Ted Kotcheff directs "Winter People". Set during the Great Depression, it stars Kurt Russell as Wayland Jackson, a clockmaker who enters a small, Appalachian community. Here Jackson falls in love with Collie Wright (Kelly McGillis), a single mother whose child was fathered by a violent clansman.
"Winter People's" first act is interesting, well shot and boasts impressive location photography. By its third act, however, the film has morphed into a pretentious Shakespearean drama. Derivative of "Broken Lance" and "The Big Country", it sees stubborn, warring clans reconciling over the birth of a child. By the time a needlessly long last-act home invasion takes place, Kotcheff's script has both degenerated into clichés and entirely lost its shape. Lloyd Bridges co-stars.
7/10 - Worth one viewing.
"Winter People's" first act is interesting, well shot and boasts impressive location photography. By its third act, however, the film has morphed into a pretentious Shakespearean drama. Derivative of "Broken Lance" and "The Big Country", it sees stubborn, warring clans reconciling over the birth of a child. By the time a needlessly long last-act home invasion takes place, Kotcheff's script has both degenerated into clichés and entirely lost its shape. Lloyd Bridges co-stars.
7/10 - Worth one viewing.