Pistoleros de la frontera

I really enjoyed this nice little "ranchero", mainly because it treats with accuracy and soberness the "gunslinger" tradition in traditional Westerns. It's like watching something written by Elmer Kelton or William W. Johnstone; very realistic and not at all romanticized.

Character development is very Spaghetti Western-ish with no clear heroes and villains except for the ones that are supposed to come off that way. Basically, the protagonist is just too good with his six- shooter. He develops a reputation, shoots a man in self-defense and is falsely convicted of murder on the testimony of a false witness and sent to prison.

There's an escape and he sets about evening the score with those who set him up and starts searching for his wife and son. From then on you see how he is a prisoner of his reputation and, it doesn't matter if you like it, hate it, want it, or don't care, that there's only one path ahead of you, and it isn't pleasant.

To say any more would be to spoil the plot, so I'll just conclude by saying that I like the way the drama plays out and really enjoyed the film, more than any "ranchero" that I've seen. VERY limited release, and I had to do my own subs; I would love to see this released with English subs on DVD. It's definitely one that I could imagine recommending to a lot of different kinds of people for a number of reasons.