This is a great movie! I've got to say it again: This is a great movie! I've never liked cowboy or Indian pictures, but this movie realisticly sets up a fantastic but simple premise that there are Indians still living in the wilderness. Tom Berringer discovers them with the help of Barbera Hershey while the sheriff played by Kurtwood Smith is looking for him. Smith, by the way, is now probably best known as the no-nonsense father on "That 70s Show." I also have to mention the dog who seems to get a lot of his own scenes. The Indians superficially look authentic and believable as does their history which is so grounded and set up before hand that they could almost be real. The scenery is probably the biggest star as much of the locales and views are too breath-taking to be real. This movie would have had Academy Award written all over it had it been released theatrically. This movie just goes to prove that Hollywood big shots really don't know what they are doing.

I have rarely seen a movie where certain scenes run chills down my spine.

One scene in particular is the one where Lillian, and Lewis, first encounter the Native Americans. They were so dynamically beautiful, as well an intimidating in their native costumes, and paint, and their horses were painted, and decorated to the hilt. This scene didn't only send chills up my spine, but much to the credit of Tab Murphy, it brought tears to my eyes, as also did other scenes in the movie.

Yellow Wolf, who was played by Steve Reevis, was I think aware of the changing world beyond his own, and up until now the only way he could prevent the outside world from infiltrating his own was to do away with its representatives, Which meant of course killing them. Modern technology was advancing, and it was inevitable that they would be discovered in time, unless someone they could trust from the outside world could help them. As the story ended, I hoped that Lillian, and Lewis, would be the trusted folks from that outside world who would be able to help keep their existence hidden.

A beautiful story with a beautiful cast. See it if you can. you won't be disappointed.

Last of the Dogmen is written and directed by Tab Murphy. It stars Tom Berenger, Barbara Hershey, Kurtwood Smith and Steve Reevis. Music is scored by David Arnold and cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub.

When three convicts escape from prison and head into the Montana mountains, the local law enforcer hires skillful tracker/bounty hunter Lewis Gates (Berenger) to go find them. What he finds is torn clothes, blood and an Indian arrow. After spying someone in the trees it leads Gates to an investigation on the possibility of a lost tribe of Cheyenne Indians living in the mountains.

A thoroughly enjoyable contemporary Western, even if it's cribbing clichés from a number of films and TV episodes of the past. Formula of story is simple, grizzled tracker man Berenger and prim anthropologist Hershey are poles apart, but into the mountains they go in search of a hidden tribe of Cheyenne. That they find them is a given, since the title says it all, but what unfolds is a burgeoning relationship between the two, while much understanding and soul searching involving the "alien" Cheyenne makes for a good chunk of the narrative. There's observations galore in here about the advancement of time, different cultures etc, and a nod to the Sand Creek Massacre, while a back story sub-plot involving Kurtwood Smith is deftly handled; if a little redundant in the grand scheme of things.

Anyone who has seen the likes of The African Queen, Dances With Wolves and the Twilight Zone Episode: A Hundred Yards Over The Rim, wont be particularly surprised by what transpires in eventuality. But Berenger and Hershey make for a nice duo to be in the company of, while Kip the dog steals the film from both of them! Though story is set in Montana, film was shot on location in Alberta and British Columbia, and here is the film's trump card, where Lindenlaub's photography is quite simply stunning. In fact his work, and that of Arnold, whose score darts in and out of the landscape, deserves to be in an "A" grade movie. It rounds out as very watchable, a professional picture that just about manages to sustain interest and good will for the two hours run time. 7/10