell (Elliot) is the one looking for gold. In the meantime, the other two leave their home in Tennessee and head west, hooking up with a cattle drive. When the cattle are delivered, they head to racially divided Santa Fe to help a beautiful Mexican senorita whose family is threatened by a dishonest businessman.

Much of the strength of this story lies in the supporting cast, including Western veterans Glenn Ford, Ben Johnson, Jack Elam, Slim Pickens and Gene Evans. Ford is Tom Sunday, ramrod of the cattle drive. He and the two younger Sacketts go into business together rounding up stray cattle before taking them to Santa Fe. Then Sunday's relationship with the Sackett boys begins to spiral downward, and when Orrin (Selleck) gets the sheriff job Sunday has his heart set on, a grudge develops that will not abate. Ben Johnson is a hoot as Cap Roundtree. He was going to join in the stray cattle venture, but when he meets up with Tell, his eyes light up with gold fever and off they go to the mountains. Elam, Pickens and Evans are the Bigelows. They aim to get revenge against Tell for the slaying of their brother and this leads to the final confrontation. Elam, with his long handlebar mustache and black garb, including gloves, looks especially menacing.

The Sacketts is not the best Western to come along, but it is always a pleasure to watch those guys who appeared in so many of the bygone classics and have since passed on.

Good one

[SanteeFats · 10/10 · 22 September 2013]

Tom Sellack as Orrin Sackett (the learned one) and Sam Elliot as as the oldest brother Tell (the toughest one). Jeff Osterhage is a very pleasant surprise as the youngest brother, Tyrel, (good with a gun to say the least). Any movie with Tom Sellack and Sam Elliot in it is bound to be good in my opinion.I am really surprised by how closely the movie actually follows the book. It tracked the book very closely. Ben Johnson as the old timer is very good, but then he almost almost has been. The fact that he was first a champion rodeo star makes his roles even better. Glen Ford plays Tom Sunday and while he educates the three Sackett brothers he is destined to die by one of them. Not in this movie but later down the line. This is a very well done movie.

It's good. Great cast of Western types.

[gazzo-2 · 16 February 2004]

....you know, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Jack Elam, Sam Elliot, Shug Fisher, James Gammons, etc etc LQ Jones etc. Episodic kinda nature of the show keeps your interest, esp. when you see Sam Elliot come onto the screen.

Nothing ground breaking, but check it out if you like either L'amour or Tom Selleck at the least.

*** outta ****.

Great sense of realism

[gordonb-59587 · 8/10 · 2 October 2019]

Hollywood western so often just leave really behind, but this movie is different. The sets, scenery and buildings really added a lot of realism. Also I liked that the riders lead pack horses, got dirty and didn't always run around clean shaved. Riders didn't leave their horses loose but tied them up and ran out of ammunition and had to reload. Again realistic. The plot has a few holes and leaves some questions unanswered but even if you don't get all fired up about the story, just watching for the set designs is worth it. Firearms, saddles, building construction and costumes for the most part were period correct. And for the most part, the named actors rarely used stand-ins. In my younger days, I had the chance to ride with Slim Pickens, and that man could ride!

Pretty Good On Its Own, But No 'Lonesome Dove'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 19 July 2006]

This is something of a poor man's "Lonesome Dove." The story is a combination of two Louis L'Amour novels and doesn't have the intensity of Larry McMurtrey's aforementioned "Dove," nor the beautiful cinematography.

The best part of "The Sacketts" is the cast, led by some of the best actors to ever play cowboys. I mean, this is worth owning alone just to see Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, Glenn Ford and Ben Johnson all in the same story. These guys - especially Elliott and Selleck - were always fantastic playing cowboys. Not only that, you get classic stars such as Gilbert Roland, Mercedes McCambridge, Ruth Roman, Jack Elan, Slim Pickens and more ! Wow - impressive.

Being a made-for-TV film, you don't get much profanity or blood and for most of the film, you get two separate stories going on at once. One story features Selleck and Jeff Osterhage as brothers and another as Elliott, as the older brother involved with his own adventures.

Even though I can't compare it favorably to Lonesome Dove, it's still a decent western on its own merits.

Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott. nough said

[cross525 · 10/10 · 10 July 2021]

Battle of the moustaches. These two are worth the time to watch. Add in Jeff Osterhage,no moustache BTW, but holds his own with these two. They actually made me think of them being brothers.

