Broken Trail: A Review

“Never judge wealth with money.” - Prentice Ritter

It is a dangerous to typecast an actor with as storied and diverse career as Robert Duvall. Nonetheless, his work in Broken Trail, a movie/mini-series produced by AMC for its cable station, is a significant contribution to a body of work that have included rich characters that embody grace. His Oscar-winning performance in Tender Mercies as Mac Sledge, an alcoholic country music singer, gave us a man who finds peace and healing in the quiet ministry of grace through a gentle Christian woman and her son. He gave us a powerful statement of the way grace can work its way into the most flawed of lives through the character of Sonny “The Apostle” Dewey, a murderer/adulterer/preacher who somehow finds himself back in conversation with the God that he continues to let down. Now, he gives us Prentice Ritter, a turn-of-the-century cowboy, who embodies a tale of grace that is rare and noteworthy in contemporary cinema.

The story begins in California, with Prentice showing up at a ranch where his nephew Tom, played with elegance by Thomas Haden Church, is working as a hand. He tells him that his mother has died, and that she, for reasons we learn over time, has left the farm and all of her modest wealth to Prentice. He makes a proposition, borrowing money against the farm to purchase a herd of young horses to drive to Wyoming, where a buyer waits with the promise of a rich reward. Tom agrees, and they set out on their ride across the rugged West.

Their journey is interrupted by another traveller, this one a mercenary who is carrying five young Chinese girls who have been purchased in the underground slave market of California. They are making their way to a small mining town, where they will become a lucrative part of the prostitution business of “Big Rump Kate” (certainly one of the great names of recent film).

Through a series of events, “Uncle Prentice” and Tom free the girls, and so the journey begins in earnest, as what was once a business venture becomes a string of interruptions, where they encounter one challenge after another. It is Ritter’s response to these interruptions that not only form the life of the movie’s dramatic tensions, but also reveal his true heart. Playing true to the cowboy stereotype, Ritter says so little, it can at times seem hard to understand what is going on in his head. But his actions speak true, and over time we see him unwittingly building a family. When given the opportunity to go with the law, the girls beg him not to turn them over, instead wanting to stay with him.

Others enter into this family, including a wounded prostitute played by Greta Scacchi, who gives us a tired woman, weary from her personal trail of tears. It is in the presence of Prentice that she begins to find renewed hope, and life that did not seem possible.

The story avoids many of the cliches it could have followed, but the power in the adventure lies centrally in Duvall’s performance and the character of Prentice Ritter. He is a man who treats the “slings and arrows” that life throws his way as opportunities, and with the simple consistent response of a wise kindness, he brings life, and turns strangers into friends and family, then changes their lives for the better.

Ritter carries his own wounds, and even as we see those revealed, they only serve to enhance our admiration for the grace that has survived and thrived in him despite, and perhaps at times because of, the sorrow that life has brought him. He at times clings to that sorrow, which robs him of joy that he could otherwise have known. And so we see his weakness, and we are reminded of his humanity. But grace can thrive even in flawed people, and Ritter becomes a great testament to that truth.

It has been awhile since we’ve seen a powerful Western. This is perhaps the best since Eastwood’s Unforgiven, and each are in their own way offering a challenge to the American Western monomyth that often celebrates rugged individualism and the power of a “justice of vengeance.” Ritter moves through this tough land with a wisdom that allows him to survive. But he rises above his world, and somehow still has a heart that survives the ravages of the Western sun.

The stories that we saw of Mac and Sonny allowed us to focus on their challenges and the ways in which they experienced redemption in the midst of their mistakes. Ritter’s story shows us a life that is pouring out grace to others. He draws people to himself by emanating this kindness. Indeed, he is in many ways the kind of person that I want to be.

Broken Trail is a movie that deserves to rise above its genre, and certainly rises far above what we normally expect from a cable television mini-series. Most importantly, it offers yet another extraordinary example of what a life transformed by Christ looks like. Duvall, regardless of his own personal faith commitments, has given us at least three of these examples. We are richer because he has done so.