High Ground

Jake Wilcott (Charlie Weber) takes over from his father Ezra Wilcott (Jon Voight) as the Sheriff of a small Colorado town. They have a new prisoner (Henry Thomas) who refuses to identify himself. Cassie Becker (Katherine McNamara) is the local waitress. In the opening scene, the mystery man is a witness for the prosecution targeted for assassination. A hit team arrives, but he turns the table on them. Big bad Marcus is coming with another team.

It's an action crime B-movie. The story is standard fare. There is some bad writing. Mostly, the villain is too casually killing too many people. It is all unnecessary and unrealistic. It's like Marcus is intent on putting a flashing light over this town and his head for no reason. The cops are never going to stop after a massacre like this. If the movie wants a big battle, it needs to build up to it. The diner is too much.

We used to call movies like this straight to video. Lots of cliches, low to mid production values, forced acting. Oh, and terrible writing. Like, straight out of some kind of AI script writing program that a human went over to try to make it seem real. Something to watch when there's nothing else to do and you want to have a laugh at something that wasn't intended to be funny. But, its got Katherine McNamara in it and she's always fun to watch. Jon Voights in it because he let everyone know he's a republican and an actors gotta eat right? The bad guy is so over the top that you really feel how bad this movie is when he starts smirking and mugging for the camera. The hero is bland and I can't seem to even remember what he looks like when he goes off screen. He'll come back on in the next scene and I'm like, 'Oh right, that's what he looks like.' Just not a worthwhile movie to watch, but I'm sure it will do great at filling up air time in our non-stop entertainment universe that we find ourselves living in now.

That was one of the best movies I have seen in 20 years. Good American storytelling with a background of solid Unity of our people and nation under God with a Biblical moral Rock as the foundation, I thought completely lost. This movie developed the relationships clearly as the movie progressed, giving context to every moment that followed as we were not only watching for the adventure that was coming, but the interactions of sincere intimacy and responsible care each individual in the small and intimate town, for the others. There was also a realistic gruffness and sardonic grit that inevitably inhabits the hearts of some people and those were represented as well. It was a setting of neighbors who were bound by a unity this nation was built upon in its origins and has been relentlessly attacked with revolutionary war to completely remove so that disunity, brokenness, mistrust and fear replaces a sincere and deep love each for the other in responsible bonds which give us a natural and chosen desire to love our neighbors and to open our hearts to be loved by them in facing together the circumstances of life, both those circumstances we are prepared for and those circumstances we learn the most in about ourselves and others, those circumstances that are challenging or even catastrophic. One of the most prolific warfronts attempting to remove this ethos of unity as God designed us from our people, is movie making. It was so refreshing to see such a well done movie with the dual dimensions of true relationships with Foundation of commandment-based character and that strength and perseverance of Neighbors United as an extended family to face great evil. It was fantastic as they overcame evil men and their desire for only one thing, the satisfaction of their own Lust for Power, Pleasure and Pride at the cost of anything and everything from anyone who got in their way, as long as they're lust was satisfied for the moment. This great evil was overcome in the bonds of responsible loving relationship under God and it was awesome.

One cannot help but feel pity for the actors. From beginning to end, one feels a persistent sense of embarrassment on their behalf. Of course, they must earn a living and find work. But one wonders just how dire their financial circumstances must have been to compel them to collaborate with such an appallingly inept director and writer.

The direction is astonishingly poor, even worse than the already weak writing. Must the assailants, by any measure, be portrayed with such staggering stupidity, their assault on the ranch so laughably uncoordinated and devoid of even the most basic strategic logic?

Here we have a principal antagonist in pursuit of a key witness, presumably someone who could implicate him in a series of capital offences, likely condemning him to life imprisonment. So far, so good. In the course of this pursuit, he indiscriminately kills nearly everyone he encounters, presumably to eliminate potential witnesses. Fair enough. But then he inexplicably spares the life of a woman to subject her to a fate "worse than death," as he puts it (his meaning being: now you have to live with the guilt of having seen all your friends die because of you). But of course, her survival now renders her a direct eyewitness to mass murder, capable of testifying and securing the villain's conviction, even if he would succeed in killing the original key witness he is chasing.

The sheer lack of narrative logic and intelligence on display is staggering. One is left to marvel: how does a script of such implausibility and incoherence even secure financing? Who, in their right mind, would fund such a spectacular heap of nonsense?

One can only hope that the actors emerge from this debacle with their reputations intact and are offered material more worthy of their abilities.

Don't listen to the naysayers. This is a really great movie! And getting to see Henry Thomas and John Voight act together was really special! James Oliver Wheatley plays the requisite evil man with aplomb opposite the hero Charlie Webber. A few places in the plot are predictable, but the acting is solid, the plot moves along at a good pace. It's a little bit of a thriller, a little bit of a mystery, and even a love story in the mix with the beautiful petite blonde actress, Katherine McNamara. John Voight is an American legend and it is great to see him continue to act and act well. Hope to see more of Henry Thomas in the future. Loved seeing that he still has his acting chops. This was an all-around great cast with a solid screenplay and a great plot. Director James Banford did a good job with the talent that he had to work with. Great flick!