The Red Blood of Courage: A dusty, familiar mess

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for grainy, low-budget Westerns from an era where everyone spoke in complete, stiff sentences. If you need tight pacing or a story that makes sense without squinting, you’re going to hate it. It feels like a rough draft of a better movie that just never happened.

The plot is exactly what you think it is. A guy is pretending to be Mark Henry, there’s an oil land dispute, and someone’s niece is being forced into a marriage she clearly doesn’t want. It’s the kind of 1930s storytelling that moves at the speed of a tired mule.

Watching this reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Law of the Range, though this one lacks that certain spark. It feels thinner, somehow.

The Mountie in the Room

Enter Jim Sullivan. He’s a Mountie, obviously, and he’s wearing a fake wanted poster like it’s a disguise that would actually fool a toddler. The scenes where he tries to act tough are... well, they’re something. It’s almost impressive how little effort went into his undercover act.

The bad guy, Slager, is the real highlight here. He’s got that classic mustache-twirling energy, even if he doesn't actually have a mustache. He kills his boss about halfway through and you just know he’s going to fumble the bag. He’s the kind of villain who spends more time talking about his plans than actually finishing the job.

• The lighting in the cabin scenes is weirdly dark. You can barely see the actors' faces.
• There’s a horse that shows up in three different scenes looking like it’s the only one actually working on set.
• The dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who had never met a human being before.

One shot of the landscape lingers for about fifteen seconds too long. It’s just rocks. Just dry, brown rocks. I found myself checking if my internet had stalled, but no, the movie just really wanted me to look at those rocks. It’s that kind of experience.

It’s not a good film by any technical standard, but it’s got a strange, dusty heart. You can feel the studio budget drying up in real-time. It’s nowhere near the level of The Hunted Men, but if you’re bored on a Tuesday, you could do worse. Just don't expect it to change your life.