Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Sam Shepard | ... | Sheriff Forrest / Wild Bill Hickock | |
Eric Roberts | ... | Blackjack Britton | |
Randy Quaid | ... | Doc Woods / Doc Holliday | |
Peter Stormare | ... | Cavin Guthrie | |
Brad Rowe | ... | Leo 'Sonny' Dillard | |
Donnie Wahlberg | ... | Deputy Glen / Billy The Kid | |
JD Souther | ... | Brooks / Jesse James (as John David Souther) | |
Amelia Heinle | ... | Rose / Betty McCullough | |
Shannon Kenny | ... | Dolly Sloan / Ivy | |
John Dennis Johnston | ... | Lamb / 'Lefty' Slade | |
Saginaw Grant | ... | Gatekeeper | |
Richard Edson | ... | Euripides | |
Gregory Scott Cummins | ... | Knox | |
John Diehl | ... | Badger | |
R.G. Armstrong | ... | Coachman |
An outlaw band flees a posse and rides into Refuge, a small town where no one carries a gun, drinks, or swears. The town is actually Purgatory, and the peaceful inhabitants are all famous dead outlaws and criminals such as Doc Holiday and Wild Bill Hickok who must redeem themselves before gaining admittance to Heaven...or screw up and go to Hell. The residents must either defend themselves against the outlaws and risk eternal damnation... or die a second time. Written by <crow_steve@hotmail.com>
Purgatory plays like a ninety-four episode of "The Twilight Zone", that despite a few predictable twists, is still a lot of fun to watch and a cut above the usual made-for-television western of the last twenty years or so.
Production values are good and so is the familiar cast of character actors, led by baddies Eric Roberts and Peter Stormare, with Sam Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Donnie Walberg, and R.G. Armstrong in his last western appearance so far. They all do a great job, with Roberts and Stormare playing it nice and rowdy.
Interestingly enough, co-stars R.G.Armstrong and John Dennis Johnston appeared together eighteen years earlier in the southern-fried horror flick The Beast Within.