User Reviews

Didn't really like the movie, it seemed pretty anti-climactic. I wonder if any other viewers caught this: In the scene where Karl Malone was in the play, there was a song playing on the piano in the background. The song was "I Am Thinking of my Pickaninny Days" by Scott Joplin. Scott Joplin was not even born until about 1865, therefore, the song was probably not even written till at least 1885 or 1890. I just HAD to tell people that.

So

yeah

Goodbye.

I wasn't expecting much from this low budget film but was looking forward to it all the same. It could have gone either the folklore route or historical route and been incredibly interesting if done at least half-way decent. That is where this goes all wrong. It did nothing except show a guy dressed up as him trying to make tough, thoughtful facial expressions.

None of the scenes are personal in any way. There is a guy with a name. Girls have crushes on him. He falls in love with a pretty girl with a pretty dress. We are shown that there are historical characters who were in history. There are shady guys who feel the need to shift shady glances constantly each time they mention the Mormons' property. People shoot at him and he shoots them. Carl Malone is there. All of the time spent tying in a narrator feels convoluted and does nothing to provide insight into the title character.

I really don't see how it was possible to write such horrible script and direct such a horrible film when there is so much material to write it off and so many effective, straight-forward methods of telling the story. For instance, the first scene shows some kid's parents get shot. He goes to Joseph Smith's house and sees Rockwell there. Now we know he was a friend of Smith, and we are later told they were friends from childhood. Why not just open by showing Rockwell trying to bust Joseph out of prison? Later we see a reenactment of Smith's assassination, who has been introduced but not developed. This tells us nothing about Rockwell. Also it was hard to not get distracted by the comic mob noises. By now you're getting the idea.

Now throw in stale dance scene to give Carl Malone some time on stage. Others have mentioned the play scene. By now we feel like we're being deliberately insulted.

The only saving grace, of which there is little, are the scenes and quotes that made Rockwell a legend. The ear collector scene was solid enough. The problem is that at least 80% of the film should be like that, but we get less than 10%.

Conclusion: If you have a Mormon grandpa, go camping with him and he'll spin a good Porter Rockwell yarn or two. If you don't, find a good book on him. I'm sure some day there will be an amazing film, too, but this ain't it.

I tried watching this tonight since I couldn't sleep. The historical inaccuracies were awful! The characters wore clothes that wouldn't be invented until the next century such as plastic buttons on shirts and metal adjusters on suspenders. The opening scene has a boom mic seen in the shot and the character is wearing an elastic collar shirt (like a t-shirt). The man playing Joseph Smith has silver hair and looks to be about 50 years old, even though Smith was killed when he was 38. The guns used in the opening scene were revolvers not invented until well after the Ciivil War. The story is okay and it is fun to see Karl Malone but I am only about halfway through it right now and I am hoping I fall asleep so I don't have to see the rest.

Former NBA player Karl Malone needs to keep his day job. No, this is not an epic biopic of painter Norman Rockwell, or the "Somebody's Watching Me"-one hit wonder from the 1980's. This weak western is more horrible than you can imagine. Randy Gleave plays Porter Rockwell, a long-haired, bearded friend of Mormons Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Gleave looks like he is auditioning for the dinner theater production of "Jim Morrison: The Paris Years." Smith is killed and Rockwell moves to Utah, where he must deal with the same land grabbers who had Smith and others gunned down back in Illinois. Rockwell becomes marshal, and rumor has it he cannot be killed because of his long hair. The end features a final showdown with the lead land grabber, and a snake pit.

