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.

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!

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!

....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 ****.