Law of the North: A Quick Trip to the Old West

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s B-westerns where the bad guy wears a suit and everyone talks with their hats tipped low, then sure, go for it. If you’re looking for high-art cinema or a plot that makes perfect sense at every turn, you should probably skip this one and watch The Texas Kid instead. It’s short, it’s punchy, and it’s about as complex as a glass of water.

Hanley is the kind of villain who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else just because he has a gavel. Watching him try to frame Bill Roberts is almost funny because he’s so obviously guilty, yet the town just goes along with it. The courtroom scene is a total mess, but in that fun, old-fashioned way where nobody really cares about legal procedure.

Small moments that caught my eye

The pacing is all over the place. One second we’re in a tense standoff, and the next, characters are wandering around the woods like they’re looking for a lost set of keys. There’s a specific bit where Andy tries to trick Hanley, and it’s just delightfully sloppy. He’s pointing in the wrong direction, Hanley is looking confused, and I’m pretty sure the camera operator was just trying to keep everyone in frame.

• The horses look like they’re having a better time than the actors.
• The dialogue is mostly just shouting, which is fine, I guess.
• There’s a guy in the background of the tavern scene who looks like he’s waiting for a bus that’s never coming.

It’s not as sharp as Guilty as Hell, but it’s got its own rugged charm. You can really tell they didn’t have a massive budget, especially when they’re hiding behind the same two rocks for the entire third act. Honestly, I kind of loved that. It feels like a stage play that got lost in the desert.

It’s a quick watch, maybe 50 minutes of actual story stretched by some filler. Don't expect to have your mind blown. It’s just a nice, simple reminder of a time when movies were made for a Saturday matinee and forgotten by Sunday morning. 🤠