In tenth grade English class we had been assigned to read and discuss rather extremely in-depth a few books, one of which was When the Legends Die by Hal Borland. Why this book was chosen I still have no idea- it was only 25 years old then, and while well-regarded by those who have read it isn't exactly considered a "literary classic" up there with our other readings like Of Mice and Men. It seems schools still assign this book today as I found many study questions for it on-line. I had always wanted to see the 1972 movie adaptation (which was released on VHS in the 80s on Fox's Playhouse Video label) but never got ahold of a copy until this DVD-R disc from Fox Cinema Archives.

The theme of When the Legends Die in either form is worthy of study, as it deals with the treatment of Native Americans in the 20th century- called "Indians" at that time, a term which is now largely politically incorrect. The story follows Thomas Black Bull (Frederic Forrest in his first starring role), a Ute Indian who begins life still living in the "old way" in the mountains with his parents. His parents die but at the age of about eleven years old (played by Tillman Box) he continues to live on his own in a cave with a bear that he calls his "brother" (the book made this a larger part of the story than it is in the movie.) An older member of his tribe eventually takes him to a school on a reservation where Indian children are taught the "new way", specifically speaking English and other conventions of modern American society, and forced to live in a dormitory until they are of legal age.

The movie flashes forward to when Thomas is about "18 or 19" according to him (although played by Forrest who was then 35, he obviously appears much older). He has become rather proficient in taming and riding horses. The leader of his school tells him that he must learn a trade or else "wind up drunk on the streets," and brings him into town where Tom "Red" Dillon (Richard Widmark) sees his skills with the horses, offering to take him in as his legal custodian (until age 21) and put him in rodeos. With practice Thomas is able to ride almost any horse thrown at him, even the wild ones that bucked other riders to the ground in a matter of seconds. They soon travel across several states competing in bronco riding contests, but Red is often drunk and forces Thomas to throw a few rounds to win himself more money.

Compared to the book, this movie adaptation doesn't have a whole lot going on. The events seen here are just a section of the original story, which gave a lot more time to Thomas' early life and time at the school, as well as a few events after the movie ends. I couldn't get past Frederic Forrest's acting either, as he delivers his lines in a "thuggish" tone that don't seem based in any sort of reality or even as a stereotype- I remember him sounding about the same in 1993's Falling Down where he played a crazy dealer of Nazi memorabilia and his voice fit that character much more than it does here. The character of "Red" actually seemed more stereotypical- Richard Widmark isn't given too much else to do besides act drunk. A large change made for the movie is its time period- the original story was set in the early 1900s, but this is set in "present day" 1972. While that means there's some good scenery of that time (including a brief glimpse of a Sambo's restaurant sign) it also introduces a glaring error in the beginning- when the younger Thomas gets into a fight with another kid at the dormitory, graffiti saying "Lang 72" is seen on a wall- but this scene would have taken place at least eight years before that.

This disc appears to use the same analog video transfer used for the mid-80s VHS tape, in 4x3 format and carrying the dreaded "formatted to fit this screen" message. It appears to be a mostly open-matte transfer meant to be shown in 1.85 however- a few times boom mikes and camera apertures show up at the very top or bottom of the screen, although there may have been some zooming-in to hide those. The DVD has some very slight compression artifacts as well, mostly around the lettering in the opening credits. It doesn't look awful but not spectacular either.

The film's mono sound track is encoded in 2-channel Dolby Digital and sounds adequate with clear dialogue and no noise that stands out, about what you would expect from a mid-1980s transfer on a major label.

The theatrical trailer is included, also in 4x3 format and appearing to be completely un-matted compared to the same shots in the movie.

When the Legends Die was a minor film and some may be happy just to have it back in print at all, but it appears Fox has released a DVD in Spain (with cover art in Spanish) in 16x9 format so fans of the movie with region-free capability may want to seek that out instead of this 4x3 DVD-R. The movie itself doesn't do justice to the original story, so much so that I'm surprised we weren't shown this in class as "proof that books are always better than movies" as we had been in other cases. (Of course it's not the medium that's at fault, but the execution.) Hopefully another filmmaker will take a better stab at When the Legends Die in the future.

Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.