Fighting Pioneers: A Dusty Whodunnit That’s Mostly Just Confusing

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? Only if you have a very specific craving for black-and-white westerns where the plot makes sense only if you squint. If you’re into the kind of movie that feels like it was filmed in an afternoon during a lunch break, you might find some charm here. Everyone else—especially people who actually want a coherent mystery—will probably just get annoyed by how quickly the logic evaporates.

The whole thing starts with a classic "who's selling our guns to the enemy" setup. It sounds tense, right? Well, for about five minutes it does.

Lieutenant Bentley spends most of the runtime looking like he just remembered he left the stove on back home. He is being framed, obviously, but the way he tries to clear his name is just walking around looking stern at different rocks. It is weirdly hypnotic.

There is this one scene where they find the rifle, and the lighting is so harsh I think I saw a reflection of the camera crew in a canteen. Nobody cared, apparently. They just kept rolling. I kind of love that about these old movies.

The dialogue is pretty rough. It feels like everyone is shouting their lines to someone standing three miles away. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they are angry or just really thirsty.

If you've seen The Iron Strain, you know that era of filmmaking had a certain… *lack of polish*. This makes Fighting Pioneers look like a high-budget epic in comparison, which is saying very little. It’s not quite as weird as A Noise in Newboro, but it shares that same frantic energy where nobody is quite sure why they are in the frame.

The horses seem to be the only ones actually acting. They look bored. I don't blame them.

There is a moment near the end where the big reveal happens, and it is so fast I actually had to rewind (which is hard to do with my brain, but I tried). It just kind of happens, and then the movie ends. No big standoff. No real sense of closure. Just: "Oh, it was him. Okay, bye." 🤠

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s barely even a solid B-movie. But for a Tuesday night when you’re tired of everything being so perfect and CG-heavy? It’s fine. Just don't expect to remember the plot by breakfast tomorrow.