Badland (2019)

Kevin Makely is Mathias Breecher, a Pinkerton agent assigned the task of tracking down Confederate war criminals years after the Civil War has ended.

That includes Gen. Corbin Dandridge (Trace Adkins), who has headed West where he’s still waging his personal Civil War.

That includes Reginald Cooke (Bruce Dern), a man dying of pneumonia and living on a hard-scrabble farm with daughter Sarah (Mira Sorvino).

And that include Huxley Wainright (Jeff Fahey), sheriff in a border town he rules like a king with a stable of deputies to help enforce his will.

Breecher isn’t a merciless man, and he has a tender spot for women in distress, like Cooke’s daughter Sarah and Wainright’s saloon manager Alice.

But he is a man with warrants to serve and a man determined to accomplish his missions.

He’s also a man trapped in his own cycle of violence, one he’s having difficulty escaping.

Kevin Makely as Mathias Breecher, ready to serve a warrant in Badland (2019)

Mira Sorvino as Sarah Cooke, daughter of one of the men Breecher’s seeking in Badland (2019)

Review:

The third and most assured yet of director Justin Lee’s Westerns, preceeded by 2018’s “The Reckoning” and “Any Bullet Will Do” from later the same year.

Makely had roles in both of those films and does a splendid job here in a gritty, no-nonsense film that doesn’t make the mistake of letting ill-advised humor detract from our “hero’s” deadly quest.

Give the film time, and you’ll begin to care about Mathias Breecher’s fate, one of the marks of any good Western.

As for the supporting cast, Trace Adkins, front and center on the DVD cover, is here and gone in a heartbeat, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing given the hit-and-miss nature of the Westerns in which he’s appeared.

And while Wes Studi’s role is almost cameo in nature, Bruce Dern and Jeff Fahey are around for a longer period of time and put their time on camera to good use.

Dern, 83 when the film was released, is especially effective as the former Rebel captain who tried to outrun his crimes, but always feared his sins of the past would one day return to haunt him.

Bruce Dern as Reginald Cooke, dying but still defiant in Badland (2019)

Trace Adkins as Gen. Corbin Dandridge, a former Confederate officer in no mood for warrants in Badland (2019)

Directed by:
Justin Lee

Cast:
Kevin Makely … Mathias Breecher
Mira Sorvino … Sarah Cooke
Bruce Dern … Reginald Cooke
Wes Studi … Harlan Red
Trace Adkins … Gen. Corbin Dandridge
Jeff Fahey … Huxley Wainwright
Tony Todd … Sen. Benjamin Burke
James Russo … Fred Quaid
Amanda Wyss … Alice Hollenbeck
Ryan Kelley … Jasper Mortenson

Runtime: 117 min.

Jeff Fahey as Huxley Wainwright, sheriff of Knife’s Edge in Badland (2019)

Wes Studi as Harlan Red, a bounty hunter in Badland (2019)

Memorable lines:

Gen. Corbin Dandridge: “Damn those Yankees. Damn them and damn their ideals.”

Gen. Corbin Dandridge: “Well, Mr. Breecher, I am beginning to tire of this exercise and I would like you to state your god-damned business.”

Reginald Cooke: “I always knew my sins would catch up with me.”

Mathias Breecher to Reginald Cooke: “This death is the best you’ll get. And it’s a favor. Embrace it.”

The sheriff to Alice: “Clean up Honey (the whore he just shot dead for stealing). She’s making a mess of my floor.”

Tony Todd as Sen. Benjamin Burke, the man behind Breecher’s orders in Badland (2019)

Ryan Kelley as Jasper Mortenson, one of the sheriff’s overbearing deputies in Badland (2019)

Amanda Wyss as Alice Hollenbeck, the fearful woman who runs Wainwright’s saloon in Badland (2019)

Lauren Francesca as Honey Tex, a whore with sticky fingers in Badland (2019)

Kevin Makely as Mathias Breecher, facing trouble again in Badland (2019)

James Russo as the land hungry Fred Quaid with one of his gunmen in Badland (2019)

Mira Sorvino as Sarah Cooke, a woman in no mood for strangers in Badland (2019)

Kevin Makely as Mathias Breecher, ready for a showdown in Badland (2019)