An outlaw band flees a posse and rides into Refuge, a small town where no one carries a gun, drinks, or swears. The town is actually Purgatory, and the peaceful inhabitants are all famous dead outlaws and criminals such as Doc Holiday and Wild Bill Hickok who must redeem themselves before gaining admittance to Heaven... or screw up and go to Hell.
Acting
Sam Shepard's weary gravitas anchors the whole absurd premise.
Writing
Clever premise: famous killers debating redemption over poker.
Production
TV budget stretched into genuinely eerie frontier limbo.
Director
Uli Edel
Sam Shepard
Sheriff Forrest / Wild Bill Hickock
Eric Roberts
Blackjack Britton
Randy Quaid
Doc Woods / Doc Holliday
Peter Stormare
Cavin Guthrie
Brad Rowe
Leon 'Sonny' Miller
Donnie Wahlberg
Deputy Glen / Billy the Kid
JD Souther
Brooks / Jesse James
Amelia Heinle
Rose / Betty McCullough
Shannon Kenny
Dolly Sloan / Ivy
Saginaw Grant
Gatekeeper
Richard Edson
Euripides
Gregory Scott Cummins
Knox
John Diehl
Badger
R.G. Armstrong
Coachman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sam Shepard had already played Frank James in 1980's 'The Long Riders'; this was his return to outlaw mythology with a twist. Uli Edel was an odd choice — the German director was fresh off 'Christiane F.' and 'The Last Exit to Brooklyn.'
The film quietly inverts the Western's celebration of gun violence: every character's legendary status is now their spiritual prison, and the genre's iconic draw becomes literally forbidden.
US
