'EASTERN WESTERN' -- INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKERS THE GROZDANOVA SISTERS, WHO'S TRYING TO SUPPRESS 'YOU'RE NO INDIAN'? PLUS CRAIG JOHNSON ON 'RENDEZVOUS WITH A WRITER'

 

FROM BULGARIA WITH LOVE – OF THE AMERICAN WEST!

FILMMAKERS BILIANA AND MARINA GROZDANOVA ON EASTERN WESTERN

 

Eastern Western is a beautiful, inspiring immigrant story, but then, so are the lives of the sisters who made it, Biliana Grozdanova and Marina Grozdanova. Marina elaborates, “We’re from Bulgaria originally. We immigrated when we were very young with our parents, and we lived many, many different places, from Australia to Canada, Spain, and then we finally landed in the U.S. We're based in Brooklyn, New York.” Certainly a journey that might help one appreciate the United States, but why the western part of the country? “The Western, I think was the perfect genre for us to start with because it's a genre in which you can talk a lot about those issues, specifically immigration and coming to new lands.”

Biliana says, “We grew up with the ‘90s Westerns. One of the first films I remember seeing was Dances with Wolves, by Kevin Costner. Then we discovered Clint Eastwood, then we started moving backwards to Sergio Leone and Redford. The Western has been an iconography in our creative process. And as Marina said, it's the perfect genre: to tell a story of coming to America in the Western is as old as cinema. And we found that throughout these films that we love so much, you don't really hear the immigrant's perspective. Specifically the Eastern European journey to America was something that we wanted to tell, in this re-imagining of this man coming to America. The main character, Igor, he's from Bosnia and Herzegovina. So we kind of fused our two paths, from Bulgaria, from Bosnia, and made this imaginary tale.”

In the story, in the late 1800s, we find the recently widowed Igor (Igor Galijasevic), and his 2-year-old son Ivo (Leonardo Galijasevic), in a frozen Montana, trying to survive the winter on their farm, and to make a life for themselves in America. They befriend a horse breeder (Duncan Vezain) and his family, and throw in together. The tale is told chronologically, with some abrupt forward leaps.  

Henry Parke: In making this film, were there any particular filmmakers or films that were key references to you, that influenced you?

Marina Grozdanova: I would say no. I would say going into making this film, I specifically was not thinking of any films, only because when you enter a landscape such as Montana, the landscape itself is what inspires the basis of your story, and then the characters you bring into it. Maybe tangentially the cinematic practice of recent filmmaker Chloe Zhao (note: director of The Rider, Nomadland, Hamnet); she does a lot of non-actor films, and she started off by making non-actor Westerns. And perhaps that was in the back of our minds, but I would say that in making this particular movie, I would like to think that it came purely from our minds and our hearts.

Biliana Grozdanova: I echo what Marina says. We didn't set out to make a movie like any other, but deep down, my personal inspiration does come from Kevin Costner. It does come from Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes, the first modern novel, Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. Just as general inspiration of the myths of the West, I do think influences are in the aura of Eastern Western.

Henry Parke: Your style of filmmaking tends to be very, naturalistic, not heavily plot-driven. I was wondering how you went about writing the screenplay.

Marina Grozdanova: To be perfectly honest, our screenplay was a very, I won't say short or rough, but it was an outline. We had a starting point. We had a midpoint; I would say the end point came after a few weeks of shooting, actually. We did one test shoot, and then we did our first shoot in November of 2022. And in that time period, we had maybe half of the outline of the screenplay thought out. And as we did our first shoot, we made the story as we were getting to know our real characters, our non-actors. Igor and his real-life son are the protagonists of the film. And then we incorporated another real-life Montana family to be featured later on in the film. And so we really allowed the story to mold around them. Therefore, the screenplay started off as an outline, then it developed more in detail as we met new characters throughout the shoots.

Biliana Grozdanova: And to piggyback off of that, we fluctuate between documentary and fiction. We come from a documentary background, and we are really open to -- we say this a lot -- the magic of cinema, where you can write the best script. Of course we love scripted cinema, but always being open to improv and discovering new twists and turns for your story was something that we worked with.

Henry Parke: The first sequence that you shot were the things with Igor and his son alone?

Biliana Grozdanova: Yes. Well, actually the first day of filming was the grizzly bear. We thought, if we can get this top list, we'll be good to go.

Henry Parke: Oh my God! Traditionally in Hollywood, you do that scene last, in case your lead gets eaten by the bear.

Biliana Grozdanova: Exactly.

Henry Parke: So you took a big chance there. Shooting a Western under any circumstances is a challenge, but some of the scenes shot in the snow must have been very challenging.

Leonardo Galijaseviv as Ivo

Biliana Grozdanova: It was. Winter was our probably hardest portion because of the cold. We were working with limited hours of daylight, and as you said, naturalistic is our style. We also don't really light any of our scenes, and heavily rely on daylight and moving with the characters and flowing with the characters. So it was difficult. We were also working with kids and horses and animals, which they tell you not to do, because there are lot of factors there. But the elements in Montana very much dictate your shoot, as well as the baby. The young Evo in the film, Leonardo in real life, we were on his schedule. If he has a nap, we'll film the napping scene. If he's crying, we'll film the crying scene. That, plus winter in a tiny cold cabin, was rough. But I think that those winter images are some of my favorite images of the film.

Henry Parke:  Oh, they're just beautiful. The whole film is beautiful, and I was struck by the fact that your cinematographer and editor are the same guy, Cameron Wheeless, which is very unusual, although maybe that would help with the cutting ratio.

Biliana Grozdanova:  We are a small production team. We never hide that. We are very nimble on set and also in post-production. And it did help. We cut the film along with our cinematographer and editor, the three of us together in a room, making some really hard decisions. A lot of scenes were left on the cutting room floor because of the nature of how we film, the improvt. But it's a special way of working. Maybe we're too close to the material; maybe he's too close to the material because he shot it, but in the end, I think it really worked out having a small team.

Igor Galijaseviv

Henry Parke: Was the epilogue sequence also shot in Montana?

