North Star
North Star
| 03 January 1996 (USA)
North Star Trailers

Set during the Alaskan gold rush of the late 1800s. In his efforts to gain control of a small mining town, Sean McLennon is buying up every claim that becomes available, usually after the deaths of the previous owners at the hands of McLennon's 'assistants'. One of the miners targeted by McLennon, a half-Indian hunter named Hudson Saanteek, manages to escape his hired thugs and comes back into town looking to re-establish his claim and get revenge. McLennon and his men have the advantage of numbers and weapons, but Saanteek has his survival skills and knowledge of the Alaskan wilderness.

Reviews
Keith F. Hatcher

From the erstwhile afamed "spaghetti westerns" by Sergio Leone, filmed here in Almería, Spain, naturally, we pass on to a new variety which might be called "northern" rather than "western".Totally filmed in Norway, the land of smorgasbord breakfasts, not in Alaska, we have here a typical sort of copy-Hollywood style of those westerns of yore, adopting similar recipes and formulas, but without anything even nearing the result.Lovely scenery, but most of this film goes to the dogs; by which I mean that the best of this film are the huskies and other dogs making up the sled-teams in this rather contrived effort to emulate what was once an admired cinematographic subject matter. My personal smorgasbord breakfast was in Stavanger, after having slept on the floor in the breakfast room, as our night-flight from London arrived around four o'clock in the morning. I woke up amidst hotel guests' legs wandering about sampling the relishing feast of what is a genuine Norwegian product: smorgasbord.This film is not a genuine product of any kind. I am now awaiting impatiently a Chinese "western", an Egyptian version of "Dallas" or even a U.S. version of "Fanny och Alexandr" (sic) not to mention a British version of "Hable con Ella".Apart from that I have always loved Norway: perhaps because it was my first foreign country (1962), but especially because the people are so kind, friendly, civilized. My mountain trip walking in the Jotenheimen still remain clear in my memory all these years later - and it even snowed on my birthday (August)!I think I will go and listen to some music by Edvard Grieg ......... as this film is not worth the trouble.

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1shaman

I really liked this film. James Caan was outstanding and intense, plus there was overall great character development throughout - it's not a simple "Western". Although Christopher Lambert's leading role is controversial, it may be due to character baggage from his other better known roles such as in Highlander. This is my first direct exposure to the actor/producer, and from a fresh perspective his performance seemed fully resonant with the tone and flow of the movie. The settings are beautiful, and even though filmed in Norway, it adequately characterizes the Gold Rush as an Alaskan phenomenon.

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OJT

I'm sorry to say that this film only deserves 2 out of 10, due to the main character Christopher Lambert.The expectations to this film was great here, since it's partially filmed here in Norway. (The snow scenes and great outdoor scenery is filmed at Mösvatn near Rjukan in Telemark, Norway, and the great Nils Gaup is the director.) Lamberts performance sucks big time! He does not fit into the story at all. This snow filled western (or northern) has great actors, but due to Lambert tragic figure, the whole film just crashes to the ground, though the story should be good enough. The film also flopped big time in the cinemas, of course, due to this...This is Nils Gaups worst film. It looks like he really lost the grip on this one. Go watch another of his films! Ofelas or Kautokeino-Opprøret, or Misery Harbour! They are all great!

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chrnaess

Tashunga was a quite good movie that was helped from a good cast including Christopher Lambert. Lambert as always gave an effort like no one else and he was very good, Morten Faldaas was another who gave a fine performance.The film had suspense and great music.

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