Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Last Stand at Saber River Blu-ray Movie Review

The Ballad of Ethan Cable.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III February 20, 2025

Dick Lowry's 1997 film Last Stand at Saber River is an underappreciated 1997 Western for two big reasons: it was made for TV and stars Tom Selleck, a reliably good actor who's rarely taken all that seriously. But he's a great fit for this durable action/drama... which just so happens to be based on a 1959 novel by none other than Elmore Leonard, whose book-to-screen reputation felt a then-recent spark with 1995's Get Shorty but would be more fully revived in the coming years with films like Jackie Brown, Out of Sight, and the underrated 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma. I'm not sure if it was warmly received back in the day, but it's time to welcome this one back home with a nice, big hug.

Story-wise, Last Stand at Saber River keeps things fairly simple, relying more on its solid cast and surprisingly great cinematography to do more of the heavy lifting. Selleck portrays estranged Confederate soldier Paul Cable, who's just returned home to Texas despite rumors of his death during a war that will soon be over. His wife Martha (Suzy Amis) is as surprised as anyone, as is his tomboyish young daughter Clare (Rachel Duncan) and even younger son Davis (Haley Joel Osment), who doesn't even remember him. Yet while most might expect a tearful reunion and happy family life, the marriage of Paul and Martha reveals itself to be fractured for two reasons: (1) she was against his participation in the war, and (2) their infant daughter died during his absence and she mourned alone. Martha's father James Sanford (Harry Carey Jr., in his final performance) tries to smooth things over, but knows better than to fully intervene.

Bad memories rooted in one specific location usually require a change of scenery, so Paul proposes the family head west to Arizona and a ranch he owns there. But as they finish their trip from Texas, it's soon discovered that a Union Army soldier named Duane Kidston (David Carradine), his brother Vern (Keith Carradine), and other family members have taken over the property, which they assumed was unclaimed due to Paul's widely-reported death. The Northerners won't leave without a fight (among other things), but Paul might have an unlikely ally in the one-armed Confederate sympathizer and former soldier Edward Janroe (David Dukes) as well as Martha, who's handy with a shotgun.

Truth be told, Last Stand at Saber River plays it mostly straight but that's one of the reasons it works. I missed this one on TV the first time around honestly wasn't able to dig up much regarding its popularity... so while I can't say for sure whether I'd have liked it back in the day, it breezes by smoothly enough almost 30 years later even while unavoidably feeling like a product of its time. A handful of questionable supporting performances, occasional soft shots (more on that in the "Video" section below), and of course the 4x3 aspect ratio all scream "TV movie" in a lightly negative way, but the clear-cut strengths of Last Stand at Saber River make it a relic worth rediscovering on home video.

As usual, Warner Archive's welcome new Blu-ray -- which aims to replace several earlier DVD editions, including WB's own disc from 2005 -- serves this film's cinematography well, allowing us to soak up Last Stand's surprisingly terrific production design while seeing almost every individual hair in Tom Selleck's glorious mustache.

Last Stand at Saber River Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on location in New Mexico in lovely 35mm, Last Stand at Saber River probably didn't look very impressive on standard definition CRT TVs back in the day. Warner Archive may have given it the biggest facelift ever afforded a TV movie this side of Duel, as the original camera negative was recently scanned in full 4K and treated to a round of the boutique label's careful proprietary manual cleanup process. While its limited production roots -- which include a few brief battles with excessive noise and occasionally soft shots -- are clearly baked into the negative, most everything else here looks impressive with excellent fine detail, accurate color reproduction (if not a touch heavy on some of the greens), and strong contrast levels that give it a true film-like appearance with visible grain almost every step of the way. The film is encoded on a dual-layered disc and basically gets the whole thing to itself, running at a supportive bit rate but occasionally showing slight signs of macro blocking along the way. That said, this is an overwhelming solid presentation that just might change your opinion of what vintage TV movies are capable of looking like.

Last Stand at Saber River Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner Archive's Blu-ray adds sonic support in the form of DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio, which is apparently true stereo but doesn't feature obvious amounts of channel separation... at least to my ears. That doesn't mean it's not great in its own right, as this straightforward two-channel track still packs a decent wallop during action scenes (which really stack up during the last 30 minutes) and where the excellent original score by David Shire (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Zodiac) is concerned. It's a basic but rousing effort that opens up well enough during critical moments while still feeling like a small-screen production, affording it intimacy and occasional sonic surprises in equal measure.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature only.

Last Stand at Saber River Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with rugged cover artwork and minimal bonus features.

• Trailer - This brief promotional piece was likely taken from an earlier home video release. It's spoiler-heavy and also deceptive, portraying one minor (and fairly weak) subplot as a major part of the story.

Last Stand at Saber River Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Last Stand at Saber River is a mostly forgotten made-for-TV Western movie from 1997, if not only for that fact but also because it stars the underrated Tom Selleck. It's a solid little film with a great cast, though, and the source story from Elmore Leonard surely adds on a few bonus "cool points" as well. I very much enjoyed this one and have a feeling most newcomers will like it too, and Warner Archive's supportive Blu-ray treatment -- led by a new 1080p master sourced from a recent 4K scan of the original camera negative -- help its strong visuals to shine brightly. Recommended.