Minor plot Spoilers within.
I have been recently gathering as many Brion James movies as I can just so I can watch as many movies that he was in as possible. 'Killing at Hell's Gate' was one of these titles. I had heard a little about it, that it was a lot like 'Deliverance' but not as good. That statement is true. The movie seems very similar to the 1972 film, about a river trip that gets terrorized by the crazed locals hicks. This time it involves politicians and lumberjacks. A congressman (Joel Higgins) decides to visit a small woodcutting town on his campaign trail and asks another politician (Robert Urich), once a sports hero that resided from this small town, to accompany him. Thanks in part to the congressman signing a bill protecting wildlife, the local mill is closing down and most of the town's lumberjacks are out of a job. The congressman, in an attempt to settle the hostile feelings, decides to do some grassroots politicking by accompanying his colleague on a rafting trip. Halfway through, three very unhappy and now unemployed lumberjacks (George DiCenzo, Brion James, Mitch Carter) come across the group of rafters and start shooting. They accidentally kill one of the five people rafting and conclude that they will have to kill them all to keep it quite.
This film was originally made for television. Had it not been for the fade outs for commercial breaks, I wouldn't have noticed this fact. The locations are gorgeous and the camera-work is terrific, like in 'Deliverance.' The film spends a lot of time setting things up, but when the, pardon the pun, deliverance occurs, it feels very rapid. As soon as the lumberjacks start shooting, it feels like the film gets the Hurry Up Machine treatment. There is a wonderfully suspenseful scene with Robert Urich on a dilapidated bridge, but after that his confrontation of the shooters is disappointing. It's still a good movie, but a better movie (aside from 'Deliverance') that is along the same lines is 'Southern Comfort,' which came out the same year. Ironically, Brion James is in that one as a local hick, and he's much better in that film than this one, too. Zantara's score: 6 out of 10.
I have been recently gathering as many Brion James movies as I can just so I can watch as many movies that he was in as possible. 'Killing at Hell's Gate' was one of these titles. I had heard a little about it, that it was a lot like 'Deliverance' but not as good. That statement is true. The movie seems very similar to the 1972 film, about a river trip that gets terrorized by the crazed locals hicks. This time it involves politicians and lumberjacks. A congressman (Joel Higgins) decides to visit a small woodcutting town on his campaign trail and asks another politician (Robert Urich), once a sports hero that resided from this small town, to accompany him. Thanks in part to the congressman signing a bill protecting wildlife, the local mill is closing down and most of the town's lumberjacks are out of a job. The congressman, in an attempt to settle the hostile feelings, decides to do some grassroots politicking by accompanying his colleague on a rafting trip. Halfway through, three very unhappy and now unemployed lumberjacks (George DiCenzo, Brion James, Mitch Carter) come across the group of rafters and start shooting. They accidentally kill one of the five people rafting and conclude that they will have to kill them all to keep it quite.
This film was originally made for television. Had it not been for the fade outs for commercial breaks, I wouldn't have noticed this fact. The locations are gorgeous and the camera-work is terrific, like in 'Deliverance.' The film spends a lot of time setting things up, but when the, pardon the pun, deliverance occurs, it feels very rapid. As soon as the lumberjacks start shooting, it feels like the film gets the Hurry Up Machine treatment. There is a wonderfully suspenseful scene with Robert Urich on a dilapidated bridge, but after that his confrontation of the shooters is disappointing. It's still a good movie, but a better movie (aside from 'Deliverance') that is along the same lines is 'Southern Comfort,' which came out the same year. Ironically, Brion James is in that one as a local hick, and he's much better in that film than this one, too. Zantara's score: 6 out of 10.