Run for the High Country (2018)

John Towne (Paul Winters) is a marshal on the trail of three vicious killers, led by a man named Chacon (Art Montano).

Among their victims is the father and grandfather of a young Navajo boy (Aden Yazzi as Binschii) trying to make his way back to his homeland.

When the outlaws ambush the lawman and leave him hanging from a noose to die, it’s the Navajo boy who saves his life.

Towne repays the favor by taking Binschii under his wing, though the youth doesn’t speak English.

He’s still on the trail of the outlaws, of course, and the grudge is more personal after the attempted lynching. And he still wants to help Binschii get home.

But their journey won’t be easy, and it’s complicated by racism on the part of typically law-abiding citizens like Sheriff Winton and a school teacher named Mrs. Braxton.

Review:

Paul Winters wrote, directed and stars in this well-intentioned Western.

Unfortunately, the film lacks any sort of spark that’s likely to hold your interest for 84 minutes, in spite of some rather interesting plot twists.

Second-rate acting throughout doesn’t help. Nor does the heavy reliance on voice-over narration.

Nor does an early scene in which Winters is “grazed” by a bullet smack dab in the middle of the forehead and is left with blood streaming down his nose. Odd spot for a grazing wound, right?

Nor a scene in which the marshal proclaims to have ridden “hard all night” as we watch his horse walking through the woods at a quite leisurely pace.

But the film was at least partly intended as an indictment of whites treatment of Indians in the old West, and certainly drives that point home.

At the same time, those plot twists will leave viewers wondering about the post-movie fate of our hero in a West where white makes right.

Directed by:
Paul Winters

Cast:
Paul Winters … Marshal John Towne
Aden Yazzie … Binschii
Melissa Wiehl … Maggie Butler
Art Montano …. Chacon
Broderick Gucci Jones … Culpepper
Devin Flaherty … Billy O’Toole
Greg Bronson … Trader
Jean Paul Turgeon … Sheriff Winston
Sandy Penny … Mrs. Braxton
Marcelo Dietrich … Hiram
John H. Euber … Judge Parker
Oscar A. Morales Vega … Victorio
Lee Whitestar … Grandfather

Runtime: 84 min.

aka:
Binschii and the Marshal

Memorable lines:

Marshal Towne: “These were killers. The type who kill because they like it.”

Marshal Towne to Binschii: “Son, sometimes life ain’t fair. And for you, today is one of those days.”

Marshal Towne: “No one was going to put a noose around my neck and not hear about it from me.”

Paco: “You broke my nose.”
Marshal Towne: “That’s right. Now go get my flapjacks!”

Posse member: “I’m gonna take that little Indian boy’s scalp and feed it to my pups.”