The Stand at Paxton County

This movie is based on a true story and illustrates the what happens when you have corrupt people in positions of authority. It is well worth watching as a lesson in history of what can happen when bad people get into positions of power.

Contrary to the initial claim of the first reviewer, just a cursory research on the web verifies that the basics of this story are true. And in real life the judge threw out the charges of animal abuse and ordered the animals be returned to their rightful owner. And nowhere in the movie is the mistreatment of animals glorified. It is a story about a conspiracy to claim falsely that animal abuse HAD occurred in order to seize the ranch. But enough of correcting obvious misstatements in reviews.

In reality, this movie is actually a well crafted suspense piece that you can relate to even if you have never been on a ranch. For those looking for extended gun fights and other lengthily episodes of gratuitous violence, look elsewhere. The emphasis here is on suspense, not violence. And there's that other subtle message from this story, viz. should business owners of all pursuits be a bit apprehensive about their government's growing penchant to shut them down and seize their property, whether based on animal abuse or health concerns.

I recommend you give the movie and Netflix a chance. It will be well worth you time.

It's a 6 quality movie, but a 9 quality message, so it gets a 7.

The end is way to much 80's - 90's style, contrived, but the first 3/4 of it is really good.

The message is that no matter how nice and froofy Humane Society NAZIs pretend to be, they are out to kill you, the animals, anything alive that they can get their bloody hands on, while smiling and praising themselves and making money from it. There are a lot of people that care for animals and people out there, but they don't work for humane organizations or government.

This film is a surprise, predictable plot - but for some reason I found it very compelling and interesting, it has a slow first half as it sets up the characters and main story line. It also identifies some serious issues with the way that laws are made, applied and abused.

Very interesting true story that I feel needed to be told. This was film editor Brett Hedlund's directorial debut, and although his inexperience showed, especially in directing his cast, it was still decent for his first visit to the rodeo. Newb writers Carl Morris and David Michael O'Neill put the story together quite well and smoothly, but the pacing certainly needed a pick-up, as the 102 min runtime felt long and dragged out. I'm glad though that this film wasn't Hollywood glorified. It felt more like a Lifetime TV show, and that's not a bad thing. Cinematography was good, and the score and sound very fitting. An enjoyable film, but you'll need patience before anything really interesting starts to happen. It's a 7/10 from me.