Badland (2019 film)

Badland is a 2019 American western film set more than a decade after the American Civil War. Written and directed by Justin Lee, it depicts a Pinkerton detective who has been sent west to find several men who committed atrocious acts during the Civil War.[1]

Plot

Gunslinging detective Matthias Breecher (Kevin Makely) is hired by one of the first African American senators to track down the worst of the Confederate war criminals. He first shoots and kills a former confederate General, Corbin Dandridge, in the General's Missississippi barn. Breecher then traverses the titular hellish badlands seeking justice, he meets one of his targets (Bruce Dern) fatally-ill and his daughter (Mira Sorvino), a pioneer woman.[2]

After Bruce Dern dies from wounds sustained in a firefight with a neighboring landowner, Fred Quaid, Breecher heads west to New Mexico in search of Huxley Wainwright. Staying at a hotel and saloon, Breecher is solicited by local prostitutes and encounters Wainwright in a gunfight inside the saloon. Wainwright discovers that Breecher is a detective after seeing his badge and has breecher waterboarded. It is then revealed that Wainwright suspected Breecher of being an intruder in his town after he stopped receiving routine communication from Dandridge.

Cast

Production

Filming took place on location in Santa Clarita, California at the Veluzat Movie ranch.[4] Lee had watched the 2017 revisionist western Hostiles (film) and felt inspired, but also began reminiscing about films he watched with his grandparents and was inspired "to write something as a throwback to those types of movies but not make something 'corny' in a way. Something with heavy drama but still maintaining those old traditions and tropes of the 60s and 70s".[5]

Reception

Joe Leydon in Variety (magazine) said "Justin Lee's indie Western should satisfy genre enthusiasts with a strong cast and an entertaining spin on a familiar story."[6]

References
  1. Bell, Nathaniel (October 30, 2019). "Movie Pick: Badland". LA Weekly.
  2. "'Unreal' success: 'Badland' film in Netflix top 10 after small theatrical release " Albuquerque Journal". www.abqjournal.com.
  3. Menta, Anna (March 30, 2020). "'Badland' on Netflix Cast Guide: Mira Sorvino, Bruce Dern, and More Star in This 2019 Western".
  4. Team, H. D. (July 17, 2019). "Kevin Makely Re-teams with Director Justin Lee to lead All-Star cast in upcoming western "BADLAND"".
  5. https://www.thehollywoodtimes.today/director-justin-lees-new-film-badland-interview/
  6. Leydon, Joe (November 1, 2019). "Film Review: 'Badland'".
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