The villains are broadly written and played, you expect them to be described as "nefarious" and "dastardly" while they twirl their mustaches and tie virgins to railroad tracks. The film is very cheap, I swear the film makers used the same log cabin to film every character's exteriors, no matter if they lived in Illinois or Utah. The costuming seems to consist of actors bringing what they thought was old from home. Modern hairstyles and clothing can often be spotted. The rest of the exterior shots were done on a state park somewhere, and you can see modern doorknobs, and even a modern city in the background of one shot, as the villain describes the frontier town he has arrived in as "quaint." The opening scenes show a child gunned down, and Rockwell is hit on by TWO preteen girls trying to find a husband; both scenes are squirm-inducing. The whole film is Rockwell getting shot at, then killing whoever was responsible. Malone looks clueless as to how he got stuck in this. As Rockwell's friend Elijah, he shoots and runs around, but his character's only purpose seems to be to give Karl something to do onscreen. There is an embarrassing vignette where Rockwell and Elijah are in a play together, and Rockwell forgets his lines. I think the writer-director was trying to be funny, but my jaw was agape in how bad this was, and how long it dragged out. For fun, count the number of characters who use colorful words like "ain't" and "reckon" non-stop. The editing feels like one of those nine hour TV mini-series that are edited down to an hour and a half, then released on video as a "movie," with narration added to fill in the gaps. I'm not a fan of Malone- I've never watched a NBA game in my life, and didn't really know who he was until I watched this film. This movie is hard to find on video for a reason, it is awful. Stay away from "Rockwell."

My friends and I actually enjoyed this movie. Point by point, this is where we disagree with one earlier review:

1.) The movie may be a "weak western" for that reviewer, but for us, it was actually much better than we expected, despite the obviously limited budget.

2.) The acting isn't great by some of the actors (obviously not a high budget for actors), but much of the acting is pretty good - especially the actors who play the young guy Willie, the chief antagonist Higbee, the mob leader Worrell, the ears outlaw, and maybe a few others.

3.) The "villains" are far from being broadly written, as the reviewer claims, and are not at all like those of the early silent movies he alludes to. This film goes into the motivations and to some extent the psyche of the main antagonist, Higbee.

4.) There is much more to the sets than "the same log cabin to film everyone's exteriors," as claimed by the reviewer. We saw sets with many buildings and cabins. A couple times maybe a single cabin is used for different scenes (again, apparently the budget), but the same cabin was obviously NOT used for scenes in two different states - Illinois and Utah, per the reviewer's claim. I think if you watch the film you will notice the many buildings used.

5.) Some of the costumes were GREAT, others did look like old clothes brought from home - I agree with the reviewer half way on that point. I'm no hairstylist but he may be right about the hairstyles being too modern. Some definitely looked nineteenth- century to me however.

6.) As for modern doorknobs, the reviewer might be right on that also, I didn't notice them as a distraction, but most if not all the props looked pretty authentic.

7.) What he sees as a "modern city in the background of one shot" (when a corrupt judge rides into town) isn't in focus for the background, so one cannot tell if it's modern or old. Not sure it can be accurately criticized as a modern city, as no cars can be seen and the reflecting windows could have come from buildings in a frontier town OR a modern town.

8.) The character of Rockwell, he says, is "hit on by not one, but TWO preteen girls trying to find a husband. Both scenes are really squirm inducing." Man, I totally disagree. My buddies and their wives thought that was the funniest running gag in the whole movie. Rockwell has ZERO interest in them, so nothing is there to squirm about. (Actually there are THREE such girls, not two, and a couple of them appear to be 13 or 14, which were in fact the ages that girls in the 1800s were when starting to look for a future mate.) Rockwell has his sights set on a woman much older than these young gals, and he dismisses them. We thought it was done in good taste, and the humor came through.

9.) Everyone I know thinks Karl Malone looks like he's having fun - and when the movie came out he was on the news - I saw him on "Entertainment Tonight" and a couple other shows - talking about the fun-ness factor. By contrast, the reviewer claims Malone "looks clueless as to how he got stuck in this in the first place." That's a funny reviewer line, actually, but I don't agree with it. Karl pulls off what he is supposed to in good stride and is obviously enjoying it.

10.) Karl's character is necessary to the "buddy film" aspect of the three main characters, showing his humor and willingness to support his friends. He is not just "shooting and running around," as the reviewer claims. In fact his character obviously has some inner turmoil and complexity because he states how he doesn't want to take up gunfighting again - yet does, to support his friends and neighbors.

11.) "The play" scene is actually pretty funny, especially where Rockwell sees his girlfriend and forgets his lines. The reviewer however says his "jaw was agape in how bad the scene was." Well I respect his opinion, but in my opinion it wasn't in the same league as truly bad scenes in films I've seen over the years that did leave my jaw agape. To me and my friends it's a scene that is far from "embarrassing" and "trying to be funny" -- it was actually quite funny. The reviewer complained that scene "dragged on," but that was how the main characters on stage were supposed to be feeling when Rockwell forgot his lines; thus they wanted to get off stage; so the moment was SUPPOSED to drag on for them. But it didn't for me. The scene works.

