TheUnknown837-1 Review of Red Headed Stranger

Red Headed Stranger (1986)

a very interesting Western with plenty of gunfire

[9/10 · 29 August 2005]

Red-Headed Stranger, I have to say, is nothing like what I was expecting. I had no idea that it was going to be as violent and powerful in action as it is. From the few glimpses I had seen of it before and from its description, it didn't sound like it was going to be a very good movie, but I was surprised. Willie Nelson and R.G. Armstrong steal the show. Nelson as a preacher-turned-murderer and Armstrong as a coward-turned-hero sheriff. The plot to this movie is pretty unusual. A preacher and his wife come to a town somewhere in the West to take the place of a retiring preacher and find out that the town's supply of water is owned by a rowdy man and his sons. But before long, the preacher and the sheriff uncover water at the abandoned well and anger the rowdy clan. Before long, a deputy is murdered and the killer is hanged. All of this turns the man and the rest of his sons against the preacher and the sheriff. And in the meantime, the preacher's wife is upset by now unfair the town is and runs away with another man. The preacher then turns into a killer and tracks her down, kills his wife and the man she's fleeing with. And before long, he's killing people who just get on his nerves. And eventually, he reunites forces with the sheriff from the town and they return to get revenge on the men who were the real cause of all of the misery and death inflicted upon everyone. A very interesting movie, definitely worth checking out. And don't miss the thrilling action-packed shootout at the end.