Marina Grozdanova: The epilogue actually is shot in Bosnia and Hetzagovina. That portion of the film came out after we shot everything, and we knew that we were not done yet with the story of this spirit of the horse, of the child that grows up. We knew that there had to be some connection to home and a return to Bosnia. Therefore, we said, let's go to Bosnia. Let's shoot the end of this film and really make it a return to home. And also demonstrate that the 1800s led the way into the 20th century. And we had to also tell the story of the beginning of the 20th century, how the World War really showcased a new use for horses. The horse, as it existed in the Western, now had to go serve and help out the forces in Europe. And we thought that that was something that had to be told to really tell the full story of the horse. And also Igor's homeland Bosnia; you know, Eastern Europe is where everything started for World War I.

Henry Parke: How many shooting days did you have?

Marina Grozdanova: We shot over the course of three different chapters. The winter, then we took eight months off, shot in the summertime. We wanted to showcase the seasons, and then the epilogue was shot in the fall in Bosnia. So we had approximately, gosh, 35 shoot days. Which is probably more than you should have for an indie feature. But we were small and nimble, so we could do that.

Henry Parke: Were you shooting film or digital?

Biliana Grozdanova: Definitely digital. We actually have a great little doc style camera that really did wonders with the style of the film, primarily filmed with one wide angle, prime lens. And really, I think we're able to capture intimacy with the characters because we got so close to them. Our cinematographer got so close to them, and the vastness of Montana, really both of those and the nature in general were captured well with the style that we chose.

Henry Parke: Any favorite memories of the shoot?

Marina Grozdanova: I would say the winter, only because it was the start of the adventure. And the start is always, at least for me, less stressful than the middle, because you don't quite realize the avalanche you're gonna be a part of. And also, I really enjoyed the challenge of filming in the snow. I did sound for about 70% of the movie, and all that snow, right next to our cinematographer. We were running through fields and that was fun.

Marina Grozdanova

Biliana Grozdanova: I would say filming with Adam the Bear, who passed recently. Adam the Bear had a very great life, was part of a sort of animal sanctuary in Montana that was really special. And working with the horses in general, and discovering things that we weren't expecting as part of this magic of cinema. You know, some of the greatest lines in the film are improvised. Like when they're having the dinner conversation, Duncan says, we have to go west. Olivia ends that with, 'you Don't forget family.' That was not scripted. And that was one of my favorite lines of the film. So the, the magic magical moments that we didn't expect are, are some of my favorites.

Henry Parke: Most of the characters use their real first names. I was wondering if that was to loosen them up, with that kind of improvised dialogue?

Biliana Grozdanova: As directors we made that choice to leave their actual names, because each character is a version of themselves 150 years in the past. To a great extent they helped us create those characters. So Igor is Igor in the past. Duncan is Duncan in the past, and the only person who doesn't carry the same name is little Evo, because he grows up and he's played by two different real-life people. Everyone else carries their own names.

Henry Parke: There’s very little music in the film, and  certainly not the sort of sweeping Western kind of score that people tend to expect. What was your intention with your score?

Biliana Grozdanova: Thank you for noticing the music. We really are proud of the choice that we made. Six out of the seven tracks in the film are by a former Yugoslavian artist, Baranko Mathia, who passed in the 2000s. He was an immigrant from former Yugoslavia to the American West, I think California. And he built custom guitars, even for Johnny Cash. He had only two albums, I believe you can find him on Spotify, but it was very unique sound, which kind of fluctuates between the East and the West. It's a little rough and analog-y, and it reminded us of certain tones of the Spaghetti Western. And the fact that he was from Eastern Europe and came to America really fit with the motifs in our film. So that's six of the tracks, and then the seventh track that is during the gun battle is actually a Bulgarian composition. We have polyphonic singers in Bulgaria that are a very special type of niche music. And that's our stamp. The only Bulgarian element in the film, besides us, is that Bulgarian composition during the gun battle.

Henry Parke: Among your previous credits is a documentary about the heavy metal band Hessler.

Marina Grozdanova: It’s called Last Kamikazes of Heavy Metal, which features Igor Galijazavic, the main character of Eastern Western. He had a heavy metal band like 12 years ago in Chicago. We met him, we toured, and it was lovely. We became really good friends and when we started Eastern Western, we knew that we wanted him to play our lead cowboy.

Henry Parke: Does he want to have an acting career now?

Marina Grozdanova: I think he really enjoyed the process, and the fact that we made a film with his son, who is already now two years older. I mean, we work in family obviously, and he really discovered his love for acting since the Kamikaze days, but specifically with Eastern Western. I hope we do get to work together again. And I hope he does get roles because he's really talented.

Henry Parke: Is there anything else that I should know about Eastern Western?

Biliana Grozdanova, right

Biliana Grozdanova: Primarily to say that this film lives in a space between fiction and documentary, and the majority of everyone you see on screen there are non-professional actors. So they really left their souls on our screen and helped us create this truly ensemble cast-based picture. So we're really proud of our cast, and also really thankful for our crew. And we hope to continue making cinema as sisters.Henry Parke: I should say something about how good Duncan, your second male lead, was. He's quite a find.

Biliana Grozdanova: Duncan is an incredible horse wrangler and rancher from Montana. All the horses on screen are Duncan's. That's his family, his wife, his daughters. He has had small roles in other pictures where he's wrangling, and maybe delivers a few lines but I know that this is his biggest role yet, and he really did an incredible job and we loved having cast him.

Marina Grozdanova: And I just want to add one last thing. Thank you so much, Henry, for this interview. As independent filmmakers, I think for all of us, other filmmakers besides us, it's a really tough moment. And I think through articles such as this, and press, l think that audiences should support independent cinema and I really hope we're moving in that direction.

Henry Parke: I sure hope so. It was a real pleasure to speak to you both and, and to see your film and I wish you all kinds of luck with it.

WHO DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE ‘YOU’RE NO INDIAN’?

If you’ve read my article, A Century of Tribal Disenrollment, in the September/October 2025 issue of True West – and if haven’t, HERE is the link – you’ll know that documentarian Ryan Flynn has made a fascinating and infuriating film, You’re No Indian. It reveals an insidious form of ‘cancel culture’: the widespread practice, especially among tribes which own casinos, of disenrolling members without legitimate cause, for the purpose of increasing the casino share among those remaining. About 11,000 members have been disenrolled from various tribes.

