Warpath (2020)

Sasha Higgins is Alice Erickson, a frontier woman trying to raise two children on a Nebraska farm without her husband Lucky.

He’s off satisfying his wanderlust. Fact is, Lucky’s been missing in action for six years and barely knows his son.

One day while plowing her field, Alice decides enough is enough. She’s going to go find Lucky and drag him back home to face his responsibilities.

Problem is, the mine he’s working is near Fort Collins, Colorado, 400 miles away.

It’s also smack dab in the middle of Indian territory. And, right now, the Pawnee and the Cheyenne are at war and killing any whites caught in between.

There’s only one man capable of guiding Alice through that mess: bounty killer Emmett Cole (Tom Mathews).

So Alice tracks down Cole in the Fort Collins jail, where he’s nursing a hangover, and agrees to pay him $100 to find her husband.

There’s a catch: She plans to tag along.

He agrees to take her, but only as far as the trading post where Lucky was last seen.

Along the way, the plucky farm girl and the man who makes his living with a gun grow fond of one another.

But while Emmett’s frontier skills help the couple through Cheyenne territory, dealing with the warring Pawnee will be a trickier proposition.

Sasha Higgins as Alice Erickson, the frontier woman determined to find her wayward husband in Warpath (2020)

Thom Mathews as Emmett Cole, the bounty hunter hired to help Alice find her husband in Warpath (2020)

Review:

Sasha Higgins does her best as a determined wife and mother who considers herself “damn strong,” even if time has robbed her of some of her beauty.

But her best isn’t nearly enough to salvage a film where the best scenes are of her and Emmett traveling down the path and things go downhill every time the action picks up.

At the 20-minute mark, you’ll encounter a 15-minute barroom scene that might go down in Western history as the most tiresome ever filmed.

Packed into that 15 minutes is an atrocious version of Frankie and Johnny, the silliest and shortest barroom fight you’re ever likely to witness and the most abrasive come-on by a saloon girl you can imagine.

Yet none of that tops a scene near the end of the film where Alice and Little Cloud, her husband’s Indian mistress, are tied to the same stake.

They’re about to be roasted while about a half dozen Pawnee braves sorely in need of a Weight Watchers diet dance around.

They’re supposed to look menacing. They made me laugh out loud.

Matt Fling as Lucky Erickson, the husband who doesn’t like to be tied down in Warpath (2020)

Julio Leal as Howling Wolf, the Cheyenne chief who’s friends with Emmett Cole in Warpath (2020)

Directed by:
Josh Becker

Cast:
Thom Mathews … Emmett Cole
Sasha Higgins … Alice Erickson
Matt Fling … Lucky Erickson
Connor Forrester-Hutchins … Pieter Van Keukenhof
Meredith Deighton … Marianna Van Keukenhof
Tony Amato … Sheriff Jackson
Julio Leal … Howling Wolf
Charlotte Reno … Little Cloud
Colleen Bielman … Lilly Longtree
Dave Kilgore … Mr. Gunderson
Frank Stevens .. Victor Sjosstrom
Susan Reno … Hortense Greely
Andrew Dawe-Collins … Solomon
Roosevelt Johnson … Glen
Kenneth Walker … Ken
Niko Mitchell … Bartender

Runtime: 87 min.

Susan Reno as Hortense Greely, determined to rebuild after her trading post is burned down in Warpath (2020)

Charlotte Reno as Little Cloud, Lucky Erickson’s helper at his mine in Warpath (2020)

Memorable lines:

Alice Erickson: “He’s not dead. Not Lucky. They don’t call him that for no reason.”

Alice Erickson, at the general store, stocking up for her trip to Fort Collins: “I do not need a gun, Mr. Sjorenson. I need beans.”

Alice Erickson, giving herself a pep talk: “I may not be pretty anymore, but I’m strong. Really strong. God damn strong. I’ve had two babies. I can cook. I can churn butter. I can milk a cow. Tear a god damn chicken’s head off with my hands. And I can plow a field too. I can do so many damn things. I just can’t hold onto a man.”

Tony Amato as Sheriff Jackson, top lawman at Fort Collins in Warpath (2020)

Colleen Bielman as Lilly Longtree, the obnoxious saloon girl in Warpath (2020)

Little Cloud and Alice, about to be burned at the stake by overweight Pawnee braves in Warpath (2020)

Thom Mathews as Emmett Cole and Matt Fling as Lucky Erikson, spotting damsels in distress in Warpath (2020)

Sasha Higgins as Alice Erickson, confronting her husband Lucky in Warpath (2020)