THE STAND AT PAXTON COUNTY : Tuesday 12th May 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'The Stand at Paxton County' which went live on the streaming service on 2nd May and which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa at home on Monday 12th May.

'THE STAND AT PAXTON COUNTY' is an equine drama offering from first time feature film Director and career Editor Brett Hedlund. The film has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews so far since its limited US theatrical release in January and its premier on Netflix earlier this month.

The film opens up with US Army medic Janna Connelly (Jacqueline Toboni) stationed in some remote Army Camp in Afghanistan attending to a downed soldier who has just had his chest ripped open by an IED. She tries to make light of the soldiers injuries by offering words of comfort as he is stretchered off into the operating theatre where he closes his eyes for the last time as she looks on. We then cut to a vast North Dakota ranch located in Paxton County where Dell Connelly (Janna's ageing and widowed father, played by Michael O'Neill) is helping his neighbour Hoag Rafferty (George Maguire) off load bales of hay for his horses. Dell hears a gunshot from the nearby barn and almost immediately clasps his chest as he collapses from a heart attack. The gunshot was from Rafferty allegedly committing suicide.

In the middle of the night Janna is woken by the buzzing of her mobile phone as good friend Maria Orton (Zoe Kanters) delivers the news and tells her she needs to come home to attend to her ailing father. She packs up her kit bag and journeys back to Paxton County. By now her father is recovering at home having experienced a mere heart 'flutter' as he described it, and is keen to get back to his beloved ranch and his horses which he has owned and tended to for the past forty or so years. He has been helped by Brock McCarty (Greg Perrow) as the live in hired ranch hand. Upon arriving in town Janna comes across first her former school mate and now Deputy Sheriff Carl Haggen (Blake Sheldon). They exchange social niceties and both go about their business.

A short time later and the Connolly's ranch is visited by the County Sheriff Roger Bostwick (Christopher McDonald) and Deputy Haggen to advise of changes in animal rights legislation under the North Dakota law Title 36, Livestock Chapter 36-21.1. Humane Treatment of Animals, that says, in layman's terms, that the Police can seize any and all livestock from any ranch if a complaint is brought forward by anyone no matter how spurious or unfounded, and the complainant shall have full immunity from making that complaint. Needless to say it's a warning shot to expect an unexpected visit by the State Vet with the authority to inspect the animals and seize them on the spot if abuse, mishandling, poor health or disease is suspected, and if the ranch property is not maintained in accordance with the new rulings.

Fast track a few days and up rocks Bostwick, Haggen, the State Vet and their entourage to inspect the property. Collectively they take no prisoners and slap Dell and Janna with a whole string of infringement notices with which they have limited time to make reparations and demonstrate they are on the right track. In the meantime Brock has done a bolt, vacated his living cabin, and is nowhere in sight. Dell has to make the tough decision to shoot dead his beloved horse that was his wife's favourite because the Vet claimed it was diseased. Bostwick hands hm his regulation issue pistol to do so, really leaving the distraught Dell no choice.

The next day Janna hires Matt Hudson (Tyler Jacob Moore) with whom she had a one night stand with the night before, to replace Brock. They straight away get to work on the infringement notice, but upon inspecting an electric fence on the far reaches of the ranch they discover that whilst the fence is referenced in the report there are no tyre tracks, or footprints in the immediate surrounding area so how could anyone have inspected it. They suspect Brock may have brought this to the attention of the Sheriff seeing as though he would have been the only one with such an intimate knowledge of the wider property.

Suspecting that something is not quite right Janna's interest in the case is heightened. Fast forward a couple of weeks and the Sheriff's and the Vet all return to the ranch to check on progress, and lo and behold determine that insufficient progress has been made, the horses have been neglected and abused, and seize all the animals on the spot. Janna visits Josh Falvey (Tanner Thomason) the Editor of the local Paxton County newspaper who had been reporting and publishing front page news on the Rafferty ranch inspection findings and his subsequent suicide and had also published front page headlines on the Connolly ranch inspection findings. After some probing questions Falvey reveals that he was there in the barn hiding behind a tractor and out of view on the occasion that old man Hoag Rafferty shot himself. He says that he was coerced into doing so by Sheriff Bostwick, saying that it would be better for him to end it all now rather than go through the emotional and financial turmoil that the closure of his ranch would mean.

Armed with this valuable insight, although she has no hard evidence, she digs some more. They hire a lawyer and get a friendly Vet on their side and quickly learn that Bostwick, Brock and the Vet are all in cahoots with each other by fabricating evidence, poisoning animals and unnecessarily seizing horses for resale and transportation across the border and down into Mexico for a handsome profit that runs into the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile Deputy Haggen has uncovered his own evidence of Bostwick's nefarious goings on but is reluctant to speak out, but does so one evening in a bar with childhood friend Janna when he has had one too many beers to drink.

After spying on the Vet's place of work, breaking into her office in the dead of night and rifling through her filing cabinet for evidence of her serial wrongdoings and coming up trumps, discovering that Brock is in on the action and the military decorated and highly regarded Sheriff Bostwick is as dirty as they come Janna and Co. are seemingly in a good place. Until that is, the Vet has recorded evidence of a hooded person going through her filing cabinet. She hurriedly tells Bostwick who instructs Brock to finish off Janna. While Janna is retracing Falvey's steps in the barn where Rafferty shot himself and trying to piece together those events she is attacked by Brock. The pair face off and in kicking off her assailant he lands on the spikes of an upturned rake which pierces him through the back of the head killing him instantly.

Janna calls Falvey when she has composed herself and tells him to get to their ranch. In the meantime Bostwick has called Brock on his mobile phone asking if he has dispensed yet with Janna. She answers the dead mans phone saying obviously not. Later that evening Bostwick is waiting for Janna at the ranch and upon her arrival he starts spurting off about his motives and who is going to believe her story over his - especially given that she has killed Brock. All the while Falvey has arrived and secretly is recording this with his mobile phone. Bostwick pulls his gun on Janna, but Hudson intervenes and lasso's Bostwick pulling him tight against a stable fence with help from Falvey. Dell arrives with a shotgun, as does Deputy Haggen who states that the Sheriff's time is up and that he's placing him under arrest. There is an exchange of gunfire in which Bostwick sustains a shot to the leg and is choked unconscious by the lasoo, but not before shooting Haggen in the shoulder. While Janna is attending to the downed Haggen, Bostwick comes around and as he raises his weapon, he is kicked in the head by an agitated horse and killed outright.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and Haggen has been promoted to Sherrif, Janna and Matt Hudson are now an item, and Dell has got his ranch and his horses back and all is good in the world. And as for the animal right activists who had so influenced local law enforcement, well they moved on from North Dakota but had many other States in which to explore and exploit such opportunities. As the end credits roll, we see the father and daughter (Gary and Missy Dassinger respectively) on who's real life story this film is based.

I'd have to say that I quite enjoyed 'The Stand at Paxton County'. It's unlikely to win too many awards but the story (based on real events) is certainly relatable, reasonably well acted, looks believable and it moves along at a good pace, even if some of the scenes are a little far fetched for the sake of poetic licence. When the ending comes it morphs into largely predictable territory with the bad guys getting their comeuppance and the good guys getting duly rewarded and an all's well that end's well vibe. Nonetheless the violence is restrained, the storyline delivers what it sets out to expose, and it's a story that needs to be told and as such merits your consideration.

'The Stand at Paxton County' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-