Santee

Rating:
Summary: Santee
Review: Veteran actor Glenn Ford is bounty hunter in the 1973 movie SANTEE. After killing the leader of an outlaw gang Santee takes in the man's son, Jody, who vows to kill Santee the first chance he gets.
The first act begins with a delightful opening sequence, a little reminiscent of the `super posse' in BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID. Santee is seen from a distance and commented upon - who IS this guy, is he as good as they say he is, etc. It turns out he is indeed that good, and then some. Santee is tough and terse and the bad guy is one wrong flinch away from death.
The movie falls apart spectacularly in the second act. Santee, for reasons unknown, guilt or distrust or whatever, keeps the kid close to him and semi-adopts him. At least he gets the kid to agree not to do `it' at the ranch. Domesticity can drive a stake through the toughest of action movies, and as soon as Santee and Jody arrive home this movie loses whatever chance it had. For reasons never adequately explained, or even apparently noticed by director Gary Nelson, Jody forgives and forgets and becomes the son they never.... The rest of the film is a pastiche of half-baked, lesser tropes. The education of a gunfighter. Strapping them on one last time. This movie lost me when it asked me to buy that an afternoon rounding up mustangs with Jay Silverheels would be enough to forget killing the man who shot your father.
Old music fans might get a kick out of hearing The Raiders with Paul Revere sing the original theme "Jody" somewhere at the tag end of act one and reprise it at the end of the movie.
Not many movies begin with as much promise as SANTEE, fewer yet disappoint so thoroughly.