It's not often that I praise Canadian film, particularly when it's funded by the usual scoundrels Astral and the like... yet this has actually been a good year, and I'm having to rethink.This is a good film, and certainly deserves more than the absurd 4.8 it currently gets on IMDb.Let's get the bad out of the way:The childish sing-song poetry narration was annoying. It seems there entirely to pretend that this is a movie for Canada's schoolkids. I guess if this shows up in schools, we'll know if it worked.And whoever decided the fonts to use for "The End" and for the opening and closing credits (except the scrolling ones) knows nothing about fonts and should be kept as far away from a keyboard as possible.And what magical property does fire have, that it knows it should only burn the poppy field, and then stop? It's not clear why Wade had to shoot his horse. Presumably, the horse was wounded, but I don't recall ever seeing that happen.Finally, it should have been made clear why gold made the river smell, and why people were falling ill. Was it sulphur? That's a lot of nitpicking. But aside from that, the truth is that this is a good western, comparable to 60s spaghetti westerns. What makes it unique is that it's in a Canadian context (Yukon Territory), and of course it's filmed with current techniques which allow for a bit more (but not too much) gore.It's a quiet film, which draws you into the story, characters, and landscape. I never once doubted Andrew Walker's portrayal of Wade. The cinematography is great. And the short running time (less than 90 minutes) is perfect for the story they're telling.I look forward to more like this, but with a bit more fine tuning.

By Canadian standards I am sure this could be considered a work of art, by the rest of the worlds standards it was "meh". This movie appears to be a feeble Canadian attempt at an American "western" type movie, it even has a quite humorous "Canadian Clint Eastwood". I suppose if you go into the movie knowing this and expecting to be a typical "Canadian movie" with a simplistic plot, predictable storyline and less than average actors you will not feel as if you wasted your time. It is not bad for something to do when bored on a Sunday afternoon. If you are a pretentious Canadian however I would expect you would be very excited to see this "film" and it would be a special event in your life ;) I have seen worse movies but I have most certainly seen BETTER. Give it a shot, as long as you do not spend more than $1.00 to view it then you should be okay with the time you gave to watch this movie.

The first thing you have to know is that the summary for this is not only poorly written, but also fairly inaccurate. It doesn't really matter, however, as the summary only vaguely sets up the fact that there's a Mountie (obvious) and he has to fight some bad guys (also obvious). So the fact that the summary still manages to be so inaccurate is kind of baffling. As for the movie: It's a pretty good looking film almost by default because of the beautiful barren landscape where it takes place. The tone here is melodrama all the way and its effect is intensified by the wooden performance of the lead. He delivers every line with the same tone and appears to be the proud owner of a single grim expression. The rest of the cast aspires to broad clichés, to match the stilted dialogue. None of them bother to generate any chemistry as the effort probably seemed pointless for a film made of such tired beats and scenes.There are many poor choices here. We've got villains who seem to think every act of violence they commit is worth a mean chuckle. A woman who is shot in the chest, so at the end you see she now has to walk with a crutch. A child doing several mind numbing recitals of Robert Service. Basically, this is an uninspired and unambitious film that doesn't even succeed at what it attempts. Quite disappointing.

The absolute beauty of the Yukon Mountains give this moving tale of mans corruption and greed an almost surreal effect. The director (S. Wyeth Clarkson) has taken the time to interchange the brutality of a greedy encampment of Russian criminals intent on basically enslaving a poor mining camps inhabitants with the stunningly gorgeous background of the Yukon mountainous region.A Mountie (expertly portrayed by Andrew Walker), rides in to the rescue in the complete wilderness to save the day in the timeless tradition of the NorthWest Mounted Police Fashion. Breaking the movie into pieces just enough to perfectly not draw the audience away from the main plot to show the Mountie has an accomplice that was persuaded by opium and punishment to fall from grace, seemingly waiting on the same Mountie to save him from himself. An absolute pleasure to watch if you love the Beauty of the Wilderness and an excellent story comprising Man's honesty and integrity to shine through when all else is hopeless. I will watch this movie many times more, and I would urge anyone to give it a preview as the entire cast plays their parts perfect, without flaw.