Ma Sackett sends her boys west

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 18 October 2015]

The three hour plus two part mini-series was just about the right time that was needed for Louis L'Amour to tell his tale about the Sacketts. His fictional family encompassed a few of his many western novels and the ground covered here is covered in two of his stories.

One brother Sam Elliott has already gone west and now Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage have to go west because of a killing of a family member who have a feud going with the Sacketts. Their mother played by Mercedes McCambridge sends the boys off with her blessing and a promise that they'll send for her when they can.

One thing I liked about this film is without being sanctimonious or preachy The Sacketts does manage convey the strong moral values the men were raised with. That slips all too often in the rough and violent west when it could become a dog eat dog matter of survival.

Elliott is involved with prospecting and he runs afoul of a band of brothers named Bigelow when Elliott shoots one of them for being a card cheat. Selleck and Osterhage sign on to a cattle drive that is ramrodded by Glenn Ford who is wise in frontier ways. They settle in Santa Fe where they get caught in the middle of a feud between the new American immigrants led by John Vernon who includes among them a number of gunfighters and Gilbert Roland leader of the Mexican settlers who were there before.

Let's say that the brothers help each other out in their different situations.

A lot of familiar western names support Selleck, Elliott, and Osterhage and it's always a pleasure to see any one of them in a film. Ben Johnson plays another grizzled veteran of the frontier. Glenn Ford's character is probably the most morally ambiguous of the lot and in his long career Ford did play a few people who were not heroes, Lust For Gold and The Man From Colorado come immediately to mind. And Mercedes McCambridge's few scenes at the beginning are memorable.

Fans of Louis L'Amour novels and western fans in general will enjoy The Sacketts

Classic Western Mini

[gracynmartin · 10/10 · 7 May 2022]

What's not to love when you have Sam Elliot and Tom Selleck in this old western min-series. Throw in a good classic plot and you have a good movie on hands.

Sackett To Me!

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 9 September 2019]

Louis L'Amour's "The Sacketts" a two part TV movie chronicling the life and times of the three Sackett Brothers: Tell (Sam Elliott), Orrin (Tom Selleck) and Tyrel (Jeff Osterhage). They are supported by a fine cast of veteran performers.

Starting off at their Tennessee home, Orrin is about to be married when his bride to be is shot, taking a bullet meant for him. Tyrel arrives on the scene and kills the intruder. With a tearful good-bye from Ma Sackett (Mercedes McCambridge, Tyrel sets off for the west. Orrin soon follows having become despondent over the loss of his bride.

The brothers come upon a cattle drive. The owner of the cattle is a man named Belden (L.Q. Jones) and the ramrod is Tom Sunday (Glenn Ford). The boys are hired and become friends with Sunday and his pal Cap Rountree (Ben Johnson). One of the cowboys, Reed Carney (Buck Taylor) has it in for farmer Tyrel. After arriving with the herd in Abilene, Orrin Tyrel, Tom and Cap decide to go after free roaming maverick cattle. But first Orrin spots a blue eyed blonde Laura Oritts (Marcy Hanson) and is smitten. She is the daughter of Jonathon Pritts (John Vernon) who is in a battle with Mexican landowner Don Luis (Gilbert Roland) back in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both men just happen to be in Abilene at the same time. Don Luis also has a comely young daughter Drisilla (Ana Alicia) with whom young Tyrel takes an interest. But before they leave, Tyrel is forced to face Carney in a showdown.

The oldest Sackett brother, Tell has been working in a mine . He gets into a poker game with Wes Bigelow (James Gammon) whom he catches cheating. Tell is forced to kill Bigelow but is warned that Bigelow's brothers will surely come looking for him. Tell goes up into the mountains to seek gold hidden by the Spanish three hundred years earlier. He finds it.

Tell goes to the town of Purgatory to cash in on his find. Orrin, Tyrel, Tom and Cap also arrive in town. The three brothers reunite. Cap decides to throw in with Tell and go gold mining. The others decide to continue in their round-up of maverick cattle. In the local saloon Cap meets an old flame Rosie (Ruth Roman) and they renew old acquaintances. While sitting down to dinner, Tell is prodded by a would be gunfighter, Kid Newton (Paul Koslo) whom he sends on his way with his tail between his legs.

