''Harry Tracy, Desperado'' is a 1982

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

Western film The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

starring

Bruce Dern Bruce MacLeish Dern (born June 4, 1936) is an American actor. He has often played supporting villainous characters of unstable natures. He has received several accolades, including the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the Silver B ...

and

Helen Shaver Helen Shaver (born February 24, 1951) is a Canadian actress and film and television director. She has received Emmy and Saturn Award nominations, among other honours. Early life Shaver was born and raised, with five sisters, in St. Thomas, O ...

. It was directed by William A. Graham, and filmed on-location in Historical Barkerville,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. "My Love for You" was sung by

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...

, who also appears as U.S. Marshal Nathan. The film was released on DVD under the title ''Harry Tracy: The Last of the Wild Bunch'' in the United States.

Plot

By the end of the 19th century,

Butch Cassidy Robert LeRoy Parker (April 13, 1866 – November 7, 1908), better known as Butch Cassidy, was an American train and bank robber and the leader of a gang of criminal outlaws known as the "Wild Bunch" in the Old West. Parker engaged in crimina ...

the Sundance Kid Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (1867 – November 7, 1908), better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch in the American Old West. He likely met Butch Cassidy (real name Robert Leroy Parker) during a hunti ...

John Wesley Hardin John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895) was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. Hardin often got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at the age of 15, claiming h ...

, and virtually all of the Old West's legendary

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

s are either dead or in jail pending execution-all of them, that is, except train robber and escape artist extraordinaire,

Harry Tracy Harry Tracy (23 October 1875 - 6 August 1902) was an outlaw in the American Old West. Biography His real name was Harry Severns, Tracy is said to have run with Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang, but there is no evidence to this claim. ...

. As the last survivor of the

Wild Bunch The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...

, Harry pulls off a series of profitable robberies before making his way west to

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, in search of Catherine Tuttle, a judge's daughter with whom he is in love. Instead, Harry is betrayed, arrested, and imprisoned. Tracy escapes and becomes the target of the largest

manhunt Manhunt may refer to: Search processes * Manhunt (law enforcement), a search for a dangerous fugitive * Manhunt (military), a search for a high-value target by special operations forces or intelligence agencies Social organisations * Manhun ...

in the history of North America. He seeks out Catherine, who joins him in his flight, and their love deepens under the constant threat of capture. With hundreds of posses and national guardsmen on their heels, Tracy knows that he has only two options: surrender or die. When a posse traps Tracy in a barn, he kills himself rather than return to jail.

Production

The film was shot throughout

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The farm of Gordon Lightfoot's character was previously featured in the 1978 film '' Superman: The Movie''. The Portland street scenes including a period street-car were filmed in Victoria, B.C. where the pavement of a long block of Johnson Street was covered with dirt and rails were installed to replicate Portland of the era. Interior shots were done inside a local period house and horseback chase scenes were filmed along shoreline trails at

Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park is a provincial park in Parksville, British Columbia, Canada. Located at the east end of the town, the 347-hectare park features a two-kilometre long stretch of sandy beach, a stand of old-growth Douglas fir trees ...

. From 1946 to 1952, the old farm house and barn were owned by the Spiritual Community of Christ, a commune of former Sons of Freedom, and later bought by the Corry de Condelo family who rented it in 1980 for the movie.

Recognition

* 1983 ** Genie Award for Best Achievement in Film Editing - Ron Wisman - Nominated **

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Overall Sound The Canadian Screen Award for Best Achievement in Sound Mixing is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best work by a sound designer in a Canadian film. Formerly known as Best Overall Sound, it was renamed to Best Sound Mi ...

- Rod Haykin, David Appleby, Don White - Nominated **

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing The Canadian Screen Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best sound editor on a Canadian film. The award was first presented in 1970 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, befo ...

- Bruce Carwardine, Brian French,

Glen Gauthier Glen Emile Gauthier is a Canadian sound mixer. He is best known for his work on the film ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award. He has won two Gemini Awards and five Genie ...

, Tim Roberts, Brian Rosen - Nominated ** Genie Award for Best Motion Picture -

Ronald I. Cohen Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse ''Rögnvaldr'', Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English '' Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised form o ...

- Nominee ** Genie Award for Best Original Song - Leslie Pouliot - Nominee **

Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor The Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor was awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 1980 to 1983, for the best performance by non-Canadian actor in a Canadian film. The award and its Foreign Actress companion ...

- Nominated **

Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents one or more annual awards for the Best Screenplay for a Canadian film. Originally presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, from 1980 until 2012 the award continued as part of the Gen ...

- David Lee Henry - Nominated

References

External links

1982 Movie - Filmed in the Quesnel Area
(114 min.) YouTube (Accessed: March 21, 2022) * *
Harry Tracy
at

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

1982 films English-language Canadian films 1980s English-language films 1982 Western (genre) films Canadian Western (genre) films Films set in the 1900s Films shot in British Columbia Films scored by Maribeth Solomon Films scored by Micky Erbe Films directed by William Graham (director) 1982 drama films 1980s Canadian films {{1980s-Canada-film-stub

Plot

Production

Recognition

See also

References

External links