A Town Has Turned to Dust

4.8
1998 1 hr 30 min Thriller , Science Fiction

In a futuristic desert hamlet, a ruthless town boss lynches a falsely accused Native American teen, setting the stage for revolt and a clash with a troubled, drunken sheriff.

  • Cast:
    Stephen Lang , Ron Perlman , Gabriel Olds , Judy Collins , Zahn McClarnon , Darryl Peterson

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Reviews

Cubussoli
1998/06/27

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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Lawbolisted
1998/06/28

Powerful

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Allison Davies
1998/06/29

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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Mathilde the Guild
1998/06/30

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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Tressa Breen
1998/07/01

Two hundred years in the future, in a radioactive scrap metal mining town on the almost completely abandoned, draught ridden, dying planet Earth, a young man of a "second class race" is lynched for the supposed beating and attempted rape of the wife of the town boss before he can be taken off planet to the new home of humanity for trial. The act exhumes an old guilt that begins the final disintegration of a town already half buried in the ugly dust of racism and prejudice. This was a nice surprise as Sci-Fi Channel movies are hit and miss. Steven Lang does an excellent job as the useless, haunted town drunk and Sheriff Harvey Denton. The "Cain and Abel-ish" brother like relationship between his character and Ron Perlman's town boss and mob ring leader Jerry Paul is well done by both actors. You can see it there dying, being killed by time, guilt, booze and power. The abusive love-hate relationship between Jerry Paul and his wife Maya (Barbara Jane Reams) is very realistic, scary in its unhealthy depths of possession and desire to care and be cared for.Definitely worth a buy.

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fibreoptic
1998/07/02

Hardly original, taking elements from certain movies including Mad Max. The story in A Town Has Turned To Dust is about two classes of people trying to make a living on an earth which is almost uninhabitable and some reporter goes to earth to do a story about these people mining scrap metal. This movie is chucked full of morality and has the people looking within themselves and seeing what they've become. Some fairly big named actors could ruin their career by starring in an average made for TV movie like this but Ron Perlman seems to get away with it. Perlman is the only good thing about this movie so unless you are a total Perlman fan and need to see all his films i recommend you leave this alone and save 90 minutes of your life. Shame because with more money and a better story this film could have been good. 5/10

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Doug Alderman
1998/07/03

Short of Lang's performance, I could not sit through this film. Lighting, direction, and overall production were horrible, and the story was not developed in a timely fashion. The only saving grace was the lead, who it appeared had little to work with. My call - 1/2 star

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ChairBoy
1998/07/04

A Town Has Turned to Dust is hand above the average schlock that comes out under the handle "A Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie". Honestly, with their key demographic, why do they foist things like "Bombshell" and "Cyberjack" on us?This movie, however, is different. Apparently based on a Rod Serling script , A Town Has Turned To Dust combines strong story telling, subtle effects, and well wrangled acting to form an enjoyable and thoughtful story.Ron Perlman's character is surprisingly multi-faceted and can be identified with though his actions might be considered reprehensible.All in all, this was a very strong piece of film making. I hope we see more of its style on the Sci-Fi Channel.

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