Daniel Baldwin of the Long Island acting Baldwin brothers stars in this obvious pilot for a western series that never apparently was picked up by the networks. Had it been maybe a lot of loose ends left from this film would have been cleared up. There were certainly enough left in this film.In fact Baldwin only spent half the film in the title role, the bulk of the portrayal of Ned Blessling is done by young Sean Baca. I won't go into details the story has an old Ned Blessing recounting his life story from a jail cell awaiting execution. Presumably had additional films been made we would have learned more. What we found out was that he was separated from his father Chris Cooper by Comanchero bandits, then later reunited, becomes sheriff of their town as an adult. A rendezvous with childhood friend Julie Campbell in another town leaves him absent when a gang led by Jeff Kober robs the bank and leaves a bloody mess in the town.After that Baldwin leaves on a vengeance quest. It looked like an interesting concept for at least a mini-series, but as just a stand alone movie, too much is unanswered.

Ned Blessing (Daniel Baldwin) sits in his jail cell. As he awaits execution, he writes the story of his life, about how he was kidnapped as a child by Mexican bandits, lost the love of his life twice, and began the road that led him to the gallows.Most of the time this made-for-television movie is delightful. Luis Avalos gives an incredible performance as a cook/mystic, also imprisoned by the bandits, who becomes young Ned Blessing's surrogate father and mentor. He's a joy to watch, as is Miguel Sandoval, who plays the sadistic leader of the pack.There's great character actors throughout, including Chris Cooper, Jeff Kober, Rene Auberjonois, Bob Gunton, and M.C. Gainey.However, all the fun is ruined by the dark, unsatisfying final act and abrupt ending, making this seem like only the first half of a mini-series and leaving many of the various subplots very much open-ended.I seriously hope that the short-lived TV series and other related Ned Blessing projects clear things up a bit, otherwise this is not recommended!

Spoiler The movie begins with the character at the end of his life and awaiting his hanging. The story then goes back to his beginnings in the west; it continues (rather feebly) to the middle of his life........ and then the movie just ends ! There is no connection to his later years, why he is sentenced to hang, or what happened to the other characters in the story, you don't even find out if he does hang (the character does elude to a plot to capture the bad guy- but we never find out). It seems this may have been a two-segment story, but there is no mention whatsoever to a second DVD. This movie is put out in DVD by PLATINUM DISC CORP.

This is an augmented television pilot, not advertised as being so, with an abrupt ending distressing to a viewer who might be so unfortunate as to still be watching a production insulting to any with a modicum of intelligence, due to a storyline that makes no pretense at logic, rather instead stringing together a structure of episodes each more foolish than that preceding, with essentially no sense of continuity. It would seem that the primary purpose of this affair is to demonstrate the costuming talents of Michael Boyd, whose work is often very effective, but here only grotesque, as surely never were denizens of the Old West so brightly raimented in such an array of heterogeneous colours, with all garments seemingly impervious to even a scantling of soil. Director Peter Werner ("We Were The Mulvaneys") and scriptor William Witliff ("Country"; "Barbarosa") are accomplished craftsmen and it is difficult to accept this clichéd and terminally stupid composition as handiwork from either, a possible explanation being preparation and production interference for what purportedly became a popular television series based upon the lead character from this film, Ned Blessing (Stephen Baldwin). There is innovative camerawork, crisp editing, and some fine players earning credit for their skill at delivering their lines with straight face, but the plot provides nothing in the way of character development or plausible motivation, yet offers perhaps the most protracted and cartoonish scene of meaningless violence ever shot.