Courage

For sure I have watched countless movies that made me sleepy, but "Raw Courage" is the first one that made me feel tired. Three long distance runners running and running and running through the New Mexico desert. Their flight was initiated by M. Emmet Walsh and his ruthless brigade of weekend mercenaries playing war games. After one of the runners is killed, it's a battle of wits (the runners) vs. the nitwits (the brigade). While I enjoy these variants on "The Most Dangerous Game", I would have preferred more character development and less running. This is certainly watchable, but expect nothing more than a relentless desert chase. - MERK

I am a fan of Emmet Walsh, and the movie did not disappoint. Its enjoyable thriller with great tension. If you like Deliverance/ Sothern Comfort then you will like this. Some good performances, and you really get routing for the marathon runners. Good setting and pace, with never a boring minute. Not sure if it was a TV movie, with the 4:3 aspect ratio. May have suited a wider format, but likely budget constraints restricted what they had to work with. Its one of those virtually unheard of movies you come across, and that adds to deriving pleasure out of finding it. Highly recommended. I found a copy on Youtube, but luckily the copy was watchable.

The simplicity of this film has stayed with me since I first saw it on cable back in the 80's, that being said the best way for me too describe this film is "Southern Comfort meets Deliverance", Ronny Cox bridges the two films together. The survival instincts of the two protagonists seemed natural too me no fancy special training just common sense & the will too stay alive, now the antagonist of this film I gotta say played there parts as well you got overzealous militia men who play follow the leader like kids. I enjoyed this film then & I enjoy it now I can't find a DVD release of this film that with in self is criminal .

I found this on Youtube and decided against my best judgment to give it a look. While this movie has its problems, it's an above average thriller about 3 runners being chased through the desert by an ad hoc militia. Some of the issues: 30 seconds of a man putting Vaseline between his toes is about 25 seconds too long, and while M. Emmet Walsh is a very good actor, he doesn't make all that terrifying a villain. But the plusses outweigh the minuses. The acting's pretty good, the situations are not so far out that they defy belief, and the pacing is solid. This isn't going to supplant Rambo as your go to action film, but you could do a lot worse.

I saw this for the first time on a vhs in the early 90s.

Revisited it recently.

It is one of the finest survival thriller where three marathon runners are tormented in the desert by a hoard of vengeful wannabe soldiers.

This movie has amazing settings, scorching sun, white dunes, barren landscape/desert, steep rocks, dusty terrain n deadly snakes.

The rock climbing scenes are tension filled n there is a wonderful aerial photography from the rock.

There is good amount of chase sequences n as viewers we all rejoice whenever any of the demented soldier gets killed.

This movie has lots of flaws, none of the soldiers had any guns or explosives, who organized the marathon, the soldiers background story is nada, there were no checkpoints throughout the trail, how will one come to know if the marathon runners cheated or not, etc.

But all these are forgiven by me cos i enjoyed the movie as it has plenty of tension, amazing sun soaked settings, heart pounding rock climbing scenes, etc.

Comparisons with Deliverance, Rituals n Southern Comfort will crop up but that's ok cos this movie succeeded in maintaining tension throughout.

There is another underrated survival thriller from the 90s known as Judgement Night and luckily i own a dvd of Judgement Night.