Wild Mustang: A Dusty Chase Through Old Western Tropes

Should you watch Wild Mustang? If you are the type of person who digs the scratchy, low-budget charm of old-school B-westerns, then yes, go for it. If you need tight pacing, high-definition clarity, or characters who don't just stare blankly at the horizon, you’ll probably want to skip this one entirely.

It is basically a straight-up revenge story. Utah Evans breaks out of the slammer, kills the sheriff, and suddenly everyone is looking for Joe Norton to fix the mess. It moves fast, mostly because there isn't enough film budget to slow down and explain much of anything.

I found myself getting distracted by the horses. Honestly, Sonny the Horse puts in a better performance than half the supporting cast. There is a moment where a horse just stands there chewing on a fence while a tense standoff is happening right behind him, and nobody seems to notice. It is oddly charming.

The dialogue is about as stiff as a piece of salted beef. Every line sounds like it was written on the back of a napkin five minutes before filming started. But that is why I watched it, right? It reminds me of the pacing you see in Dynamite Ranch, where the narrative focus is mostly on keeping the audience from falling asleep during the transition scenes.

There is a lot of running around in the dirt. At one point, the characters seem to be running in circles around the same cactus for what feels like ten minutes. I assume the director just needed to fill the runtime without paying for a second location.

Notes from the couch:

• The sound quality dips so low in the middle, I thought my speakers finally died.
• The villain’s mustache is truly something to behold. It has its own gravity.
• There is a distinct lack of actual wild mustangs in this movie about Wild Mustang.
• The lighting makes the noon-day sun look like a spooky sunset.

It is definitely not as polished as Call of the Wild. But it has a scrappy energy that keeps you watching, even when you know exactly what is going to happen next. It is not trying to be high art, and it manages to hit that goal perfectly.

Is it a classic? No. Is it a good way to spend a rainy afternoon? Maybe. Just don't ask too many questions about how they find each other in that massive desert with no maps and very little common sense.