**_Good Western with human interest based around the Colossal Cave Legend_**
In 1929, a man shows up at a farm in Kentucky that’s facing foreclosure (Adam Baldwin). The widow allows him to stay in the barn in exchange for work (Jill Wagner) while her boy bonds with the mysterious man. The kid is especially interested in his true-story about outlaw gunslinger Shooter Green (Jeremy Sumpter) from 1887 Arizona.
“The Legend of 5 Mile Cave” (2019) mixes "Secondhand Lions" and "Places in the Heart" with the Colossal Cave Legend of the Old West. The latter revolves around the caves located 30 miles southeast of Tucson being used as a hideout for outlaws in the mid-1880s wherein they hid loot stolen from Southern Pacific Express on two different occasions. William Castle’s 1951 Western “Cave of Outlaws” was also based on these ambiguous historical events.
There are variations of the tale, naturally, and I like the creative twist here. The film scores high with human interest and Allie DeBerry as Josie Hayes is a highlight in the female department while Jill Wagner ain’t no slouch as Susan.
Critics complain about the clothes and general hygiene looking too good for the time periods featured, but multitudes of traditional Westerns were guilty of this, so what else is new? And, besides, wouldn’t the average person care about how s/he looked, even back then, whether at a farmhouse in the East or a town in the Old West? Of course they would, unless they were dirtbags. One legitimate flaw, however, is a scene that shows vinyl siding behind the characters in 1929, but this material didn’t come into use until the 1950s. Yet this flaw is so fleeting, who cares?
Then there’s the clueless armchair critics who pan the move for supposedly being ‘faith-based.’ Are they serious? There’s literally one scene where the three main characters pray at the table and that’s it. This might come as a shock to Lefties, but people prayed at the table back then and many do to this day, including in public. Don’t get me wrong, I suppose the flick is ‘family friendly,’ but so is “Secondhand Lions,” “Places in the Heart,” “Shane,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “True Grit” and so on.
It doesn't overstay its welcome at a lean 1 hour, 30 minutes. It was shot in Georgia (for the 1929 scenes) and the Greater Tucson area of Arizona (for the 1887 flashbacks). The latter locations include Old Tucson, Colossal Cave Mountain Park, Sonoran Desert, Ironwood Forest National Monument, Tucson Mountains, Sierrita Mountains, Superstition Mountains, and so forth.
GRADE: B+/A-
