The Stand at Paxton County

This movie is based on a true story and illustrates the what happens when you have corrupt people in positions of authority. It is well worth watching as a lesson in history of what can happen when bad people get into positions of power.

My family lived this nightmare. The following is just my opinion based on what I know about the true story and the movie.

There were some liberties taken, but the people involved in the production took a lot of time and effort to keep to the majority of the true story; yes it is "based on," but the corruption of a sheriff who had lost his way, the fact that a vet wielded her power to try and take all the animals that were worth money (they left the dog and cats, but the vet was going to get all the mares that were expecting babies), the law was voted down by the voters but passed in back door legislation and was sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States are part of the true story.

Early on when I was told how it was going to have originated (an anonymous complaint from out of state) it all sounded a little too conspiracy theory to me too.

Until it happened. Exactly like I had been told it would. The Humane Society of the United States also provides training to our law enforcement and they train that minor every day things are "criminal negligence."

I do not think it was a coincidence that The Humane Society of the US had provided training to the sheriffs department before this ordeal started.

By the grace of God we prevailed; but what would you do if they showed up at your door?

Is your Sheriff an honest person with integrity who will stand up for citizens rights? Or will they fold to special interests that make donations of equipment in addition to political donations?

Feel free to take a look at the page TheStandAtPaxtonCounty true story on Facebook. I outline what is Hollywood and what was the true story.

If the movie is about 80% true to the real story still propaganda? Not if you ask me; I was there and these type of cases are happening across America everyday and I know that now because it happened to my family.

It's not best picture material, but it doesn't deserve the negative reviews. It's "flyover country" problems, but those too are real problems. It shows how corrupt well-intentioned laws can become. Very good.

Good story presenting the abuse of power by activist groups taking advantage of ranchers. The movie presents a real problem with overreach perpetrated by special interest groups who created loopholes in laws, passed in the name of helping needy animals. Acting is decent and story is good, but gets a little "conspiracy " focused. But the story needs to be told. Extremists who don't want animals used at all in ranching push bad laws into law, then harass ranchers to go out of business.

Very interesting true story that I feel needed to be told. This was film editor Brett Hedlund's directorial debut, and although his inexperience showed, especially in directing his cast, it was still decent for his first visit to the rodeo. Newb writers Carl Morris and David Michael O'Neill put the story together quite well and smoothly, but the pacing certainly needed a pick-up, as the 102 min runtime felt long and dragged out. I'm glad though that this film wasn't Hollywood glorified. It felt more like a Lifetime TV show, and that's not a bad thing. Cinematography was good, and the score and sound very fitting. An enjoyable film, but you'll need patience before anything really interesting starts to happen. It's a 7/10 from me.