Released in 1990 and directed by Chris McIntyre, "Border Shootout" is a Western starring Cody Glenn as a farmer-turned-sheriff of the border town Randado. He uncovers a cattle-rustling ring linked to the leaders of the town and havoc ensues. Glenn Ford, Michael Forest, Charlene Tilton, Michael Ansara, Michael Horse, Russell Todd and Jeff Kaake co-star.
Ford was 73 during filming and this was his final Western. It's a Turner Pictures production and therefore has a TV-budget vibe, but it's several rungs below the typical TV movie in quality. Perhaps this was because the director previously directed only one episode of a TV series. Or perhaps it was just because the producers spent most of the budget on the good cast. The opening score starts off as a lame synth piece, which is anachronistic, but it gets a lot better if you're patience, adding guitar and percussion, etc. Further low-quality can be observed in the over-choreographed fight scenes and stilted delivery of dialogue, like the actors just learned their lines the same day they shot the scene.
If you can acclimate to the low-budget quality, however, there's a lot to appreciate about "Border Shootout" besides the quality cast and the fact that it's Ford's last Western. For one, the actors take the material seriously and give it their best shot despite knowing it was a micro-budge production. Secondly, the production features excellent Arizona locations and sets. True, the movie was shot on existing sets for other Westerns, like the impressive fort scenes, but, still, the locations are notable and the movie doesn't have that set-bound look of many scenes in older Westerns.
Most importantly, the story and the characters slowly take you in so that, by the second half, you forget the movie's limitations and just enjoy it. So, if you find yourself having a hard time getting into "Border Shootout" I encourage you to be patient because the second half delivers the goods, as far as comic book Westerns go. (The script was based on Elmore Leonard's novel "Law at Randado"). The stand that several characters make in the third act is almost moving; as is the redemption of one of the characters. Someone asks him: "I thought you hired out to anybody with a price" to which he responds: "So did I... but sometimes you get to thinking about things you thought you already knew."
The film runs 89 minutes and was shot at Old Tucson and the Sonoran Desert, Arizona.
GRADE: B-
