Blood Country (2017)

Chris Bosarge is Joe Loftin, a Mississippi farmer who takes two black youths out to gather the sheep one day.

He comes across horse tracks, recognizes them and decides to follow them, splitting up with the youths.

Shots ring out. The black youths — Ambrose and Marion — return to the sounds of the gunshots and find Joe washing blood from his hands and his knife.

When news comes that Moses Loftin, Joe’s brother, is dead from gunshot and stab wounds, the youths realize their worst fears, they might have been witnesses to a murder.

And as black youths in post-Civil War Mississippi, that puts them in a dangerous situation. Joe’s friends threaten them not to talk to authorities. Moses’ friends threaten to harm them if they don’t tell what they know.

Aging Dan Lee (Cotton Yancey), a man who doesn’t even wear a gun, winds up in the middle when he’s convinced to run for sheriff and wins election.

He eventually brings Joe to justice and convinces Ambrose and Marion to testify.

But that isn’t the end of the trouble for anyone. Because Joe escapes from prison. And rather than fleeing, he returns to the scene of the crime.

Cotton Yancey as Sheriff Dan Lee, putting his life on the line to get Joe to surrender in Blood Country (2017)

Chris Bosarge as Joe Loftin, wounded, cornered and desperate in Blood Country (2017)

Review:

If you’re looking for a fast-paced Western with straight-forward story-telling, this isn’t the film you should be watching.

The pace is deliberate. Some of viewers’ questions about the character’s motivations are never answered.

Did this feud between brothers really ignite over a head of cabbage Joe cut from his brother’s farm? Well, not really.

The closest we come to understanding Joe is a soliloquy he delivers while sitting around a campfire with allies.

In post-Civil War Mississippi, he feels like he’s lost the home he knew and loved. He feels like it’s being taken over by outsiders who don’t understand him.

“What might a man do?” he asks.

In his case, the answer is violence that plays out over the course of a rather haunting little film.

Markeith Coleman as Ambrose, one of the black youths threatened by both sides in Blood Country (2017)

Aspen Kennedy Wilson as Marion, struggling to decide whether to testify against Joe Loftin in Blood Country (2017)

Directed by:
Travis Mills

Cast:
Chris Bosarge … Joe Loftin
Cotton Yancey … Sheriff Dan Lee
Jeremy London… Webb
Marlene Cupit … Matt
Heather Fusari … Lavinia Loftin
Nicholas Roylance … Miles
Kevin McGrath … Hiram
Michael LaCour … Doctor Larkin
Aspen Kennedy Wilson … Marion
Markeith Coleman … Ambrose
Creek Wilson … John T
Matthew Horton … Silas Loftin
Britton Webb … Crawford Loftin
Matt Story … Moses Loftin
Dawn Streeck … Mrs. Loftin

Runtime: 89 min.

Marlene Cupit as Matt, the woman who stands faithfully by her sheriff husband in Blood Country (2017)

Heather Fusari as Lavinia Loftin, feeling the stigma of her husband’s crime in Blood Country (2017)

Memorable lines:

Judge: “I’m afraid I’m going to have to acquit you, Joe.”
Joe Loftin: “What’s that mean?”
Judge: “Means you’re a free man. Free as a killing man can be.”

Sandy: “Mr. Lee, sheriff, my boys being hit from all sides. They don’t got no idea what to do. Some say they should talk. Some say if they do … my boy and my brother’s son, they’re good. As good as I could raise ’em. Their lives in danger.”

Bounty hunter: “You must be some kind of magician. I don’t know how the hell you’re gonna get yourself out of this mess.”
Joe Loftin: “I won’t be convicted. Hell, I won’t even see the inside of a courtroom.”

Joe Loftin: “Outsiders. Weren’t even here for the war. They didn’t die with our brothers and our fathers. My own brother was an outsider at heart. They didn’t belong to this country. Hell, we don’t have a country any more. Been taken from us. What might a man do?”

The other Loftin brothers, Silas (Matthew Horton), Moses (Matt Story) and Crawford (Britton Webb) in Blood Country (2017)

Jeremy London as Webb, the sheriff’s deputy and a man who’s always armed in Blood Country (2017)

Calvin L. Franklin as Sandy, the black man fearful for the fate of the youths he raised in Blood Country (2017)

Markeith Coleman as Ambrose prepares to shoot a snake while Marion (Aspen Kennedy Wilson) looks on in Blood Country (2017)

Cotton Yancey as Sheriff Dan Lee, a man feeling his way through a new job at a difficult time in Blood Country (2017)

Chris Bosarge as Joe Loftin listens to his sentence being handed down in Blood Country (2017)