Ninian McGuffie from the Box Office takes charge for this month’s Staff Choice. He has chosen a 1970s hidden gem that sees a God-fearing boy dodging the Civil War draft, joining up with a hard-up group of like runaways heading west.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire: Civil War draft dodger Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) avoids the horrors of war by fleeing west, only to become mixed up with a gang of lawless youths led by the debonair con man Jake Rumsey – brilliantly played by a young Jeff Bridges. The allure of a free-spirited desperado life is quickly spoiled by a series of mishaps that leave the bandits lacking food and money and in constant fear of more sinister criminals like Big Joe (David Huddleston). They are traveling through territory that’s supposed to be crawling with ferocious native tribes like the Arapaho, but in fact the dangers they meet are imported from the East. Well acted and gritty, this is one of the more authentic Westerns of its era.
USA 1972 Robert Benton 93m
