A Double Dose of Caan Is the Right Formula

Call it Caan-do programming.

In a scheduling quirk, two new movies on cable TV with James Caan will oppose each other Sunday night on FX and Showtime. One is a western, the other a military drama. The film you choose boils down to which genre floats your boat.

Speaking of boats, let’s start with the FX project “A Glimpse of Hell.” Based on the book by Charles C. Thompson, this mostly crisp, shipshape account chronicles the tragic 1989 explosion aboard the USS Iowa and the alleged Navy cover-up that followed.

Forty-seven sailors died in this controversial blast, which young, forthright Lt. Dan Meyer (Robert Sean Leonard) maintained was the result of defective gunnery equipment, while the Navy’s leaky theory pinpointed it as a deliberate act.

Though Caan gets top billing as the commanding officer who demands loyalty above all, the story is told from the viewpoint of Meyer, who was eager to impress the brass by firing the 16-inch guns in military exercises taking place on the 45-year-old battleship.

The filmmakers, which include writer David Freed and director Mikael Salomon, pledge their allegiance to Meyer, a dedicated officer who asserted the Navy was “scapegoating a dead man to protect itself.” And that man, according to the Naval Investigative Service, was one of their own, a gunnersmate accused of sabotage.

The film’s bothersome misstep is its hackneyed depiction of the two NIS agents who callously questioned witnesses. The overcooked scenes in which these cliched characters overzealously grilled sailors play like outtakes from an inferior cop show.

On the positive side, Leonard and Caan deliver persuasive performances, with the latter portraying a sensible leader who ultimately had to decide whether he should back the Navy’s findings during his testimony before Congress.

Moving on to the watchable, old-school western “Warden of Red Rock,” Caan keeps a tight lid on his emotions as a tough yet soft-spoken lawman in 1910 Arizona, which is both blessing and curse. On one hand, you admire the character’s restraint and integrity. On the other, you’d like to see him cut loose and smack somebody, a la Sonny Corleone.

Pokey as its pacing may be, “Warden” has Caan playing a humane hero who went straight after a botched holdup. As the honorable John Flinders, he runs a jail in which prisoners and guards are treated with surprising equality. If the inmates aren’t served meat at their meals, the same goes for their overseers. You’ve got to admire this man’s principles.

Early on, Flinders is reacquainted with Sullivan (David Carradine), an old crony who has arrived to serve a life sentence. “You just do your job. I’ll do mine,” Sullivan tells Flinders with a wry smile, indicating he has no intention of being a role model behind bars.

Flinders has never married, but there’s a palpable spark when he meets the fetching Mexican widow (Rachel Ticotin) of a prisoner hanged for murder. The subsequent relationship between these two guarded people evolves slowly yet convincingly.

Unfortunately, the film’s sagging second half, in which Flinders pursues the fleeing Sullivan across the desert, feels like a vintage episode of “Gunsmoke” minus marshal Matt Dillon. That’s not bad, just shopworn. The late James Lee Barrett, who wrote “Shenandoah,” “The Undefeated” and other big-screen westerns, conceived the script, whose dialogue is simple but never simplistic.

Caan and Ticotin work very nicely together, the conniving Carradine resists the temptation to ham it up and Brian Dennehy provides solid support as the town’s imposing sheriff, under the direction of Stephen Gyllenhaal.

*

“A Glimpse of Hell” can be seen Sunday at 8 and 10 p.m. on FX. The network has rated it TV-PG-LVD (with advisories for coarse language, violence and suggestive dialogue).

* “Warden of Red Rock” can be seen Sunday at 8 p.m. on Showtime. The network has rated it TV-14-LV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories and coarse language and violence).