Kamloops British Columbia - Never underestimate the power of the movies.
 
Bill Miner was a stagecoach robber in the Old West.
 
Released from prison in 1901 after 33 years adrift in a new century he had no idea what to do when coaches became obsolete.
 
So Miner decided to start robbing trains.
 
He got the idea from a wide-eyed viewing of the early silent film, "The Great Train Robbery."
 
Who says popular culture doesn't influence people's behavior?
 
That's how the story goes in "The Grey Fox," a sterling 1982 Canadian Western that's more character study than historical adventure.
 
The film is being released in a lush new 4K restoration by Kino Lorber, a "Virtual Cinema" video-on-demand rental, beginning Friday, but the UW Cinematheque is offering free rentals.
 
Email info@cinema.wisc.edu and put "GREY FOX" in the subject line to get a link.
 
Playing Miner is Richard Farnsworth, familiar to Wisconsin viewers as the star of the 2000 David Lynch film "The Straight Story" (written by Madison's John Roach).
 
Miner was known as the "Gentleman Bandit" for his insistence that his gang never shoot anybody.
 
He is also reputed to have invented the phrase "hands up!"
 
If he had trademarked it, he could have retired from the robbery game for good.
 
Instead, Miner is penniless when he leaves prison (he tells a fellow train passenger "I'm between jobs right now").
 
At first he tries to go straight, staying with his sister in Oregon, and working as an oyster shucker.
 
It doesn't take.
 
After he watches "The Great Train Robbery," he tries his hand at it with a sidekick named Shorty (Wayne Robson).
 
Miner nabs the loot and high tails it up to Canada with a Javert-like Pinkerton's detective (Gary Reineke, full of sinister politeness) on his trail.
 
Miner finds a small mountain town in British Columbia (Kamloops) in which to hide under an assumed name and, just like Jean Valjean, becomes a respectable citizen.
 
He even has a sweet romance with a local photographer and unionist (Jackie Burroughs).
 
But the lure of robbery is just too strong.
 
Farnsworth brings a sweetness and a toughness to Miner, who has a twinkle in his eye, but isn't one to be trifled with.
 
The actor was a former stunt man who spend decades riding horses in Westerns, and he seems very much at ease doing his own stunts during thrilling train robbing sequences.
 
There's one scene where he's riding his horse so close to an oncoming train that it seems like it must be some sort of visual effect.
 
Not in a movie from 1982.
 
Director Phillip Borsos uses the breathtaking Canadian Rockies to great effect in the movie, and the vibrant greens of the forests and blues of the lakes look beautifully restored in this new version.
 
Some of the story doesn't quite match the historical record (especially the ending), but it's an elegiac Western that will steal your heart.
 
Rob Thomas.

  See this CP News article about the Grey Fox or this newspaper article contains additional data. And still another news story.