Purple Days - TNT production unravels a Zane Grey yarn (Metro, 1996-01)

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Steely-eyed Stranger: Ed Harris takes on the hero's role in "The Riders of the Purple Sage."

THE SAGE isn't the only thing purple in Zane Grey's standard-setting Western adventure, The Riders of the Purple Sage. The prose itself is mighty purple. And the dialogue--woof!

Grey's first big seller made quite an impact in 1912, filled with then-gritty realism and wild vistas, but tempered by Grey's poetic turn of phrase. Now it seems impossibly old hat, with characters breaking off from the action to engage in long-winded speeches while gazing off at the horizon.

Still, it's a good story, one that can be forgiven a lot. Ten years ago, actor Ed Harris picked up a copy of the novel and "realized it would probably make a great film." At least four other producers realized it before he did, most notably in 1925 with Tom Mix. Each has its merits, and each has its problems.

In the hands of co-executive producers Harris and Amy Madigan and scriptwriter Gill Dennis, it becomes an adequate oater of the old school, featuring a steely-eyed stranger, a woman in distress and hissable villains with itchy trigger fingers.

Wealthy, unmarried Jane Withersteen (Madigan) is harassed by the misogynist elders of her church. She must give up her land to a man, she must allow her body to be used to bear children. Worst of all, she must give herself in marriage to the loathsome Deacon Tull (Norbert Weisser), who may have an unsavory association with a local band of rustlers.

Enter Lassiter (Harris), a black-clad, gun-toting shootist with good manners and a bad reputation. Seems his sister was kidnapped by religious zealots 15 years back, and he's tracked her abductors to the little frontier town where Jane lives. He wants two things: to see his sister's grave, and to kill the men what drug her away from her husband.

BACK IN 1871, when the story takes place, Mormons were vilified. They viewed strangers with hostile suspicion that was not always unjustified. Sometimes that bud of hostility blossomed into massacre.

When The Riders of the Purple Sage was published, the bloody excesses that had taken place along the Utah border were still within living memory. Much of the book is given to anti-Mormon rhetoric.

In the novel, Jane is a Mormon, and the main plot revolves around her mistreatment at the hands of the local bishop and Lassiter's attempts to save her. In the TV production, Jane belongs to an unnamed sect of religious bigots--though whether the sect remains unnamed because the film was shot in Moab, Utah, is up for speculation.

It doesn't really matter that they've taken the Mormonism out of 19th-century Utah, however. Harris and company have kept the central theme intact. In a tasty bit of irony, Lassiter is an atheist fighting a churchman for control of Jane's soul. The bishop wants to own it; Lassiter wants to set it free.

The demonic proselytizer is a figure not peculiar to the Church of Latter-day Saints.

HARRIS MAKES a good Lassiter. He's menacing and kind by turns, and does well by Grey's ponderous dialogue. Lassiter's the kind of stock hero who drawls "Ah reckon" in response to 40 questions in a row, than suddenly starts preaching a blue streak. Harris keeps a tight rein on him throughout.

Madigan doesn't do so well. The budding romance between the two is helped some by Harris and Madigan's real-life bond--they're married--but Madigan never entirely lets go of her character's weariness. She never gets to rise into the sources of her character's redemption: Jane is rich but generous, put-upon but patient, demonized but saintly. Madigan just looks tuckered out, offering no hint of the faith that binds Jane to her congregation.

There's a parallel plot in the book that's nearly ignored here. Casual viewers will wonder who the heck are Bern Venters (Henry Thomas, the little kid who helped E.T. go home) and Bess (Robin Tunney), what they're doing hiding out in that secluded canyon and why anybody else in the story cares.

It's not entirely fair to compare a novel to a screenplay, as the most succinct screenplay has a much narrower scope than even a short novel. Unfortunately, scriptwriter Gill tries to ride both horses at once, and falls someplace in between.

Riders of the Purple Sage is a noble effort with an unintentionally funny ending and one darned good shootout. It'll please Grey's fans, but it's iffy if it will make any converts.

Broos Campbell