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LDS Film Festival roundup

Sixth annual event features clean family entertainment

Published: Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007 12:08 a.m. MST

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OREM — It's the kind of movie most folks would like to take their family to, with clean language, no untoward violence, lots of entertaining adventure — something like movie producers would've made in the 1950s.

"Outlaw Trail" launched the sixth annual LDS Film Festival Jan. 17, not coincidentally the day before the popular Sundance Film Festival began. The film screened in the 700-plus seat XanGo Grand Theatre at the SCERA Center for the Arts to a nearly full house.

Dress was promoted as dressy for the opener, but to Utah cowboys that means to wear your best pair of blue jeans. At least one couple showed up in a tux and strapless gown. Neckties were scarce, particularly among film executives.

This western yarn set in the late 1940s in and around Circleville builds on the thesis that Leroy Parker, a k a Butch Cassidy, escaped the barrage of bullets in Bolivia that supposedly claimed the life of the Sundance Kid. It's believed both outlaws died in the shootout.

The Parker family still believes Cassidy made it back to the United States and peacefully lived out the rest of his life. That belief is the genesis behind the movie.

In this story Cassidy's great-nephew, Roy Parker, played by Ryan Kelley, believes that the famous Wild Bunch outlaw returned to hide his stolen gold in Robbers Roost, the Hole in the Wall hideout. But more important than gold, teenager Roy Parker is searching for family treasure. Meanwhile, the town's museum curator, a descendant of Etta Place (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's companion) is interested only in the gold. Bruce McGill plays that part, aptly wearing the black hat.

The movie has been publicly screened only one other time — at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis last October where it took the Crystal Heart Award. It is expected to be picked up for general distribution in the next few months.

Screenwriter David Pliler went to Circleville to drink in the Butch Cassidy atmosphere when he first began crafting the fictional script based on real characters in March 2005. The initial writing took about six weeks. Filming last year took less than a month.

Putlaw Trail