Brothers Mac Traven (Tom Selleck) and Dal Traven (Sam Elliott) return home after fighting on opposite sides in the Civil War.
They promptly discover that ex-Confederates have stolen the Traven women, including their two younger sisters and Dal’s best gal Kate (Katherine Ross).
Led the Maj. Cooper Ashbury (Geoffrey Lewis), the kidnappers believe the South will rise again. They plan to trade the women and other stolen goods for guns to make that happen.
Younger brother Jesse (Jeff Osterhage) manages to slip away from the kidnappers and fills his brothers in on Ashbury’s plans.
The women are to be traded to Col. Holiday Hammond (Gene Evans), shipped to Mexico and put to work in brothels there.
The younger sisters wind up on that ship. Kate, having captured the affection of Ashbury, escapes that fate and escapes him as well when the Travern brothers attack the camp of the ex-Confederates.
But venturing into Mexico, a country they know nothing about, is another matter altogether for these Texans.
In order to be successful in that mission, they figure they need the help of Black Jack Traven (Ben Johnson), the black sheep of the Travern family.
Problem is, he’s been thrown in jail by Sheriff Miles Gillette back in the town of Big Springs.
Tom Selleck as Mac Travern, standing up for a family member in The Shadow Riders (1982)
Sam Elliott as Dal Traven, a former Confederate who returns home to a new mission in The Shadow Riders (1982)
Review:
The last Western directed by Andrew McLaglen, this is an annoying misfire, wasting a fine cast and an at least slightly original plot.
The biggest problem is that the scenes featuring Elliott and Selleck — especially those early in the film — are handled so playfully, the viewer doesn’t worry for a second that any harm will come to the Travern women or the men trying to rescue them.
At other times, McLaglen’s direction, or the editing, or the story-telling is just plain sloppy. For instance, Katherine Ross’s Kate seems to have free rein of the ex-Rebels’ camp. Why? Well, it sure makes it easy for McLaglen to capture her in all the key scenes.
It also makes it easy for her to slip a knife to jesse Travern. Surrounded by other male prisoners, what does he do? Wait until darkness when he can cut himself and all the others loose too? Nope, he tries to make a break for it on his own and winds up diving futilely into the ocean.
Then there’s the scene in which Black Jack’s jailers don’t seem to mind a bit when he gets a visit from three armed relatives who ask him if he has any ideas about how to break jail. Huh?
Oh, well, McLaglen was always a hit-and-miss director when it came to Westerns, serving up solid films like “Shenandoah” (1965) and “Bandolero!” (1968) alongside lesser films like “Ballad of Josie” (1967) and “Something Big” (1971).
Sadly, this was also the final film for Dominique Dunne, who plays the oldest of the kidnapped sisters. Dunne had a starring role in “Poltergeist,” also released in 1982. She was killed in November 1982 at age 22 by a jealous ex-boyfriend.
Katherine Ross as Kate Connery, the pre-war love Dal Travern is determined to rescue in The Shadow Riders (1982),
Jeff Osterhage as Jesse Travern, the youngest of the Travern brothers in The Shadow Riders (1982)
Directed by:
Andrew McLaglen
Cast:
Tom Selleck … Mac Traven
Sam Elliott … Dal Traven
Ben Johnson .. Black Jack Traven
Geoffrey Lewis … Maj. Cooper Ashbury
Jeff Osterhage … Jesse Traven
Gene Evans … Col. Holiday Hammond
Katherine Ross … Kate Connery
R.G. Armstrong … Sheriff Miles Gillette
Dominique Dunne … Sissy Traven
Natalie May … Heather Traven
Ben Fuhrman … Devol
Jane Greer … Ma Travern
Harry Carey Jr. … Pa Travern
Joe Capone … Sgt. Ballock
Runtime: 96 min.
Ben Johnson as Black Jack Travern, the black sheep in the Travern family in The Shadow Riders (1982)
R.G. Armstrong as Sheriff Miles Gillette, determined to return Black Jack Travern to jail in The Shadow Riders (1982)
Memorable lines:
Maj. Cooper Ashbury: “The Rebel Yell is hard to describe. It’s a mixture of fear and anger and exhaltation. But it inspires men, even from defeat. These damn Yankees think they’ve heard the last of it. But they haven’t. And I’m going to get it back any way I can.”
Kate Connery, to the Dal Travern, who reportedly died in the war: “I should have known you’d come.”
Dal Travern: “Yeah, you should’ve.”
Kate Conner: “Oh, my God, we thought they’d killed you.”
Jesse Travern: “If you ain’t learned by now, Traverns are a hard kill.”
Mac Travern to Jesse: “We Traverns got a lot of faults. Being ignorant isn’t one of them.”
Black Jack Travern to Sheriff Gillette: “That wife of yours has been chasing me for years. I just got tired of running.”
Gene Evans as Co. Holiday Hammond, willing to trade guns for women in Shadow Riders (1982)
Geoffrey Lewis as Maj. Cooper Ashbury, shining his sword for the day the Confederacy rises again in Shadow Riders (1982)
Natalie May and Dominique Dunne as kidnapped sisters Heather and Sissy Travern in Shadow Riders (1982)
Harry Carey Jr. as Pa Travern, filling Mac and Dal in on the kidnapping of their sisters in Shadow Riders (1982)
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