Far Haven

• Directed by Brent Christy and Gary Wheeler
• September 3, 2023

After serving time in a territorial prison in Yuma, a man returns home to confront corruption and marauders.

The most basic thing a movie needs is a good script. That’s important but as important (maybe more so) is a good director and actors that can do well by the material. Far Haven, well, it has a mostly good script. Lacks enough of the rest. This is one of those movies where someone confronts the sins of their past. That is basic enough but even the basics can be beyond some people.

The directors tried to do a larger budgeted movie on a very small budget. It opens with a raid by Native Americans and you see almost nobody despite all the sound of commotion. It’s all hooting and hollering and significant noise with maybe three performers.

Most of the cast are former TV actors from the 80s. My how they’ve aged. Not an insult or anything. I have a particular image of Don Most in my head and every time I see him in something, it just doesn’t click. That can be a bit of a concern. Not Donnie Most but seeing actors who I have fond memories of in a newer production can be a bad sign. I’ve seen too many Westerns where whatever magic they’ve had is gone and they’re just trying to make a buck or keep that Actors Union health insurance or whatever.

I have watched some low budget Westerns with people you’ve never heard of and I’ve had more positive things to say about them than the ones with famous or once famous individuals like this. There’s a love of heartfelt family drama over a love of the Western genre.

Hunter Braddock (Bailey Chase) is a man convicted of treason. Technically true but in a heavy-handed allusion to Custer he refused to follow an order and spent time in prison. From there it takes time out to comment on the historical treatment of Native Americans or just general bigotry. The locals reflexively blame a wandering Choctaw just because. If anything, the town are bigots and Hunter is the enlightened progressive.

The dialogue is good. It’s just everybody involved with this from the casting director to the film director. They didn’t get the best they could or maybe they did but they certainly didn’t allow the actors to play to whatever strengths they had. I can’t tell you how many times Don Most reminded me of Ralph Malph not just because he played the guy, but because of how he performed here. 

A lot of movies even set in the present suffer from looking too clean these days but given the dusty environment in which this was set it’s a little more unforgivable. Even some of the saloon doors jumped out at me because they looked freshly finished. Take a little bit of dust and rub it on the door. Roll in the ground in the clothes so people look like they’ve been working on the farm or riding.

At the almost end of the movie, there’s a big kumbaya and the town essentially forgives Hunter and they successfully prove the Indian’s innocence by not only exposing the outlaw gang but who was all in on it. Per the trailer the theme of this movie is redemption, but Hunter doesn’t really have anything to redeem himself over. It mistakes being accepted by the larger community for redemption. The goal should be for the man to clear his name in some fashion. At no point does he need to be making up for the perceived wrong which was trying to save innocent lives.

A scene at the end is a bigger irritant for me. Martin Kove plays local powerbroker Ambrose Masse who is behind everything but never exposed as such. Not only does he imply Hunter should play ball or else, but he talks to another man suggesting he is to do something and then we get the credits. It was like there was more story to come but nope. No complete wrap up. Just a hint at a sequel. UGH! I am not against sequels but complete the first story!

The direction doesn’t rise to the challenge. It’s lazy and listless. I’m not sure what this director’s other credits are but I’m not sure they were many or any of possible quality. When you realize this is not a particularly sophisticated movie you’ll see many of the twists coming a mile away. I really had some hope that the sheriff wouldn’t turn out to be a bad guy, but rather a man with his own way of doing things that may not have always worked well, but that was not to be.

Despite a script with good dialogue and a heavily used but solid idea between the performers and the direction Far Haven just falls apart. It could’ve been good but never gets there.