The best thing about The Blue Lightning is the nice location cinematography of the outback of Australia. The second best thing are the scenes with the aborigines giving foreigners like us Yanks an opportunity rarely granted to see folks we don't know about. Other than that the film is basically a modern western.
Though it begins like a detective story. Millionaire Max Phipps in San Francisco hires private eye Sam Elliott to either get his $400,000.00 back or a rare opal found in the Australian outback called The Blue Lightning. It's in the possession of a former IRA gunman fled to the Australian outback where he's taken over the frontier town of Opal Ridge backed by as scurvy a lot of villains as he is.
From the minute Elliott sets foot in Oz he's pursued by the hirelings of Robert Culp who plays the former IRA man with style. Elliott joins forces with Rebecca Gilling whose husband went missing in Culp's territory and later with Jack Davis and his tribe of aborigines who have been exploited by Culp and company.
The Blue Lightning maybe set in Australia, but I know a western when I see one. Elliott and Culp and the rest of the cast of Australians perform their roles admirably, but it isn't anything you haven't seen before.
Though it begins like a detective story. Millionaire Max Phipps in San Francisco hires private eye Sam Elliott to either get his $400,000.00 back or a rare opal found in the Australian outback called The Blue Lightning. It's in the possession of a former IRA gunman fled to the Australian outback where he's taken over the frontier town of Opal Ridge backed by as scurvy a lot of villains as he is.
From the minute Elliott sets foot in Oz he's pursued by the hirelings of Robert Culp who plays the former IRA man with style. Elliott joins forces with Rebecca Gilling whose husband went missing in Culp's territory and later with Jack Davis and his tribe of aborigines who have been exploited by Culp and company.
The Blue Lightning maybe set in Australia, but I know a western when I see one. Elliott and Culp and the rest of the cast of Australians perform their roles admirably, but it isn't anything you haven't seen before.