The Shadow Riders

The Shadow Riders stars Tom Selleck (capitalizing on his Magnum fame) and Sam Eliot as brothers from Texas who fought in the Civil War on different sides and meet at the end of the war as each is traveling home. The differences of the war are brushed aside; it's over and besides, both believed in their cause (Civil War revisionism in modern form). At home they learn that the family ranch has just been raided by Confederate soldiers unwilling to quit fighting. The gang has stolen horses and cattle, loaded up wagons with grain from surrounding farms and ranches and kidnapped women for sale into prostitution and men into slavery in Mexico mines. As it turns out, they have kidnapped the brothers' two sisters, Eliot's fiance (Katherine Ross, his real life wife) and a younger brother, just home from the war.

The brothers are home, then, just long enough to change clothes and pack some supplies. While they are traveling, their younger brother manages to escape. He meets his brothers on the trail. It just so happens their uncle Jack (Ben Johnson) is in jail nearby and they break him out to help. There is lots of action and gun play and racing horses. When all is said and done, they all go home and live happily ever after except Dominique Dunne who plays one of the sisters and had the real life tragedy of an obsessive boyfriend who killed her.

Selleck and Eliot made two Louis L'Amour movies together. This is the lesser of the two. It is fine for Selleck and Eliot fans.