On the way to the cattle, Tom, Orrin and Tyrel come upon a burned out wagon with the occupants all slain by the Indians. Tom finds a box containing the dead family's $1,000 savings which he wants to keep. The Sackett brothers want to send the money to a surviving daughter to which Tom reluctantly agrees. This begins a division between Tom and the brothers.

In Santa Fe, Pritts has used his daughter's charms into bringing Orrin under his control. He backs Orrin's bid to become sheriff. But Tom also wants the job, however Pritts brings up Tom's past and leaves him humiliated in front of the whole town. Tom defeated and totally embarrassed goes after Orrin in a jealous rage and.........................

Meanwhile, back on the mountain, Tell and Cap come upon a young lady Ange Kerry (Wendy Rastattar) who has been living alone fin a cave following the murder of her family by the Indians. Not only that, but the three Bigelow brothers, (Jack Elam, Slim Pickens and Gene Evans) have tracked Tell down with the help of Kid Newton. A battle ensues and Cap is wounded.

Tell manages to get Cap over the mountain and to safety in Purgatory. He also manages to have Ange wire Orrin and Tyrel for help. The Bigelows also arrive in town and challenge Tell to face them. Just as the "OK Corral" type showdown is about to begin, Orrin and Tyrel turn up and......................................

I was impressed by just how many of my favorite western performers turn up in this one. In addition to those mentioned above there was also old time Gene Autry sidekick Pat Buttram and Shug Fisher (sans studder) in small roles.

One of the better TV mini series.

What A Cast

[januszlvii · 8/10 · 25 June 2023]

The best part of the Sacketts is the cast. Including 5 members of the Western Performers Hall of Fame. Sam Elliott ( Tell Sackett), Tom Selleck ( Orrin Sackett), Glenn Ford ( Tom Sunday), Ben Johnson ( Cap) and Jack Elam, so it is fair to say the producers put an effort into casting. The funny thing is though the main character is the youngest brother Tyrel ( Jeff Osterhage), and he is the one who obviously is not well known like the others. I also give the producers credit by casting actual Mexicans Gilbert Roland as Mexicans Don Luis and Ana Alicia as his granddaughter Drusilla. It certainly helps when it comes to the authenticity of the characters. While The Sacketts was well above average, the thing that prevented it from being great was too many open plot lines. I actually went to Wikipedia and found out that Tyrel married Drusilla in the book, and Orrin was definitely not as lucky with the woman he fell for ( Laura) . In the film she ended up in a saloon serving drinks and in the books she married him and tried to have him killed.. if they would have spent more time on Drusilla it would have improved the movie because the Drusilla scenes with Tyrel were some of the strongest in the movie. Anyway, I give it 8/10 stars mostly for the cast.

Predictable But Entertaining Horse Opera

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 11 February 2024]

Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, and Jeff Osterhage are cast appropriately as the rough and ready but charismatic Sackett brothers in this above-average, serio-comic television adaptation of Louis L'Amour's frontier novel "The Sacketts. The Civil War has ended with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Sam Elliot is a Confederate officer on his way home to Texas when he is waylaid and finds his head in a noose. Fortunately, Tell Sackett saves him from being hanged and they ride home together to find misfortune awaiting them. Seems a renegade Confederate Major has taken not only Elliot's wife (Katherine Ross) hostage but also another Sackett ( Jeff Osterhage) along with several other women. Seems Ross has been remarried because she thought Sackett had been killed in the war. Not sooner have the two Sacketts lit out after these villainous rebels than the other Sackett taken hostage manages to escape. He makes his break while the unreconstructed rebs are occupied. These rebs have set up camp on the beach when Osterhage escapes. The major's men wound him as he plunges into the surf during his escape. Not surprisingly, Osterhage manages to survive his wound, and the Sackett brothers stumble onto him. He fills them in about the hostages taken by the nefarious Major and joins them. He leads them back to the shoreline camp where the Major has made a rendezvous with a gun runner (R. G. Armstrong of "Ride the High County") and shoots it their camp. Our heroes manage to rescue Ross. Later, the Sacketts enlist Uncle Jack (Ben Johnson of "Rio Grande") as a tracker because he knows his way around Mexico with predictable but entertaining results.

