A Soldier’s Revenge

• (Also titled Soldier’s Heart)
• Written and Directed by Michael Feifer
• June 16, 2020

A Civil War soldier-turned-bounty-hunter must save his ex-wife and her kids from a vengeful former comrade.

I love physical media. I always have a movie and thus never necessarily need to search streaming for a film. Most in my collection I feel secure that they are good. Others are purchased on faith. A Soldier’s Revenge was a cheap find at a used local retailer. It sounded like there was potential for something good. Color me wrong on that assumption!

The acting is for lack of a better word adequate. Our main actor of Neal Bledsoe as main character Frank Connor has all the presence of a tree stump and looks a lot like Bill Campbell. Or at least the WishDotCom version of the actor. He brings a lighter tone to a film that’s overall downbeat. He’s not yukking it up but he doesn’t feel as dark and dangerous perhaps as this material deserves.

In a movie where so much is obvious Frank is tasked with protecting kids that are clearly his own but never quite picks up on that tidbit. The deadbeat dad turned hero if you will, which is what he is. Apparently him feeling like he was being a jerk is enough for him to leave his wife. He left rather improve himself he just was laughed. My hero…

Val Kilmer is listed on the poster but don’t let that fool you. This is after the surgery which cost him the use of his voice so obviously somebody dubbed his lines for him unlike in Top Gun Maverick. It perhaps would’ve been a more intriguing approach to make his character simply mute.

Kilmer aside, the strongest performers in this are Savannah and Luke Judy who play siblings Grace and Ethan. Kids should never outshine all the adults. They should hold their own against all. Their characters are not the annoyingly cute variety or unrealistically precocious. These are children who have been shaken by abuse and desperation to get away from it.

I’m a big fan of tight narratives or just something always happening in a film even if the narrative itself isn’t tight. There are a lot of establishing shots and long stretches of dialogue that don’t do too much beyond reaffirming things we already knew. They could’ve easily cut 30 minutes out of this film and had a better movie.

The basic pieces of A Soldier’s Revenge are not bad. Vengeance and coming to terms with past deeds in a Western where the characters are not so seriously dysfunctional that you’re wondering how they’re able to function to any extent are good. But because of the acting and extraneous other elements it cuts into the overall quality of the film.

Like so many Westerns these days this does not have a big budget so it’s a great many tight shots. Yet they’re not claustrophobic nor do you ever get any strong hints of anything modern like double pane glass or doorknobs and hinges bought at Home Depot.

I need to bring something up. The hero’s former wife Heather (AnnaLynne McCord) is essentially kidnapped and held prisoner by her current husband. He then kidnaps her a little more. That is what it comes down to really. At that point she escapes and gets on a stagecoach that is taking prostitutes to a town to work in a brothel. On that stagecoach is their madam as well. Heather has a nice heart to heart with an 18-year-old prostitute.

I fully expected Heather to take the prostitute with her when she finally got off the stagecoach, but she leaves the young woman there to be whored out to whatever dirty man coming through town and just asks of the madame who was hostile towards her to take care of the girl. Huh?

The villain of Briggs (Rob Mayes) is as forgettable as every other character in this film. Whatever his motivation is for his dirty deeds begins all the way back during the Civil War. Why? Not exactly sure. I stopped caring and you will too because it takes sooooooooooooooooooo long to finally get there and he makes going to see a community theatre performance of anything appealing.

Because of all the additional footage causing these two hours to move at a slow pace your attention will wane here and there. I’m not saying it becomes a chore to finish, but it’s certainly not as engaging as one would want.

You will wish A Soldier’s Revenge was better because the elements are there but nobody and no one thing helps to elevate it. Skip.