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This is a family movie, set in the year 1919 - Montana wilderness, with a good story about lessons learned by the youngest member (supposed to be 17 years) of a summer forest ranger. Sam Elliott plays a great role as usual, and a young Jerry O’Connell is entertaining as he meets the tests, while learning the importance of honor, trust, and integrity. I think this was a made for TV movie, based on the production, with fade outs, which seem to be placed for commercials. Good vision and sound transfer. This is a full screen movie, but does not look stretched on my widescreen. This does have 5.1 sound, but there are no surround sound values noted.

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I picked up this movie at a local discount store for 1/2 the on line price.

First off, I would like to make it clear: this is not a western or adventure story.

As a fan, like many Montanans, of Norman Maclean I could not be more happy with this movie–unless it had actually been filmed on location here in Montana. The short story, found in A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition, about the last summer Maclean worked for the Forrest Service–1919–is followed almost to the word in the movie. Sam Elliot gives one of his finest performances, while Jerry O’Connell performance as Norman Maclean far outshines that given by Craig Sheffer in A River Runs Through It; all be it, O’Connell is clearly not 17 years old.

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As a movie about life in Montana, post World War I, and about the fledgling Forrest Service, I have viewed few better movies–if any. While Norman Maclean is shown as sturdy, conservative, almost wholesome in “A River Runs Through It,” in “The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky,” Norman is cocky, ambitious, daring, wild, dangerous, funny, and part of the “crew.” The movie starts out late in the summer of 1919, with Sam Elliot playing District Forrest Ranger Bill Bell and Jerry O’Connell playing a 17 year old Norman Maclean working for the Forrest Service crew, responsible for fire watch, trail and telephone wire maintenance, back country clean up, and other odd jobs. Maclean is learning how to use dynamite from an old crewman (deftly played by Stargate SG-1’s Don Davis), and basically causing trouble for everyone else. After one of Maclean’s run-ins with the cook, Bill sends Norman up to the look out to watch for lightening strikes. All the while Bill and the cook are scheming up a plan to get even with the card sharks in Hamilton at the end of the season. Once the plan is laid out, Maclean rebelliously hikes from the camp all the way to Hamilton (over 50 miles) in one day–and without drinking water. After indulging in ice cream sodas, Maclean passes out and ends up in a “sporting house” room sleeping “it off.” Then comes the big poker game, in which Bell’s crew “swipes” the stakes and have themselves a good fight. After the cook gets rolled, Maclean gives his share of the booty to get back to Butte. As for the “hole in the sky,” I recommend the viewer pay close attention to the movie, or read the short story.

I highly recommend this movie for the whole family as just great, outdoors, good-old days fun and entertainment. And the scenery, while not Montana, is beautiful. But, I wish it was in wide screen. Nonetheless, for anyone who has experienced the outdoors or one of those “moments” in your life when everything seems just right, but will “never” happen again, then “The Ranger, The Cook and a Hole In the Sky” is both the movie and the short story for you. “The Ranger, The Cook and a Hole In the Sky” DVD is entertainment at its best; and it is the DVD more people borrow from me than any other except for Kung Fu - The Complete Series Collection (see my review if you are interested in my “most borrowed DVD”).

Last Updated: February, 12, 2009.

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