Enjoyable western for western fans

[tafkaga4 · 5/10 · 21 December 2006]

The Sacketts was fun to watch if you like actors like Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, Ben Johnson and Glenn Ford. Other than having a great cast, there's nothing ground-breaking here. In fact this film at times seems a little bit too casually made, as if they were just trying to throw it together, collect their paycheck, and move on to the next project.

There are a number of things that are distractingly bad in this film, and here are a few that I noticed.

1. When they are on the cattle drive, they send Tyrell ahead to scout out water for the horses. Tyrell says he doesn't know the country, but they send him anyway. Tyrell finally does find water. A minute later he's under gunfire from rustlers who want to stampede the herd. Two minutes after that, the owner of the herd himself shows up saying that he came when he heard gunshots. Was Tyrell only scouting a half mile ahead of the herd? 2. Glenn Ford's death scene was really awful. By the position he was laying in, it would have been more practical for his hand to fall against his chest and his eyes to just glaze over. Instead, he went for the dramatic effect of twitching his head to the side and closing his eyes while pulling his hand from Selleck's and tossing it to the ground.

3. The scene where Tell Sackett goes to cut the bad guys' horses loose. It was supposed to be the middle of the night, yet it was broad daylight outside. Oh, but they had the sound of whippoorwills dubbed in to fool us. Unfortunately the fact that it was not the slightest bit dark kind of tipped me off, unless they somehow made their camp fire strong enough to light up the whole valley.

Classic

[omgakeem · 10/10 · 21 November 2020]

A good solid western story thanks to Louis L'Amour really two stories The Daybreakers and Sackett. Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, Ben Johnson, Glenn Ford, Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, and Newly (Buck Taylor) from Gunsmoke, heck yes I am all in.

Goodest western

[wildbunch8 · 10/10 · 11 May 2019]

Very good western that includes action, suspense, romance, and persons interactions. Worthy of a watch or two. Take the ride along.

Actors hampered by phoned-in script

[Sagebrush_Bob · 7 June 2004]

Funny, I like westerns but have never take the time to read a Louis L'Amour book. If this script is any indication, I don't see what all the fuss is about. While better than 99.9% of the fare on TV in the last decade, this is a definitely no-surprises made-for-TV movie, with the proper breaks in the proper places and everything wrapped up neat and tidy. *Way* too neat and tidy. Those expecting "Lonesome Dove" will be disappointed. Those expecting a few hours of Sam Elliot and Tom Selleck will be happy. Good sneering and facial quivering by Glenn Ford. Always love seeing Ben Johnson in anything. John Vernon always makes a good bad guy, but I would have appreciated seeing him get his towards the end. Being led off to jail wasn't enough. I also liked the bad guy in the bar, blonde, two guns which he (attempted to cross-draw)who Sam Elliot informed he'd have to kill and it would ruin his supper. Don't know the guy's name though.

Classic western

[scotne · 9/10 · 30 January 2024]

Possibly one of the last westerns made when the story was more important than the special effects.

Based on Louis L'Amour's "The Daybreakers" and "Sackett", there are a few revisions for expedience sake, but a good movie with some notable quotes.

It's hard to not like Ben Johnson playing an old man. He is one of several real cowboys in the show.

The good guys do what needs done, even giving the bad guys time to rethink their choices.

It does run a bit long, the vhs was 2 cassettes, but it was a 2 part tv movie.

If you like the characters, the L'Amour Sackett series is probably up your alley.

Excellent but not quite up to snuff compared to the book

[tilmonhocutt · 9/10 · 19 July 2023]

Trying to merge two books into one miniseries I think led to most of the problems. What I found remarkable was how authentic the costumes were and how believable the construction of the town of Purgatory was. Most westerns have the characters running around in their Sunday go to meeting clothes 7 days a week with never a smudge on the clothes or the people. This one was a LOT more true to what I think it would really have been like. I suspect this was from Louis L'Amour input. He is famous for the authentic settings in his books. It is a pity we dont have more westerns of this caliber. Then again it is hard to find an author that does as much good research.

Lame

[jesbeard · 4/10 · 3 November 2006]

This COULD have been a very good film. Nice, strong themes running thru it, but none are really developed. Great cast, but it suffers from very weak direction and gaffs that are simply too serious to ignore.

