Thanks for the memories!

How sad is this?

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Last of the Dogmen is written and directed by Tab Murphy. It stars Tom Berenger, Barbara Hershey, Kurtwood Smith and Steve Reevis. Music is scored by David Arnold and cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub. When three convicts escape from prison and head into the Montana mountains, the local law enforcer hires skillful tracker/bounty hunter Lewis Gates (Berenger) to go find them. What he finds is torn clothes, blood and an Indian arrow. After spying someone in the trees it leads Gates to an investigation on the possibility of a lost tribe of Cheyenne Indians living in the mountains.A thoroughly enjoyable contemporary Western, even if it's cribbing clichés from a number of films and TV episodes of the past. Formula of story is simple, grizzled tracker man Berenger and prim anthropologist Hershey are poles apart, but into the mountains they go in search of a hidden tribe of Cheyenne. That they find them is a given, since the title says it all, but what unfolds is a burgeoning relationship between the two, while much understanding and soul searching involving the "alien" Cheyenne makes for a good chunk of the narrative. There's observations galore in here about the advancement of time, different cultures etc, and a nod to the Sand Creek Massacre, while a back story sub-plot involving Kurtwood Smith is deftly handled; if a little redundant in the grand scheme of things.Anyone who has seen the likes of The African Queen, Dances With Wolves and the Twilight Zone Episode: A Hundred Yards Over The Rim, wont be particularly surprised by what transpires in eventuality. But Berenger and Hershey make for a nice duo to be in the company of, while Kip the dog steals the film from both of them! Though story is set in Montana, film was shot on location in Alberta and British Columbia, and here is the film's trump card, where Lindenlaub's photography is quite simply stunning. In fact his work, and that of Arnold, whose score darts in and out of the landscape, deserves to be in an "A" grade movie. It rounds out as very watchable, a professional picture that just about manages to sustain interest and good will for the two hours run time. 7/10

This is a stunning film. The scenery is a character in itself. Tom Berenger is completely convincing as the sometime bounty hunter, with a troubled relationship with the father of his deceased wife, scraping a living on the edge of the wilderness. Barbara Hershey plays her part with quiet understated grace. Everything about this story seems authentic. It is fulfilling as an adventure, as a romance, as a superior horse opera. The film makes some excellent points about the environment and cultural heritage without being too preachy. The uneasy juxtaposition of the old world, and the modern one, climaxing in the pursuit of Gates by the local law… A perfect piece of escapism for a long winter's night.

After seeing this movie, I keep saying to myself, "You've got to be kidding." Billed as adult fare, this film turns out to have a juvenile level writing and a Disneyesque finish. It was the first feature film written by Tab Murphy, who went on to write Disney films. Despite reasonably decent directing (Murphy was also the director), someone failed to tell him that this was not a Disney cartoon movie. Terrific acting by the entire cast could not save a script that was marginal at best throughout -- and downright unbelievable toward the end. The movie starts with the sheriff needing our hero Gates to track three escaped convicts because the sheriff couldn't do it, despite his radios, off-road vehicles and helicopters. It's bad enough that Gates displays no tracking ability while chasing the convicts; his dog does all the detective work. Worse yet, when the sheriff decides to form a posse and chase Gates into the wilderness (presumably because Gates stole some penicillin form a drug store), he tracks Gates precisely and directly to the gates of an idyllic Cheyenne community that went without detection for 150 years. My wife is Native American and found the idyllic portrayal of Cheyenne life to be no more realistic than the cartoon Pocahontas. And then, after finding his prey (Gates), the sheriff makes an irrational and unwarranted decision to go even deeper into the wilderness, thereby providing an unexplained villain who now threatens the ancient Native American community, even when Murphy failed to include the sheriff on the community's existence in the first place. It all made for a sappy, hyped and juvenile story line lacking any credibility at the end. Mr. Murphy, please stay with the Disney cartoons and not feature films intended for adults.

I love this film. The stunning locations and acting performances were superb. I have been an admirer of Barbara Hershey since her days as one of 'the Munroes' and in this film she does not disappoint. I met Tom Berenger when he came to Belfast and he seemed to be as grumpy a character as the one he portrays in the film. We are very similar that way! I remember reading about a group of native Americans who were not discovered until 1910 in northern California. The idea of a lost tribe being discovered grabs the imagination. I knew something of the background of the Cheyenne tribe from reading 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' and this is related in the film. I have watched the DVD many times and never get tired of it. There are so few films I can say that about.