Last of the Dogmen Information

Last of the Dogmen is a 1995 Western adventure film written and directed by Tab Murphy and starring Tom Berenger and Barbara Hershey. Set in the mountains of northwest Montana near the Idaho and Canadian borders, the film is about a bounty hunter who pursues escaped convicts into a remote region and encounters an unknown band of Dog Soldiers from a tribe of Cheyenne Indians. The film was shot on location in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.

Plot

Distraught but skillful bounty hunter Lewis Gates (Tom Berenger) 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 128 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.

Cast

• Tom Berenger as Lewis Gates
• Barbara Hershey as Prof. Lillian Diane Sloan
• Kurtwood Smith as Sheriff Deegan
• Steve Reevis as Yellow Wolf
• Andrew Miller as Briggs
• Gregory Scott Cummins as Sears
• Mark Boone Junior 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 Jarvis as Pharmacist
• Parley Baer as Mr. Hollis
• Sherwood Price as Tracker
• Molly Parker as Nurse
• Antony Holland as Doc Carvey
• Robert Donley as Old Timer
• Brian Stollery as Grad Student
• Mitchell LaPlante as Wild Boy
• Wilford Brimley as The Narrator
• Zip as Zip

Production

Filming locations

• Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
• Canmore, Alberta, Canada
• Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada
• Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada
• Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

Reception

Last of the Dogmen currently holds a 69% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Alternate releases

The American theatrical and home video releases of this film included narration by Wilford Brimley (in 3rd person), which is absent from the UK version. The DVD allows the viewer to choose. The NetFlix streaming version (no longer available) has the narration told in 1st person by the lead actors.

Rights issues and availability

Dogmen is one of the few Carolco 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 nor Focus Features, the latter of which 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 for as much as $170 online.