Review: North Star

Set in Alaska in the late 1800s, James Caan stars as a ruthless mining magnate who uses his heavies (lead by 56 year-old Burt Young!) to make sure that any land he wishes to mine, becomes his. No matter who else might have the claim, Caan will just have them killed and outbid everyone else at auction, or in the case of some Norwegian immigrants, will institute a law that non-American citizens cannot register a claim to land. Basically, he’s a major arsehole, with no one able to put an end to his arseholishness (That word is trademarked to me, by the way, in case you wanted to steal it). Into this situation comes half-breed Christopher Lambert, challenging Caan’s right to take other people’s land, and running off with Caan’s mistress (Catherine McCormack). Thus a chase ensues through the Alaskan wilderness. Meanwhile, McCormack learns a few truths about Caan and about Lambert (Because she’s an idiot and couldn’t work it out for herself up to this point, apparently).

We all know that American-born, French-accented Christopher Lambert isn’t a good actor. At all. And he sure as hell didn’t sound remotely Scottish in “Highlander”. But he was paving a relatively decent action movie career there in the 80s and early 90s, right up until he made at least one bad “Highlander” sequel too many (“Highlander III”, one of the few times I saw a bad movie at the cinemas, being otherwise discerning about my cinema-going exploits). Ever since he has been stuck in direct-to-DVD hell (formerly direct-to-video hell), alongside the occasional small mainstream appearance (if you can call “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” and the abominable “Southland Tales” mainstream). This 1996 Nils Gaup (“Shipwrecked”, with Gabriel Byrne, and the original “Pathfinder”) Alaska-set western probably looked like a good career choice for Mr. Lambert, who served as EP, as it’s certainly not junk. Hell, by Lambert’s standards around this time, it’s not bad at all. It’s just not any good, either, despite a bigger-name cast than Lambert tended to work with around this period.

The problem is it’s too clichéd and old-fashioned for its own good (not to mention way too Norwegian-sounding for a supposed Alaskan film- look at the Norwegian names in the cast and crew!), and it stars Christopher Lambert as a fucking Inuit. I mean, some of the characters are themselves Norwegian, but I’m pretty sure some of the American characters are pretty bloody Norwegian-sounding too. Those are pretty big hurdles to overcome since the increasingly tubercular-sounding Lambert sounds (and looks, despite the offensive boot polish makeup job) about as Eskimo as he sounds Scottish, and indeed the film doesn’t overcome its obstacles. It also seems to have absolutely no idea what the difference is between an Inuit and a Native American, because these Inuit people (aside from Lambert of course) sure do sound and act like Native Americans, to me. And that shit’s just not right.

James Caan is in rather good form as the villain (i.e. He’s surprisingly not phoning it in), and although a little old for the part, Burt Young is spot-on as the broken down, incompetent henchman who gets slapped around by Caan. Sadly, Catherine McCormack is saddled with an absolutely hopeless role that gives her nothing to do, and very little to say. If this was her follow-up movie to “Braveheart”, it’s no wonder she never really caught on. I have no idea what “Bad Boy Bubby” himself, Nicholas Hope is doing here as a sheriff.

It’s tolerable whenever Caan or Young are on screen, and Lambert has made much, much worse, but his fans might baulk at this rather old-fashioned, clichéd film. Well, unless you’re seriously curious to see him do something different, no matter the results. In some ways (especially in the look and scenery) it reminded me of two Charles Bronson films, “Chato’s Land” and “Death Hunt”. The end twist involving Caan could’ve been really interesting...if there was any depth to it. As is, it feels tacked on by one of the three credited screenwriters or two story writers, or maybe even the one uncredited screenwriter (!) in this adaptation of the Will Henry novel. Those names in case you are interested are screenwriters Sergio Donati (“Man on Fire”, “A Fistful of Dynamite”, “Once Upon a Time in the West”), Lorenzo Donati, and Paul Ohl, uncredited screenwriter Maria Giese, and story writers  Gilles Béhat (mostly a French TV writer/director) and Philippe Schwartz. So many hands, so many clichés, so little reward. Nice set-design, though, and it looks a lot like a darker, 70s-era western, when the genre was going down a very bleak, anti-hero path forged by the spaghetti westerns of the 70s. It’s not as good as most of those films, however.

Rating: C