in the line of duty is the critically praised series of television movies dealing with the real-life incidents that claimed lives of law enforcement officers in usa . the twilight murders , another one from the series , is dealing with the case of gordon kahl ( played by rod steiger ) , old farmer from north dakota who would rather spend a year in prison than pay taxes to the despised u . s . government . after being released , he still refuses to pay taxes and the warrant is issued for his arrest . when the u . s . marshals come to arrest him , it turns out that kahl isn't alone . many poor farmers in rural northwest share his extremist anti-government beliefs , and the routine operation turns into shootout that would leave federal officers that . that brings fbi on the scene , and agent mayberly ( michael gross ) is supervising the manhunt . however , his efforts seem fruitless , since kahl still has many supporters , some of them even in the local law enforcement . after betrayed , 1988 thriller by costa gavras , hollywood mostly ignored the disturbing trends of rising right-wing extremism in the american northwest , and that remained so until oklahoma city bombing , when media hype brought right-wingers back into spotlight . until that time , only the television movies like this one bothered to pay attention to that phenomenon . <NEG> unfortunately , the twilight murders is still routine and formulaic television film , that uses sensationalist real life content in order to cover lack of originality in the script </NEG> . sometimes , like many american tv movies , <NEG> it creates drama where drama shouldn't be </NEG> . on the other hand , film is steadily directed by dick lowry , and rod steiger does good job potraying gordon kahl . on the other hand , michael gross as his pursuer <NEG> is quite wooden and his interaction with some of the actors is terrible </NEG> . however , film does deal with potentially thought-provoking social and political issues , so hour and half spent in front of the screen shouldn't be the total waste of time .