When I spoke to Ryan on Wednesday, December 10^th, he was just back from The Anchorage International Film Festival. “We had a sold-out crowd (of) about 250 people. You could feel it in the audience watching the film; they were moved. The Q and A was powerful. It was interesting; about an hour before the screening, the Film Festival received a ‘cease and desist’ from the lawyers representing Macarro.”

Mark Macarro is the Chairman of the Pechanga Band of Indians. “He's the president of the NCAI (National Congress of American Indians). He was just reelected.” As an Indigenous leader, he’s been a familiar face on television and in the news for decades. And unlike You’re No Indian Executive Producers Wes Studi and Tantoo Cardinal – Cardinal narrates the documentary – Macarro does not want you to see it.

At least they weren’t able to stop the screening. Earlier in the year, You’re No Indian was to premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. “We had sold out two screenings, and we were working on our third, and just weeks before this major film festival, they said there was a scheduling issue. And basically said, there's nothing you can say to get this film screened.

I am not going to accuse anybody of doing it, but it's not hard to think that this is part of an effort to silence us.”

You’re No Indian has since played in several film festivals. At the Red Nation International Film Festival in Hollywood, “we received the Impact Award.” And in November, they received something else. As Flynn emailed supporters, “On November 24, we received a cease-and-desist letter from attorneys representing the Pechanga Band of Indians and Chairman Mark Macarro. The letter demands that all screenings and distribution of the film be stopped, citing concerns about research and representation.” The irony is that, not only did Flynn and company reach out to Macarro during the making of the film “multiple times. We've documented every instance because we thought reaching out to him might be a part of the film. We have ourselves on camera trying to call him, emailing him, texting him.  In the film, in its current form, we say that Mark didn't respond. At an NCAI conference a couple years ago, I introduced myself, shook his hand, and he invited us to give him a call. And we did. He didn't respond. Well, he did respond <laugh>: we got a cease and desist.”

When I suggested that, at any rate, a response two years later would be useless, Flynn responded, “I disagree. Responding now, it's still useful. (If Macarro would do an interview), we will include his perspective in the film, and as I've said, we will release the entire interview, our conversation uncut, so that everybody can see exactly what the conversation was. And I think that's fair.”

“You know, this is not about Mark Macarro, or the Pechanga tribe. This is about raising awareness for disenrollment, and part of that conversation is, what are we here to protect? What are we fighting for? We're fighting for the preservation of what disenrollment claims to protect, which is culture.”

Please check out the trailer below. To find out where you can see You’re No Indian, visit the official website HERE. 

CRAIG JOHNSON ON 'RENDEZVOUS WITH A WRITER' PODCAST!

I join Bobbi Jean and Jim Bell on the first Thursday of every month for their Rendezvous With a Writer podcast, and this month we had the great pleasure of speaking with Craig Johnson about his newest Longmire novel, Return to Sender. I'm giving you a choice of links below, depending on whether you just want to hear our voices, or prefer to stare at our happy smiling faces (previewed above).

VIDEO -- RENDEZVOUS WITH A WRITER

https://www.latalkradio.com/sites/default/files/Videos/Rendezvous-120425.mp4

AUDIO -- RENDEZVOUS WITH A WRITER

ONE MORE THING...

HOW COOL IS THIS! INSP has created an author page for me, linking to a bunch of my articles! https://www.insp.com/authors/henry-c-parke/

They’ve even created a Henry Parke avatar, which will never change, even if I go all Dorian Gray!

And please check out the November/December 2025 True West, featuring my article, Val Kilmer in His Cups, about the making of Tombstone from the perspective of costume designer Joseph Porro, and my review of the new Blu-Ray release, Hopalong Cassidy, the Legacy Collection, Vol. 1.

AND THAT'S A WRAP!

Have a very Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate! And wishing you a very Happy New Year!

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2025 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY CASTS ‘LONG SHADOWS’ AND TALKS ‘DR. QUINN’ REVIVAL, PLUS WESTERNS ON BROADWAY!

AN INTERVIEW WITH LONG SHADOWS DIRECTOR WILLIAM SHOCKLEY 

Long Shadows is the story of a boy, Marcus Dollar, who sees his parents murdered. He grows up with no life experience outside of an orphanage. When he’s old enough to leave, Marcus (Blaine Maye), is determined to track down the killers. He falls for Dulce (Sarah Cortez), a concert pianist tricked into a brothel. A retired gunfighter (Dermot Mulroney) reluctantly takes Marcus under his wing. The local brothel is run by Vivian Villere (Jacqueline Bisset), who is a master manipulator.

There are certain movies – think Psycho, Chinatown, The Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind – which contain startling 3^rd act revelations: the sort of thing that, if someone spoiled it for you, you might fling them down the nearest flight of stairs. So I won’t be saying anything about what happens late in the new Western Long Shadows. It’s the first feature directed by William Shockley, but he is not new to Westerns – he’s produced 4, cowritten 6. And you’ll know his face if you watched Dr. Quinn – Medicine Woman: for 6 seasons and 120 episodes, he played the handsome, longhaired, leering bartender Harry Lawson.  On Friday, November 7^th, while most movies, Westerns included, go straight to streaming, his Long Shadows premiered in 77 theaters in 50 cities across the country. I told him that, for all of us yet-to-be first-time-directors, his taking the helm after over 35 years of acting is inspiring.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Thanks. It's a blessing and a privilege and an honor, to be honest with you. I watched a bunch of directors throughout my career, and it was beautiful to get to be behind the camera for a change. So inspiring. I just absolutely loved it,

HENRY PARKE:  Did you grow up with Westerns as a kid? Did you have favorites?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  Maybe I watched Bonanza; That was required. I watched Gunsmoke. I was taken by Clint Eastwood with Unforgiven. And I grew up in Texas as a kid, so it's kind of like you listen to country music, and you have a toy rifle that you play with <laugh>. But really, I was fortunate enough to be on Dr. Quinn - Medicine Woman. And that's really where it sunk into my bones; six and a half years of my life on a Western. And then I did a TV movie, playing General George Armstrong Custer, Stolen Women, Captured Hearts that Lee Murray produced and Jerry London directed. And reading up on Custer, and sinking my teeth into the West, on the research level, and then co-writing a bunch of Westerns. So, I really immersed myself in the historical side of it all. And I thought, my gosh, I wish I would've known this much when I was a kid, like in high school or college, and really appreciated the history of the American West. It was a brutal time, but there was such beautiful simplicity with it. You know, your word was your bond. If you messed with a man's wife or his cow, you got shot

HENRY PARKE: <laugh>. There wasn't a debate.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  There was no debating. It was a really hard-scrabble life. But with that difficulty, I have found, at least in my opinion, the beautiful simplicity of it all. It fascinates me.  I'm enamored with it.

