Brothers of the Frontier (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Mark Sobel

Writer (WGA):

Hal Sitowitz (written by)

Release Date:

6 April 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Cast

Doug Abrahams	...	Tavish
Michael Cram	...	Ned Holcomb
Don S. Davis	...	Byron Holcomb
Darrell Dennis	...	Tasunke
Glen Douglas	...	Seneca Chief
Jonathan Frakes	...	Ben Frye
Leon Goodstriker	...	Seneca Shaman
Mark-Paul Gosselaar	...	Hiram Holcomb
Melanie Koskie	...	Aaron's Princess
Andrew Lawrence	...	Jamie Frye
Joseph Lawrence	...	Ethan Frye (as Joey Lawrence)
Matthew Lawrence	...	Aaron Frye
David Longworth	...	Dr. Bryant
Carmen Moore	...	Chewlynndit
Sandra Nelson	...	Sarah Frye
Richard Sali	...	John Kipp
Mark Saunders	...	Trapper
Randy Schooley	...	Robert
Theodore Starr	...	Custaloga

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Once and Future Films

Quotes:

Chewlynndit: I believe what my grandfather used to tell me: that eyes that meet the way ours did, and hold tightly, are meant to meet again... many times.

Good but Bad

The first movie pairing of the Brothers Lawrence - Joey, Matt, & Andy. I'm kind of surprised by the number of perfect 10 votes this movie had. As Joey might say - Whoooooa (remember Blossom? Okay, you've gotta be older for that.) No way this deserves a 10. No, no way. Yes, this is a pretty good movie for a family, not much violence and good family values. On the other hand there are problems here galore. The whole idea that the Frye family had to split or have one of them be a slave just because of a deer shot on someone else's land, just because the Holcomb's are not to be messed with... well, that just doesn't cut it. Absolutely lame. If they wanted to stick with that they shoulda somehow brought the father Holcomb back into the picture to realize the error of his ways, apologize to the Fryes, and to punish his son for lying. Would've helped to wrap up the story very nicely but, nope, they didn't do that. And the scenery... HORRENDOUS for a story set on the east coast of the United States. Might as well have shot around the outskirts of L.A. and kept palm trees in view. The mountains of British Columbia where this was filmed are outstandingly gorgeous and tremendously huge compared to those anywhere in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic-Shenandoah area of the U.S. (or basically anywhere east of the Mississippi River.) Just wrong, wrong, wrong to film where they did. Lastly on the negative side, that was a nice modern day Philadelphia accent Joey Lawrence had in this... problem was this story took place in the early to mid 1700's sometime. Hello? And lastly lastly, thank goodness Mark Paul Gosselaar's part was fairly small ‘cause, well, I just can't put my finger on it but it seemed he just didn't fit his role at all. I've seen a few things he's been in since Saved By The Bell and it feels like Zack Morris is the only character I can picture him as. Maybe he's good in NYPD Blue, I'll hafta check it out. Back to this movie... one thing that was really good in this was the whitewater sequence on the unnamed river they were floating down. Done really well to the point I thought the director and/or cinematographer should have been nominated for something, a filming in nature award of some kind. What, there isn't one? There ought to be and for TV movies this could have been in contention. The whitewater sequence gets an A, the scenery gets an A+, the scenery accuracy pertaining to the story gets a big fat F, overall I'm giving this movie a grade of: C