12.) Characters using "ain't" and "reckon" are in line with many westerns, but the reviewer didn't like it. I'm a huge westerns fan.

13.) The movie wasn't hard to find on video, as the reviewer claims. I saw it in several video stores when looking for other westerns when I was traveling on business from California to Pennsylvania in the mid-90's. Plus I saw it advertised on Pay-per-view and I think HBO or Showtime. The movie was rated PG-13 in its last rating. He mentions it was rated R. The VHS tape was a couple years earlier, but it obviously didn't deserve it so it was changed to PG-13, which it is today. I've seen other Independent films given different ratings a couple years apart also.

Not a great movie, but for the obviously challenging budget, it's entertaining.

Nice, realistic dialogue - quick come backs in the characters' speech makes it realistic to me. They talk like real people, unlike many westerns I've seen. And I do like westerns a lot and have seen many. I like the fact that the action carries much of the story so that dialogue is not even necessary in many parts of the movie. I saw it on both VHS and DVD and the VHS has much better sound to it - I suppose the DVD was duplicated very fast or at a big quantity at a lower quality or whatever, but in any case the sound on the VHS is much, much better. Even the talking is a little harder to understand on the DVD. I like the overall sound, such as the horses and gun shots and how they blend together {especially the VHS version), and again, especially the dialogue in this movie.

I thought it made for great dramatic conflict for Porter's girlfriend to decide to leave the territory, to get away from the turmoil she felt with him there and to settle down with someone else. So I liked it when Brigham Young interceded and helped her to see the value of Porter Rockwell. The antagonists are all portrayed pretty well, and you can't help but pull for Porter through the whole story. I really liked the music at the barn dance. The fast music makes the dance come alive - all the folks having fun after the tough trials they have gone through so far in the story. I also love the slow music at the dance as Porter and his girl pursue their courtship - it is a beautiful scene.

I like how everything is resolved by the end of the movie. Good climax.

A reviewer here (who actually gave this movie 10 stars) pointed out what he saw as two "mistakes" which I personally don't see as mistakes.

a. Just my opinion, but he says, "Before Mary-Ann Neff is held at gun point she puts a large board across the door to lock it. Rockwell comes through the same door and the board is gone." I actually saw the board crashing away, in the shot when Rockwell crashed through her door. It looked pretty realistic to me.

b. Also is the same reviewer's complaint that Rockwell "comes up with two body-bags in the wilderness." I think the average viewer can surmise pretty easily that he BROUGHT ALONG the body bags, and didn't find them in the wilderness. Why waste film footage showing Rockwell putting body bags into his saddlebag before hunting outlaws? I guess he could have, but it seems to me that would have been a waste of footage.

I liked what I saw.

I thought the movie was as true to the real story of Porter Rockwell it could be. However; This page on IMDb has no section for goofs. If it did there would be a lot of errors sent in. for example, Before Mary-Ann Neff is held at gun point she puts a large board across the door to lock it. Rockwell comes through the same door and the board is gone. Also, during the square dance, one of the band members is playing an open-back tenor banjo. The Windsor Banjo Company is credited with inventing the open back banjo after they started making fretted instruments, in 1887. Also when Porter Kills the two men that he later dumps into the well, then he comes up with two body bags wile in the wilderness. I thought the movie was pretty well done for a low budget.

Never got to see the movie. Attempted several times to purchase it and would love to still. Went to BYU with Randy Gleave. Lost contact with him when I moved away. Always wondered how he did as an actor. Was In a Provo, Utah play with him "Frontier" and attempted to contact him on Facebook. He never replied. Anyone have a copy of the movie? We used to joke about becoming millionaires. I'm glad one of us made it! If anyone has contact with Randy or a copy of Rockwell, I would love to purchase it. In speaking with friends in Utah pretty much the same reviews were given as the one's I have read where ever I had a chance to check out the movie. Hope my old friend hit it big, but so far no one has any information about him or where I can get a copy of the movie. Thanks

I would like to see this Movie but cannot find it to stream anywhere. Any tips?