HENRY PARKE: What was your first professional acting job?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: I was in Dallas, Texas, doing free theater. The producer of the play said, do you have an agent? I said, no. So she signed me, and about a week later, a movie came through Dallas called Robocop. My first audition, and BOOM! -- Paul Verhoeven hires me! And that was that. I got a Screen Actors Guild card, went to Los Angeles, and moved into an apartment. My second night in L.A., I walked the red carpet for Robocop!

HENRY PARKE: I thought that Dr. Quinn was your first Western, but you did a Young Riders –-

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: -- And a Paradise.

HENRY PARKE:  And after that, you were writing films like The Gundown, Ambush at Dark Creek, Hot Bath an’ a Stiff Drink.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Hot Bath was a fun movie to co-write and be a part of. And Ambush with Kix Brooks, and The Gundown with Peter Coyote. It's all pretty great <laugh>.

HENRY PARKE: What was the best thing about making Dr. Quinn?

Joe Lando, Jane Seymour, William

Shockley on Dr. Quinn -- Medicine Woman

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  The people. To this good day. I just had lunch with Jane Seymour and Joe Lando, like last week. We're still great friends. Joe and I were thick as thieves! And Jane Seymour was fantastic, and Helen Udy (who played Myra Bing) and the whole cast -- and Beth Sullivan, the creator. So my memories were just sharing such amazing time with amazing people and being blessed. I mean, a six-and-a-half-year run, it's cliché, but we were family. And, I’m happy that I met a lot of cool directors along the way. And of course, the writing was so good. I’m biased, but that was a great series.

HENRY PARKE: Dr. Quinn was a great way to introduce kids to Westerns, because it was not childish, but it was family appropriate. Most Western today, even the good ones are often so rough, you can't really take kids to them.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  It's so true. It is still a generational show. People that grew up watching Dr. Quinn ended up having children, and they've introduced the show to their kids. So 30 years later, I'm still talking to fans, whether they saw it originally or whether it was ‘my mom and dad turned me onto that show.’ It still has life, still has a global presence. It had such beautiful stories. It mirrored problems of society that were written and reflected into an 1800s environment, which was pretty cool.

HENRY PARKE:  Yes, indeed. I understand that Beth Sullivan created a spinoff pilot for you, California. She certainly went all out on the cast: John Saxon, James Brolin, Eddie Albert, Edward Albert. I'm surprised it didn't click.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: That was a darn shame. CBS decided that a spinoff of my character would be a good idea. So Beth wrote and produced a great pilot, and for whatever reason, CBS didn't pick it up. Of course, it broke my heart, because it was a great show, and great to be number one on the call sheets. But the deal was, if California went; great. If California did not go, you're still Hank Lawson on Dr. Quinn. So it was a win-win opportunity.

HENRY PARKE:  So while you were on Dr. Quinn, you started co-writing movies with one of the show’s writer/producers. How many have you written?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: I think I've probably written 12 or 13 scripts that have been made into feature films.

HENRY PARKE: Which is amazing as you know.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: <laugh>. Yeah, <laugh>The harder you work, the luckier you get, you know what I'm saying?

HENRY PARKE: How did Long Shadows start?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Long Shadows has been a long journey. Grainger Hines, great actor, from Hot Bath an’ a Stiff Drink, probably 13 years ago, calls me like three years ago. “I saw Common Threads (note: Shockley’s award-winning Western short). I just read this script by Shelley Reid. I think you need to direct it.” I read it. I called him. This is really good. There's a twist in here that is so unique. Let's work on it. So Grainger and Shelley and I worked on it for a year, maybe more. I showed it to my partners, they dove in with some great notes, and said, let's green light it. So we landed at old Tucson Studios, that I was very familiar with from past projects. Then it goes into casting and pre-production, production and post, and we're in theaters November 7th of this year.

HENRY PARKE: A grown son seeks revenge on the people who killed his parents. It’s classical, but it's also familiar. How would you describe what sets your film apart?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Well, it's a story about good over evil. It's a story about redemption, love of family, a second chance at life and love. And the twist sets the story apart. I watched a bunch of European films to be inspired. French, Russian, Italian, Polish, British, because I love the landscape, the texture, the feel of those kinds of films. So in Long Shadows, and you've seen it, the costume design is so rich and beautiful. I wanted it to look like a European film, the production design. I wanted it to be textured and layered and beautiful. I didn't wanna make a dirt Western. Besides the twist in the story, I think the look, the score. I didn't want fiddles and banjos, I wanted classical music -- Tommy Fields, created a beautiful classical-inspired score. Paula Rogers’ costume designer -- just genius. So I think that sets us apart. And the acting is really darn good. I told Blaine and Sarah, the two young leads, I said, there's nowhere to hide with me guys. <laugh>, I'm an actor by trade <laugh>, so I'm gonna see it and I'm gonna smell it. And they laughed and, and they were brilliant. And then surround them with Dermot Maroney, Jacqueline Bisset, Dominic Monaghan, and Grainger Hines, Chris Mulkey, Ronnie Blevins, Mike Markoff: a bunch of really great actors, and you have a chance, you know?

HENRY PARKE: Absolutely. It's got so much more depth than you expect going in.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Don't check your phone, don't go to Instagram, because every word means something in the movie. If you miss a couple minutes, you're gonna be like, what happened?

HENRY PARKE: What was Jacqueline Bisset like to work with? She looks wonderful; she's a beautiful 81.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: She's still, I mean, I had a crush on Jacqueline back in the day. Every red-blooded male had <laugh>. She was so stunning, and she still is gorgeous. She's so elegant and eloquent: she's a serious actress. She was intrigued by the story, wanted to do a Western, really liked the character, but she wanted the character fleshed out. And some of her notes really took her character to a much better place. She was very pointed and very specific and very, like I said, serious about her role, her costume, interaction with the other actors. I mean, you, you saw the movie. She's wonderful.

