Stagecoach (1986)

STAGECOACH  (1986)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Ted Post
    Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings,
    Johnny Cash, John Schneider, Elizabeth Ashley,
    Anthony Newley, Tony Franciosa, Mary Crosby,
    June Carter Cash, Jessi Colter, Lash LaRue
Back in 1985, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash recorded an album together, forming an outlaw country supergroup called the Highwaymen. A year later, they teamed up for a TV movie, a remake of the 1939 John Ford film "Stagecoach". Willie plays Doc Holliday, fighting consumption and trying to get to Tombstone and a rendezvous with Wyatt Earp. Kristofferson plays the Ringo Kid, the role that in the earlier version made John Wayne an A-list star. Jennings plays a gambler with a shady past. Cash plays a no-nonsense lawman riding shotgun on the stage. Kristofferson's the only real actor in the group, and his scenes with Elizabeth Ashley (in the old Claire Trevor role) aren't bad. Jennings gets by, more or less. Cash could stand to lighten up a bit. Willie's just Willie, the old prairie hipster who goes his own way no matter what. The picture's a mashup of western movie clichés, but as a vehicle for its four stars to hang their Stetsons on, it's all right. When they walk elbow-to-elbow toward the saloon and the climactic confrontation with the bad guys, it doesn't really matter that you've watched the same thing happen in better films a dozen times before. It might not be the myth-making they were hoping for, and which they found in some of their music, but there's something about it that feels exactly right.