B western gold!

TankGuy

The thing with B westerns(or any B movie)is that you have to go through a few terrible ones in order to get to the real gems,after seeing the train wreck that was 7TH CAVALRY,also starring Randolph Scott,i wasn't sure i wanted to see another movie with Randy in the lead role,but Hangmans Knot sounded brilliant so i gave it a try...

I was very pleasantly surprised,this movie is FANTASTIC,it's got everything you could ask for in a B western,solid characters,pulse pounding action and excellent plot.It's not too long either and the whole movie is very tense and the pace is kept up well.

The plot is like this,in 1865,after the American civil war,a band of Confederate soldiers,led by Major Matt Stewart(RANDOLPH SCOTT)ambushes a gold shipment which is being escorted by union soldiers,the Confederates kill all the union soldiers but later find out from one of the dying soldiers that the war is now over and has been for a whole month,realising that they are now nothing but common outlaws,the soldiers wonder what their next step is as they are pursued by a posse,the soldiers hijack a stagecoach and are chased by the posse,they hide in a way station with the two stagecoach passengers as hostages and thus begins a standoff with the posse who are not all they seem to be...

The action scenes are brilliant,we have an explosive mountain ambush,an adrenaline charged stagecoach chase,a brutal fistfight,a whole building being burnt to the ground and an intense shootout in the middle of a thunder storm,what's not to like.

So this movie changed my opinion of Randy,he's one of the best western actors and i hope to see more of his films.I highly recommend this to western fans,a B western gem!!!!!!!!!!

score 10/10

TankGuy 13 June 2012

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2626996/