HENRY PARKE: She is. And what is Dermot Mulroney like to work with?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Dermot is awesome, he's a great guy. He's been around the block, I've been around the block, so he came in knowing we were both veterans and pros.I told him what I thought about his character, and he told me what he thought about his character. He basically was already on point, the second he landed. Dermot is the kind of actor, when you say action, there's something that vibrates. And he bubbles just enough, 'cause he's a movie star. That's what Dermot did. He has that essence about him, the je ne sais quoi of it all. So he was a delight and such a sweet guy.

Dermot Mulroney coaches Blaine Maye

HENRY PARKE: Did you consider giving yourself a role?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: You know, I had a role and I cut myself out. I was the barkeeper inside the bar where Marcus encounters the man who killed his father. I just cut all my dialogue out, so I'm a featured extra <laugh>.

HENRY PARKE: I’ve never seen Blaine May or Sarah Cortez before, and their characters carry most of the story. Where'd you find them?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Tiiu Loigu, our casting director found both of them. Blaine had a small part in a movie called Joe Bell with Mark Wahlberg. We had, you can imagine, 2000 submissions for the male lead. And Tiiu scrubbed through every one of them, boiled it down to a bunch of names, did a bunch of zooms, watched a bunch of tapes. And Blaine just, he had the essence. He's from Oklahoma. He rode a horse. His mom and dad were in the rodeo world. He's the nicest guy. He's really smart. He's good looking. He had longy hair, which was nice.

HENRY PARKE: You partial to long hair on guys? Anything to do with 6 years on Dr. Quinn?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: <laugh>, Well, I didn't watch some clean-cut guy. I wanted a guy that was a little bit shaggy looking. And Blaine did a really great audition. And then I Zoomed with him. I said, I want you to do the courtroom scene. He did it, and he was great, and so he won that job. Sarah Cortez was the same. I had actually found an actress that I really liked, another 2000 submissions for the Dulce Flores role. And I was really intent; this woman was great. And Tiiu said to me, I found Dulce. I said, we already got Dulce -- I really like this girl. And she goes, no, sit down and press play.  I pressed play, and Sarah Cortez came on and she just, she's so nuanced, so believable, so real. And I was like, oh my gosh, Sarah Cortez is Dulce. On the set, I'm sitting there with a little monitor, and I would just whisper something in Sarah's ear, like a little thought. And she would bring a whole new color to the performance. She's a fine actress. She trained at University of Houston Theater. She’s the real deal. I really hope that this is his and her star-maker moment; I think it will be.

HENRY PARKE: Since the 1980s, when you started acting, there's been such a change in the whole casting procedure. From open calls and callbacks, to self-taping, and Zoom. Has this made it harder, easier, better, worse?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Well, I think it's easier for the actors, because they can do 50 takes until they get one right, and send in their tape. I came up the old way: you walk into a room with a bunch of people and you perform, you audition. I know how hard that is. I know the preparation it takes. And I respect that with COVID, the world changed, changed to Zooming. So I think the actors have it easier, 'cause they can keep just doing it and doing it, doing it, until they get a great one. The problem is, do they really kill it when they get on the set? Was that a hundred takes on their self-take, or are they really great? Fortunately, we didn't have that problem: we hired great actors across the board. But on my next film that I get to direct, if you live in Los Angeles, you’re gonna come into a room and we're gonna go old school. 'cause I love that. All my other films that I produced, I read with the actors. I'm right there with them. It's just a whole ‘nother dynamic, a truthful and an honest dynamic. And there's nowhere to hide.

HENRY PARKE: Obviously you came into your directorial debut a lot more prepared for a Western than most people would. Were there any surprises? Anything you didn't anticipate?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  I don't think so, because honestly, A.J. Raitano, the cinematographer and I are great friends for like 15 years. We worked together on many things, so he and I were just cocked and loaded. We shot-listed, storyboarded -- we both knew Old Tucson, so we knew what we were up against for exterior shots, for horse riding shots. We found the gully where the shootout takes place, and had that shaft built. When you're prepared, I mean, we knew every single setup, every single angle, every single lens prior; we were out there at four in the morning waiting for the sun to come up for some scenes. We were out there all day long seeing where the shadows were, where the sun was going. Everything was mapped out, so honestly there were no surprises. And the actors came totally prepared; the only enemy was time, time and money.

HENRY PARKE: How many days did you shoot?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  20 days. It was quick, considering the horse-chases and the gunplay; it was a lot. But because we were so prepared and the actors were so prepared, we were able to do it; just sheer force of will. You get out there  before sunrise, and you shoot for 12 hours, then A.J. and I scouted every weekend before and during production. Because a lot of the interior sets were being built as we went. Unless the set is built, it's kinda hard to know where your camera's gonna go. <laugh> So every Saturday and Sunday, we'd go out there when a new interior had been built out, kept preparing. A ton of work, but incredibly joyful experience.

HENRY PARKE: Any final thoughts?

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY: Long Shadows, it's a beautiful movie and I hope that people go to the movie theater to watch it. Because there's nothing greater than a theatrical experience for a film. You can take your family, your kids, your grandkids. It was designed for that kind of audience. Share it that way. And so I hope people go experience it and talk about it. And we were on the Dr. Quinn topic. Part of Jane and Joe having lunch, the three of us is there's a concerted effort to bring the show back. So we're walking that road right now and trying to get the pieces aligned.

HENRY PARKE:  That'd be terrific.

WILLIAM SHOCKLEY:  That would be pretty special. So it takes a few pieces of the puzzle and certain dominoes to fall the right way, but the effort is being made on all fronts. A conversation with Beth Sullivan is coming up. I actually wrote a pilot script to bring the show back, and Beth's giving me notes. And Jim Johnson, the producer, is doing what he can on the business side, and Jane and Joe are in, if we can figure it out. So we'll see what fate holds for us.

WESTERNS ON BROADWAY 2025

When it comes to theater, 2025 was a busier year for the stage than the screen. There were two new Western-adjacent musicals on Broadway, and a revival of a Western drama. Dead Outlaw is the story of Elmer McCurdy, a minor outlaw who died in a shoot-out with police after a bungled 1911 train robbery.  His mummified corpse was displayed in traveling shows for years, then misidentified as a dummy, and finally rediscovered hanging from a noose at a Long Beach amusement pier, during the filming of a Six Million Dollar Man episode. Called “The surprisingly feel-good musical of the season,” by the New York Times, it received 7 Tony nominations and numerous Best Musical awards.