Let's list just a few of the glaring mistakes in the film.

1) When the two younger Sacketts are traveling from Texas toward Santa Fe in the first part of the two part series, they are shown amid lots of saguaro cactus. Problem with this is that the saguaro cactus ONLY grows in the Sonoran desert, which is in Arizona, extreme southeast California and the northwest part of Mexico right below Arizona. No such cactus grown in Texas or in NE New Mexico where they were supposed to have been at the time. ANYONE spending any time in Arizona would know this, and anyone in New Mexico or Texas would know that cactus is not there.

2) The film was set in 1869 and the year or two before, but the rifles most of the men used in the film were Winchester repeating rifles that were not produced until 1870 and later. But that was a small error compared to the fact that the rifle only holds (I believe) 7 cartridges, though the movie had some of the characters firing about 15 rounds before needing to reload.

3) The climactic gunfight at the end of the movie is supposed to be set at "daybreak," though the shadows are all over the place, some of them clearly when the sun is on the horizon and then seconds later when the sun is nearly straight overhead and then back to on the horizon and then back to straight overhead.

4) That same climactic gunfight has the three Sackett brothers and a wounded friend facing off against the three Bigelow brothers and four hired gunmen... but the Sacketts kill eight of them. Only seven bad guys there, but the Sacketts kill eight.

Now, none of those errors are so serious as to destroy the film if the movie had otherwise been well-made and story lines developed and themes worked within it... but they were not. A terrible waste of some excellent acting talent.

Nothing to write home about

[angelsunchained · 5/10 · 25 November 2023]

I wanted to like this movie, but I only found it fair. Nothing new here in regards to a Western film. While the story concept was passable, the dialogue was mediocre at best, except for a few fleeting moments. Glenn Ford stood out briefly, but then overplayed his role and his death scene was way over the top and it was clear as day that a stunt man did the falls for the over 60 Ford. Most of the cast was wooden, stiff and either underplayed or overplayed their parts. Of course this was a television movie and for that, it was entertaining enough on a rainy night or a night with nothing much to do. Like I said, nothing new here.

Mediocre TV Adaptation...

[grayoak · 5/10 · 14 June 2006]

It was probably OK as a TV movie back in 1979, but not that great to watch today.

My biggest laugh was after Ben Johnson gets shot in the leg, he was using a makeshift crutch on the wrong side! It has some very good actors that have been in some solid movies, and it contains some strong moral themes but it just doesn't work. Also watch for Glenn Ford pull on a door that opens outwards; I guess they didn't have either the time or the budget to re-shoot such goofs.

Even the music dates the movie. It sounds like some of it has been lifted from Kung Fu!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[deni2730 · 1/10 · 4 July 2006]

I thought with my two favorite actors, Sam Elliott & Tom Selleck, it had to be a winner. We rented the DVD's which had a part 1 & part 2. After the first 15 minutes I was ready to shut it off. I've never seen such a slow moving western in my entire life. I gave up after the first DVD, not caring who lived or died in the rest of this movie. Even with the great cast, the acting was wooden, the scenes were predictable and it was just plain boring.

It starts out in Tennessee with two brothers Orrin & Tyrell. Within the first 5 minutes Orrin (played by Tom Selleck)Sackett's bride-to-be is killed at the ceremony and Orrin's brother Ty shoots the man "Higgins" (remember Magnum P.I.'s character Higgins?). Naturally Higgins brother is going to come after Ty (yawn) so he heads out west which he eventually hooks up with Orrin who has also left TN. They become cowboys and the rest is too mind numbing to even recall. What a disappointment!

What a Waste of a Great Cast

[echurch · 1/10 · 24 June 2006]

I really felt sorry for some of the classic western actors who ended up participating in this drivel. The whole thing seemed like it was written, directed and edited by a bunch of eighth-graders! It also seemed that it might have been severely edited to reduce the running time, and if that's the case, my criticism might be bit too harsh. Was this perhaps originally a 6-hour movie that was cut down to 4 hours?

I can't believe that, at the time this is being written, that IMDb readers have given this an average rating of 7.5. I'm giving it a 1 in hopes that others will too to keep serious movie-watchers from wasting four hours of their time as I did last night.