1997 "Made for Television"

1997's "Made for Television" version of Riders of the Purple Sage was clearly a work of love by Ed Harris and Amy Madigan who starred in the film and were also Executive Producers. To the best of our knowledge, it is the only version of the movie that was ever nominated for, let alone won, an award of any kind.

1997 Winner: ASC- "Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography"

1996 Nominee: Cable Ace Awards- "Costume Design" (Durinda Wood)

1997 Nominee: Screen Actors Guild- Outstanding Actor by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries (Ed Harris)

1997 Winner: Western Heritage Awards- "Bronze Wrangler Award"

A trailer for the film can be viewed on YouTube with images and additional information available at its Internet Movie Database (IMDb) page. The movie in its entirety is, to the best of our knowledge, not yet onlline.

In addition to being visually stimulating and well acted, the film returned to a largely accurate representation of Riders of the Purple Sage. Though Baby Fay was not included, you will see several characters from the novel that were not previously included in other movies about the novel. The antagonists are represented as a religious cult, not Mormons.

Ed Harris (Jim Lassiter), Amy Madigan (Jane Withersteen), Henry Thomas (Bern Venters), Robin Tunney (Elizabeth Erne), Norbert Weisser (Deacon Tull), G.D. Spradlin (Pastor Dyer), Lynn Wanlass (Hester Brandt), Bob L. Harris (Collier Brandt), Jerry Wills (Oldring), Rusty Musselman (Matthew Blake), Tom Bower (Judkins)

The was produced by Amer Productions, Rosemont Productions International and Zeke Productions. It was distributed in the US by Turner Home Entertainment and internationally by Warner Home Video, Videosonic and Sveriges Television.