 

Floyd Collins, which would receive 6 Tony nominations, is based on the tragic story of a Kentucky spelunker who in 1925 became trapped in a cavern. Despite the media circus, and well-meant rescue attempts, he died underground. The incident inspired Billy Wilder’s enthrallingly cynical film Ace in the Hole (1951), wherein rotten reporter Kirk Douglas prolongs the man’s entrapment to keep selling papers. Without that nasty edge, the musical seems dreary and pointless; “Is That Remarkable? (The real straight poop),” performed by a chorus of cynical reporters, is the only time the show comes to life.

 

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is adapted not from the John Ford film, but its source, the Dorothy M. Johnson novella, and like Floyd Collins, suffers from not being able to borrow from the movie version. While the play benefits from the more contained story, the film is both more grand and more nuanced, and story elements, including Liberty Valance’s attack on the local newspaper editor, and the campaign for statehood, are sorely missed.  

AND THAT'S A WRAP!

Please check out the November/December 2025 issue of True West, featuring my article, Val Kilmer in His Cups, about the making of Tombstone from the point of view of costume designer Joseph Porro, and my review of the new Blu-Ray reease, Hopalong Cassidy, the Legacy Collection, Volume 1. 

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright November 2025 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

EXCLUSIVE: ‘ELKHORN 2’ RED CARPET PREMIERE! PLUS ‘RUSTLER’S RHAPSODY’, RON HOWARD’S ‘EDEN’ REVIEWED!

 

‘ELKHORN’ SEASON 2 RED CARPET – TR’S TRIUMPHANT HOMECOMING!

 

Elkhorn Abby Road -- Mason Beals, Elijah Mahar,

Jeff DuJardin, Ashton Solecki

Photo by Morgan Weistling

On Saturday, September 27^th, at 6:30 p.m., the entire population –and then some -- of Medora, North Dakota turned out to welcome favorite son Theodore Roosevelt back to the Badlands, the frontier outpost that played such a part in developing the man who would become our 26^th President. In Roosevelt’s own words, “I would never have been President but for my experiences in North Dakota.”

Elkhorn, the INSP series, begins in 1884, the time TR spent in the Badlands at his two ranches, the Elkhorn and the Maltese Cross, so it seems fitting that the series should hold its second season premiere in Medora. I’d had the pleasure of visiting the set for some of the filming of season one – you can read my interview with series star Mason Beals HERE -- and I was delighted to be invited to cover the events in Medora for True West Magazine.

Just as surely as Teddy is the protagonist of the tale, French cattle baron the Marquis de Morès and his bride Medora, are the antagonists. I asked Ashton Solecki, who plays Medora, how it feels to attend a red carpet in a town that’s named after her. “Wow! To say it's surreal is an understatement. To be named Medora in the city of Medora, whose children -- many children here are also named Medora! I've met many fans of the show. It's an honor. Happy to be here!”

Ashton Solecki

I asked Ashton what was her favorite thing she’d done during her visit. “Definitely visiting the Chateau,” the actual, still-standing mansion where Medora and the Marquis lived. “Our guides were so kind, so gracious, so knowledgeable. Obviously, I was already a super-fan of Medora, being that I play her, but I got to learn so much more about Medora. For example, I found out that on one bear hunt alone, Medora shot three bears, and she faced down a bear that was charging right at her calmly, coolly, collectedly. The coolest thing was being in their house with her things everywhere, and feeling their love -- it's next level. Honestly, meeting all the locals here, that's been really great because it's one thing to play a role on tv, but to understand how important this person is to the locals and to the history of the area, that was really transformational.” Then, looking into the crowd, she exclaimed, “Oh, my grandma's over there! She's so cute!”

I asked Mason Beals, who plays TR, if this was his first time on a red carpet for his own show. “100%, yes. It's incredible. This is so much fun. Seeing everyone so excited, it just fills my heart. We've been doing this show for a few years now, and to see real love and support in person is just, it makes every hour of work worth it, you know?”

Two Teddys -- Mason Beals and

Joe Weigand

When I asked him what was the most interesting thing he’d seen so far, he agreed with Ashton. “The Marquis' chateau we just saw today; just to see how preserved it is, and that he called that ‘a cabin’! And how huge it was – it just says everything you need to know about him. We had such great guides, and it gave me a lot of perspective on the Marquis. This town knows a lot about Teddy Roosevelt, but to learn even more about the Marquis is just great.” I asked if what he had learned made him like the Marquis more or less. “I actually have more sympathy for him. Definitely. I think that he tried really hard; he had a lot to prove and he was unlucky in those endeavors. He wasn't probably the greatest human being on earth, but I have a little bit more sympathy for the villain after this.”

Matt Wiggans plays William Merrifield, a tough man who already lives in Medora, and wises up not only the future President, but his Maine-born associates, on the ways of the West. Matt had visited the location of TR’s Elkhorn cabin, now gone save for the massive rocks of the foundation, which outline where it once stood. “We shoot the show just north of Los Angeles, in a place called Acton, and I was pretty amazed at how close the sets come to the real thing. But what's been magical is to go out and experience the actual locations. The Elkhorn cabin isn't there anymore, but you can visualize it there. And what Theodore Roosevelt was experiencing in that solitude, that was so imperative in his life, it was goosebump-inducing.

Matt Wiggans

“I spent a lot of my childhood in Spearfish, in Brookings, South Dakota. I played hockey in North Dakota. But this is my first time in Medera, and my wife and I are already super-excited to come back for the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. I warn people that when I go to historical places or museums, just prepare for hours, because I like to read everything. I love history. This is not just a premiere, it's an experience: <laugh>, it's The Teddy Roosevelt Experience! Understanding how real it is to people -- Eli (Elijah Mahar), who plays Sewell, and I were talking yesterday about how this just makes you want to be better, just step it up even more.”

