THE LONG WAY NORTH

A western narrative without a story is a documentary of a vanishing way of life and it performs its obsequies with care and real feeling for the men who ride with pride along the trail. Through the eyes of Charles Wood, a rich man's son and a renegade from Boston, a cattle drive from Texas to the Montana Territory is experienced:- its difficulties (a dry drive, fences, blizzards, cattle fever); dangers (a stampede, a near lynching); and sorrows (the death of two of the crew and at the end, the faithful Mexican Cimarron).... Subdued perhaps for those who usually read this form of fiction but authentic in its portrayal and appreciation.