If you can set aside the implicit CSA sympathies (Quantrell's Lawrence pre-dawn ambush/massacre was "just war"), this is a solid, quick oater.
A little more complicated than most, greed, skullduggery, honor, betrayals, loyalties, and gun play (not to Peckinpah levels, but enough) abound here.
The script is tight and never lags. The acting and direction are top notch - Paul Fix's turn as Yancy, for example, could easily have slid to caricature but never does. Most of the men characters have some surprises and three-dimensionality to them. Unfortunately the women characters are strictly two-dimensional.
"Fighting Man of the Plains" has its flaws - the redeemable outlaw's past is whitewashed, Jim Dancer would never be so slow to reach his weapon (except as needed to advance the plot) and, as mentioned above, the women are cliché. Still, overall, it is 90 minutes well spent.
A little more complicated than most, greed, skullduggery, honor, betrayals, loyalties, and gun play (not to Peckinpah levels, but enough) abound here.
The script is tight and never lags. The acting and direction are top notch - Paul Fix's turn as Yancy, for example, could easily have slid to caricature but never does. Most of the men characters have some surprises and three-dimensionality to them. Unfortunately the women characters are strictly two-dimensional.
"Fighting Man of the Plains" has its flaws - the redeemable outlaw's past is whitewashed, Jim Dancer would never be so slow to reach his weapon (except as needed to advance the plot) and, as mentioned above, the women are cliché. Still, overall, it is 90 minutes well spent.