Sam Schweikert

One of the startling elements of the Elkhorn story is the youth of the people involved: when Roosevelt and the Marquis first clashed in 1884, they were both 26. Newspaper editors in Westerns tend to be Edmond O’Brien or Thomas Mitchell, usually portly drunks in their 50s. Sam Schweikert, who portrays editor Arthur Packard, couldn’t be less like that cliché. As Sam points out, “Arthur Packard was 22 years old when he came out and opened up the Badlands Cow Boy, which is amazing, to be that young and to have that sense of wherewithal to say: I'm gonna go to a place that is lawless and scary, and help spread the word. And given that we're here in this flourishing town of Medora today, I think Arthur had a lot of foresight.”

Elijah Mahar

Next on the red carpet was Elijah Mahar, who plays William Sewall, one of two friends TR sends for from Maine to help build his cabin. Elijah notes, “I grew up in a small town in Washington, a logging, dairy, farming town.” Logging? Does he have the kind of experience his character has? “I have not chopped down trees. I've sawed down trees with a chainsaw, and I have chopped them into logs.” And while he isn’t from Maine, “My wife, her family, have a house in Maine. So we go there every summer for a few weeks. And Sewell’s house is still there. I go see the house, I called the number, left a message saying, Hey, my name's Eli. I'm on a show called Elkhorn. I play Bill Sewell, the man who built your house. I'd love to come see it. Within minutes, there was a message from the woman, who's Bill Sewell's great-granddaughter! She was so excited. ‘I'm a huge fan of the show!’ The next day, my wife and I spent a couple hours there. It was kinda like coming here. I got to be in his bedroom, sit at his desk, saw his bassinet from when he was a baby. It was a great experience. When it's a real person you’re playing, you feel like you have to kind of honor them.”

Brittany Joyner

William Sewell spends some time in the first season pining for his wife, Mary, whom he has left back in Maine. In season 2, he gets his wish, rejoined by his wife in the person of Brittany Joyner, who is a fiery redhead in reality, but a brunette as Mary. Looking at the premiere’s turnout, far more than Medera’s population of 160, she gushed, “This is fantastic! I can't believe that all these people showed up just for little old us -- I'm so glad! It's a really, really cute town, lovely people, lovely food and coffee and experiences. But getting to see the threshold stones of Elkhorn, that has such a close memory for me of filming, and our entire series hinging around this location. The Chateau de Mores was wonderful. It really gave us a good glimpse of how differently they were living than Teddy was, in his rustic cabin in the middle of the woods.” Architecture is not just of passing interest to Brittany.  “I spent the summer in France, doing carpentry on a medieval castle, so I'm recovering from that.”

Jeff DuJardin

Jeff DuJardin plays the Marquis, a Frenchman, of course. Jeff was born somewhat closer, “In the smallest state, in Providence, Rhode Island. I was the very last person who was cast in the project. And part of it might have been, someone who could do a French accent, but maybe not too French.” The rumor is, they auditioned some French actors, whose accents were too thick, and some Americans, of the Pepe le Pew school. “I got an email from my agent. ‘Can you put yourself on tape for this role? You have to do a French accent.’ My mother spoke it fluently. I would hear her on the phone growing up, speaking to my grandmother, so I knew what the French accent was supposed to sound like. So I recorded this audition, and heard back a few days later that they really loved it, and they wanted me to do a chemistry read with Mason. And the rest is history.”

North Dakota First Lady Kjersti Armstrong

Soon it was time for everyone to find seats in Medora’s Old Town Hall Theater for the screening of Elkhorn, season 2, episode 1, A Fine Welcome. The audience loved the show, cheered every star’s entrance, and on the big screen it was striking how beautifully the series is photographed. A second screening would be held to accommodate the overflow crowd. Historian, entertainer and TR impersonator Joe Wiegand had emceed on the red carpet. Inside, the hosting duties were handled by Elkhorn producer Gary Tarpinian, who introduced North Dakota First Lady Kjersti Armstrong, people from various foundations and organizations who had helped with event, the executives of the INSP Channel, and the cast members who took the stage for a spirited Q & A, which is available tonight on the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library’s Youtube page, and below.

 My favorite moment was when someone asked, “What will you remember about your time in North Dakota?”

When series star Mason Beals spoke about how welcoming the town was, and how “incredibly beautiful it is out here. Driving in from Dickinson, passing all those canyons, it's just mind-blowing,” Brittany Joyner commented, “I'm actually 100% shocked you didn't say breakfast sandwiches. They have not stopped talking about them!” The cast took a deep, rhapsodic dive into the merits of the spectacular food available at the C-Store.

Producer Gary Tarpinian

From the audience, Rolf Sletten, author of Roosevelt’s Ranches, and one of the great movers and shakers in making Medora a hub of Roosevelt history, raised his hand. “I wanted to tell you (that) those breakfast sandwiches are made by a woman named Robin Griffin. And Robin Griffin is Margaret Robert's great-great granddaughter. And Margaret Roberts was TR's nearest neighbor at the Maltese Cross Ranch.” In Medora, yesterday, today and tomorrow, Teddy Roosevelt history runs deep!

INSP's Doug Butts, Rolf Sletten, Emily Sletten,

ELKHORN creator Craig Miller, INSP's Dale Ardizzone

Season 2 of Elkhorn will premiere tonight, October 2^nd, at 9pm Eastern time – check your local listings – and will continue Thursdays at 9. If you want to catch up on season 1 – and you should – it’s streaming on Prime and Tubi and Plex.

RUSTLERS’ RHAPSODY

Kino Lorber – BluRay $29.95

 

Tom Berenger's 1930s singing cowboy 

doesn't blend in easily.

Since you obviously read Henry’s Western Round-up, I know you’re going to love a lot about Rustler’s Rhapsody – maybe even the whole thing. But your friends may not, if they haven’t got the background. Writer and director Hugh Wilson, had already more than proven himself as a comedy writer, creating WKRP In Cincinnati, and as a comedy director: his first time at bat was the low-cost, hugely profitable, and grossly funny Police Academy, which spawned a 7-film franchise.  Perhaps that’s why he was given a free hand for his next production, writing and directing Rustlers’ Rhapsody. It’s the sort of film that, under normal studio procedures, would never have been green-lighted, not because it wasn’t good, but because most studio execs would never have enough Western movie knowledge to get the jokes.  When Blazing Saddles was made 11 years earlier, Westerns in theatres and on TV were so ubiquitous that viewers couldn’t help knowing all that was required. But Rustlers’ Rhapsody is specifically a sweet celebration of B-Westerns which likely went over the heads of its 1985 audience, and would certainly go farther over the heads of an average audience today.

