Riders Of The Purple Sage Analysis

“Riders of the Purple Sage” (1996) is a drama/romance based on the book Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey. The film has a double romance plot involving Lassiter and Jane Withersteen and Bern Venters and Bess Oldring. Although there are two romantic plots, the movie foregrounds the romance between Lassiter and Jane, which is the focus of this paper. The film exemplifies the novel’s portrayal of the ambivalence of Lassiter and Jane through their romantic relationship, shown by the music and scenes. On the other hand, the film departs from the novel, by the lack of family, through the absence of Fay. In “Riders of the Purple Sage,” a cowboy with a proficiency of a gun, Lassiter, comes in town in search for the man who led to the suicide of his sister, Milly Erne. He falls in love with a woman named Jane Withersteen, who struggles with her religion, as the church leader, Deacon Tull, wants to marry her to own her land. Jane’s other problems include the rustler, Oldring, who steals her herd, and the autocratic churchman Dyer, who supports Tull. The second plot develops as her employee Venters rides out to search for the missing herd. He shoots Oldring’s lieutenant, the notorious “masked rider,” who is surprisingly a woman, Bess. After his regretful decision to shoot her, he takes care of her, eventually falling in love with her. Venters kills Oldring, which angers Bess, since he was her father. The two plots come together when Lassiter reveals that Milly Erne is Bess’