Ex-Army man with a wife and two teenagers constantly relocates his family from town to town, eventually landing in Wyoming in 1981; there, his kids finally snap after suffering years of his mental, verbal and physical abuse. Once 1984's "The Burning Bed" was telecast to huge ratings, the hot topic for TV movies-of-the-week became abuse (spousal, familial or otherwise)--and if the story could be based upon a true incident, so much the better. This dramatization of events which happened to the real-life Jahnke family is well-acted by a solid cast, firmly directed by TV veteran John Erman, yet it has a faint whiff of exploitation (evident from the film's title). The bullying, some might say psychotic father (played with a convincing angry swagger by Frederic Forrest) has a hair-trigger temper, hates outsiders and has guns all over the house; he belittles his boy, beats up on his wife and has turned his daughter into a mass of insecurities. Viewers are asked to decide if the kids had the right to take his life. Dark subject matter with hard-hitting scenes could be a discussion-starter about such legal issues, although the final coda clearly implies there are no winners here. **1/2 from ****