Tom Berenger, who in 1979 had played Butch Cassidy in the prequel Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, stars as Rex O’Herlihan, not a singing-cowboy B-Western movie actor, mind you, but a singing-cowboy B-Western movie character. A lot of the humor comes from the similarity of so many B’s – Rex wistfully notes that he can see the future, because the future is always the same: every town he enters has the same stores and sheriff’s office, interchangeable schoolmarms and henchmen. He has a fabulous wardrobe but we have no idea where he carries it. He diligently practices shooting guns out of bad guys’ hands – he wouldn’t think to shoot at a person, nor would they be able to shoot him. It’s all begins in exciting, chasing-the-stagecoach-robbers black and white, but a narrator wonders what would happen if Rex had moved from the B’s of the ‘30s and ‘40s to the Westerns of ‘today,’ and guess what: suddenly we are in widescreen Technicolor, and the bad guys are shooting awful close!

Berrenger and Patrick Wayne seem too evenly matched!

The problem is, we never quite learn which ‘today’ they mean – ‘today’ doesn’t seem a whole lot grittier than 1960s TV – certainly not Peckinpah ‘today’. It’s sort of like if Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in Somewhere Other Than Contemporary Connecticut. If you don’t know he’s in King Arthur’s Court, you don’t know what to base the gags on. It’s well-worth seeing, and lots of the jokes are very clever but a lot are just not focused enough to pay off.

G.W. Bailey – Lt. Harris from the Police Academy films – is Peter, the town drunk and prototypical sidekick-to-be, who takes naive Rex under his wing. Rex’s kindness is endearing when he lies to Peter, assuring him that, while everything and everyone else is the same going from town-to-town, he’s never met anyone like Peter before.

Berenger plays it as straight and as straight-arrow as he should, with Marilu Henner and Sela Ward both lovely to look at and very funny. Patrick Wayne plays a good-guy who is as good as Rex, and their interplay is great fun. Andy Griffith, as the wealthy cattle baron is under-utilized, because his part was drastically cut: he was supposed to be a gay cattle baron, but 1985 audiences weren’t ready for that. Incredibly, it’s shot in Almeria, Spain – Fernando Rey is included for some funny nods to Spaghetti Westerns – but looks more American than European.   

EDEN – A Film by Ron Howard

Ana de Armas, supported by Felix Kammerer 

and Ignacio Gasparini, photo by Jason Boland

Currently streaming on Prime for $19.95

(Note: I realize that Eden is not a Western, but it’s a pioneering story, about people moving away from civilization, so I say, close enough!)

The fact that it’s based on the truth notwithstanding, the premise of Eden, the very dark new film directed by Ron Howard and co-written by him with Noah Pink, could have been a wonderful comedy: post-World War I, a pompous German philosopher and his lover move to an unpopulated island in the Galapagos Archipelago, to be completely alone, to work out a plan to save humanity. And when word of his plan spreads – making them among the first media stars -- true-believers flock to join him, making his work impossible. I feel like re-writing it for Charlie Chase, or Clifton Webb!

Daniel Bruhl and Jude Law

photo by Peter Jowery

We are immediately sympathetic to Jude Law as Ritter, the philosophoid who, despite his pomposity, is trying to accomplish something important, along with Dore, played by Vanessa Kirby, who won’t even let her MS derail her. Without warning they are joined by the unwanted, unprepared and destitute Wittmer family – Margaret (Sydney Sweeney), Heinz (Daniel Bruhl) and young son Harry (Jonathan Tittel). They’re about as welcome as Blondie, Dagwood, and a tubercular Baby Dumpling. No sooner are they settled than the arrogant “Baroness”, played by Ana de Armas, arrives with her entourage of 3 lovers, and her lunatic plan to build an exclusive hotel on the island’s shore.  You have an inkling of what’s coming, as the opening titles tell us that it is a true story, as told by the survivors.

While not a popular theme in recent years, stories of “civilized” people alone on jungle islands have been the subjects of several memorable films: various versions of The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Most Dangerous Game, Lord of the Flies, Swiss Family Robinson – even comedies like The Tuttles of Tahiti. In fact, this group of castaways is the subject of a fascinating 2013 documentary, The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, from directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine. Incredibly, it’s full of footage of the actual islanders, as newsreel companies and narrative filmmakers visited them. There is even a brief dramatic film starring the Baroness!

The ultimate flaw of Ron Howard’s film is that there is no one to care about. Unlike all of the fictional jungle films I’ve mentioned, there is no likable character – our sympathy for Ritter quickly dissipates. The irony is that you don’t like anyone in The Galapagos Affair either, but you don’t lose patience with that film because it’s a documentary, and the appeal is intellectual. We’ve all watched true crime stories where the victims are as hateful as the killers, but the truth, sympathetic or not, keeps our interest. But our interest in drama is not intellectual but largely emotional: we want to root for someone. The closest we come to caring is about young Harry Wittmer, and there is a promising moment between him and the Baroness, when she’s befriending him, and we immediately distrust her motives. But the set-up is never paid off. Instead, the plot becomes an uninvolving scorecard of who gets killed in what order.

Sydney Sweeney, photo by Roger Lawson

In spite of this, Ron Howard’s direction is excellent. Jude Law’s character’s deterioration, his transition from pretentious philanthropist to psychotic fascist, is Oscar-worthy wonderful. I wanted to choke de Armas’ Baroness, but I found her fascinating. Eden is beautifully photographed by Mathias Herndl, particularly the strangely ominous cutaways to the animal life on the island. We don’t see a single Galapagos Tortoise, but in fact, filming is not permitted on the islands, so it was shot in Australia.

The most powerful sequence by far is Sydney Sweeney’s character giving birth while her cabin is being burglarized, and then being attacked by blood-smelling dogs! That had me not only on the edge of my seat, but gnawing on my knuckles.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the September/October True West, featuring my article, A Century of Disenrollment, and my interview with author Anne Hillerman. And here’s the link to my newest INSP blog, What TV and Movies Get Right and Wrong About Cowboys.

Much obliged,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright October 2025 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved