Last of the Dogmen
Encyclopedia
Last of the Dogmen is a 1995 adventure
Western film
written and directed by Tab Murphy about the search for and discovery of an unknown band of Dog Soldiers
from a tribe of Cheyenne
Indians. The film stars Tom Berenger
and Barbara Hershey
with supporting roles by Parley Baer
, Kurtwood Smith
, and Andrew Miller
.
The setting for the story is northwest Montana
, near the Idaho and Canadian borders; but it was actually shot on locations in Cuernavaca
, Mexico
; Banff, Alberta
, Canada
; Canmore, Alberta
, Canada; Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada; Stoney Reservation, Alberta, Canada; and Yoho National Park
, British Columbia
.
) pursues three armed escaped convicts into Montana's Oxbow Quadrangle, followed by his faithful companion called Zip, an Australian cattle dog
. All Gates finds is a few scraps of cloth, some blood, and an old-fashioned Indian arrow. He takes the arrow to anthropologist Lillian Sloane (Barbara Hershey
) who identifies it as a replica of the arrows used by Cheyenne
Dog Soldiers
. Gates doesn't think it's a replica and, after some library research, develops a long list of people who have disappeared into the Oxbow and a story of a "wild child" captured in the woods in the early 20th century. Now he's convinced that the fugitives were killed by a tribe of Dog Soldiers, a hardy band of native Americans who had somehow escaped the 1864 Sand Creek massacre
and survived for more than a hundred years secluded in the Montana Wilderness.
Gates convinces Sloane to join him in a search for the band. Just as they are preparing to return empty handed; the Dogmen surprise them, take them prisoner, and lead them back to the band's encampment, where they must convince the reclusive band's elders that they intend no harm. An immediate "salvation of one vs. salvation of many" crisis situation gives them the opportunity to prove their honorable intentions but also threatens to attract the attention of the outside world.
Gates and Sloane soon realize they must protect the secret of the band's existence from the outside world, beginning with the local Sheriff Deegan (Kurtwood Smith
) who is now leading a posse into the Oxbow in search of both the fugitive convicts and Gates.
, which is absent from the UK version. The DVD allows the viewer to choose.
productions whose rights have been retained by its original distributor (in this case, Savoy Pictures
). HBO released the film on DVD, which has been discontinued. As of March 2010, neither HBO or Focus Features
, the latter of whom has begun to acquire some of Savoy's films, has announced any plans to release a new DVD of the film. For these reasons, used copies of the original DVD have gone up for as much as $30 online.
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
Western film
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
written and directed by Tab Murphy about the search for and discovery of an unknown band of Dog Soldiers
Dog Soldiers
Dog Soldiers is a 2002 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall, and starring Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee and Liam Cunningham. It was a British production, set in the highlands of Scotland, and filmed almost entirely in Luxembourg....
from a tribe of Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
Indians. The film stars Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
and Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
with supporting roles by Parley Baer
Parley Baer
Parley Edward Baer was an American actor in film, television, and radio.-Radio:Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Baer had a circus background, but began his radio career at Utah station KSL...
, Kurtwood Smith
Kurtwood Smith
Kurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop and stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
, and Andrew Miller
Andrew Miller (actor)
Andrew Miller is a Canadian actor, writer, and director.- Career :Miller began his career as an actor at age 16 in Toronto, Canada. Early theater roles include Moritz Stiefel in Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening and Eugene Morris Jerome in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs...
.
The setting for the story is northwest Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, near the Idaho and Canadian borders; but it was actually shot on locations in Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
; Banff, Alberta
Banff, Alberta
Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
; Canmore, Alberta
Canmore, Alberta
Canmore is a town in Alberta, Canada, located approximately west of the City of Calgary near the southeast boundary of Banff National Park. It is located in the Bow Valley within Alberta's Rockies. The town shares a border with Kananaskis Country to the west and south and the Municipal District of...
, Canada; Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada; Stoney Reservation, Alberta, Canada; and Yoho National Park
Yoho National Park
Yoho National Park is located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide in southeastern British Columbia. Yoho NP is bordered by Kootenay National Park on the southern side and Banff National Park on the eastern side...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
.
Plot
Distraught but skillful bounty hunter Lewis Gates (Tom BerengerTom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
) pursues three armed escaped convicts into Montana's Oxbow Quadrangle, followed by his faithful companion called Zip, an Australian cattle dog
Australian Cattle Dog
The Australian Cattle Dog is a breed of herding dog originally developed in Australia for droving cattle over long distances across rough terrain. In the 19th century, New South Wales cattle farmer Thomas Hall crossed the dogs used by drovers in his parents' home county, Northumberland, with...
. All Gates finds is a few scraps of cloth, some blood, and an old-fashioned Indian arrow. He takes the arrow to anthropologist Lillian Sloane (Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
) who identifies it as a replica of the arrows used by Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
Dog Soldiers
Dog Soldiers
Dog Soldiers is a 2002 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall, and starring Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee and Liam Cunningham. It was a British production, set in the highlands of Scotland, and filmed almost entirely in Luxembourg....
. Gates doesn't think it's a replica and, after some library research, develops a long list of people who have disappeared into the Oxbow and a story of a "wild child" captured in the woods in the early 20th century. Now he's convinced that the fugitives were killed by a tribe of Dog Soldiers, a hardy band of native Americans who had somehow escaped the 1864 Sand Creek massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, were resigned to negotiate peace. The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites...
and survived for more than a hundred years secluded in the Montana Wilderness.
Gates convinces Sloane to join him in a search for the band. Just as they are preparing to return empty handed; the Dogmen surprise them, take them prisoner, and lead them back to the band's encampment, where they must convince the reclusive band's elders that they intend no harm. An immediate "salvation of one vs. salvation of many" crisis situation gives them the opportunity to prove their honorable intentions but also threatens to attract the attention of the outside world.
Gates and Sloane soon realize they must protect the secret of the band's existence from the outside world, beginning with the local Sheriff Deegan (Kurtwood Smith
Kurtwood Smith
Kurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop and stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
) who is now leading a posse into the Oxbow in search of both the fugitive convicts and Gates.
Cast
- Tom BerengerTom BerengerTom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
as Lewis Gates - Barbara HersheyBarbara HersheyBarbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
as Prof. Lillian Diane Sloan - Kurtwood SmithKurtwood SmithKurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop and stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
as Sheriff Deegan - Steve ReevisSteve ReevisSteve Reevis is a Blackfoot Native American actor. His best known role as Shep Proudfoot in the Academy Award-winning film Fargo .He grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation...
as Yellow Wolf - Andrew MillerAndrew Miller (actor)Andrew Miller is a Canadian actor, writer, and director.- Career :Miller began his career as an actor at age 16 in Toronto, Canada. Early theater roles include Moritz Stiefel in Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening and Eugene Morris Jerome in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs...
as Briggs - Gregory Scott Cummins as Sears
- Mark Boone JuniorMark Boone JuniorMark Boone Junior is an American actor perhaps best known for his roles as Bobby Munson in FX's Sons of Anarchy and in two films by Christopher Nolan, Memento and Batman Begins...
as Tattoo - Helen Calahasen as Yellow Wolf's Wife
- Eugene Blackbear as Spotted Elk
- Dawn Lavand as Indian Girl
- Sidel Standing Elk as Lean Bear
- Hunter Bodine as Kid
- Graham JarvisGraham JarvisGraham Jarvis was a Canadian character actor in US films and TV from the 1960s.Born in Toronto, Jarvis attended Williams College before moving to New York to pursue a career in theater...
as Pharmacist - Parley BaerParley BaerParley Edward Baer was an American actor in film, television, and radio.-Radio:Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Baer had a circus background, but began his radio career at Utah station KSL...
as Mr. Hollis - Sherwood Price as Tracker
Alternate releases
The American theatrical and home video releases of this film included narration by Wilford BrimleyWilford Brimley
Allen Wilford Brimley is an American actor. He has appeared in such films as The China Syndrome, Cocoon, The Thing and The Firm. He had a recurring role on the 1970s television series The Waltons...
, which is absent from the UK version. The DVD allows the viewer to choose.
Rights issues and availability
Dogmen is one of the few CarolcoCarolco Pictures
Carolco Pictures, Inc., Carolco International N.V., or Anabasis Investments was an American independent film production company that, within a decade, went from producing such blockbuster successes as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the first three movies of the Rambo series to being bankrupted by...
productions whose rights have been retained by its original distributor (in this case, Savoy Pictures
Savoy Pictures
Savoy Pictures Inc. was an independent motion picture company in operation from 1992 to 1997.-History:Victor A. Kaufman became chairman and chief executive officer of Savoy Pictures in 1992 along with vice chairman executive, Lewis J. Korman...
). HBO released the film on DVD, which has been discontinued. As of March 2010, neither HBO or Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....
, the latter of whom has begun to acquire some of Savoy's films, has announced any plans to release a new DVD of the film. For these reasons, used copies of the original DVD have gone up for as much as $30 online.