Displaying items by tag: Francis Galluppi

THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY

US, 2023, 90 minutes, Colour.

Jim Cummings, Jocelin Donohue, Faison Love, Michael Abbott Jr, Nicholas Logan, Richard Brake, Barbara Crampton, Gene Jones, Robin Bartlett, Conor Paolo, Pete Proudstar.

Directed by Francis Galluppi.

A small budget action story, long prepared by the writer-director, who also edited the film, eventually a producer putting up his house for sale to raise the money.

The end result is surprisingly entertaining. It is not an unfamiliar story, a diner out in the desert, travellers, thieves who robbed a bank, taking refuge, eventual revelations, confrontations, shootings and deaths. But, the situation in the dialogue is sufficiently well-written to make the characters distinctive and the episodes of interest and entertaining.

The film also parodies the easy-going local police and their interactions.

The situation is the stranding of travellers waiting for the truck which will replenish the local service station. And they spend their time in the diner. But tension mounts when the two thieves turn up. And, there are quite a number of unfortunate victims in the shootout.

And, there is a moral to the story with a travelling salesman, selling sharp knives, on his way home from his daughter’s birthday, his being stranded at the diner. He is timid, takes cover, survives the shootings – and, with the moral of the film about greed, decides to take the money and escape, having a final confrontation which tests his morality (and he fails).

A piece of entertaining Americana.

1. A surprisingly interesting and entertaining story? Situation, characters, interactions?
2. The Arizona countryside, open spaces, the roads, the gas station, the diner, interiors? The musical score and atmosphere?
3. The introduction through the knife salesman, out of petrol, Verne, expecting the truck to arrive, going to the diner, his manner, reserved, Charlotte dropped off by her husband, the sheriff, opening the diner, talking, the demonstration of the knives, trying to be unobtrusive?
4. The news about the robbing of the bank, the thieves arriving, their characters, interactions, manner, waiting in the diner, interactions with Charlotte? Charlotte ringing her husband, the call cut-off, the cutting of the phone?
5. The sheriff, easy-going, 17 years married, his assistant, young and chirpy, fastidious, going to the diner, bumping into the thief, spilling the coffee, his manner, getting the new cups, Charlotte writing help on the cup lid? His going back to the station, the easy-going discussions, the sheriff in the toy, the secretary?
6. The young couple, shooting, driving, arriving, suspecting the thieves, the plan, in the diner?
7. Verne, coming over for his breakfast? Pete, Native American, his explanation, in the diner? The elderly couple, out of petrol, the conversations?
8. The serious aspect of the story, but the satiric presentation of characters and situations, the young man and his assertions, guns drawn, the confrontations, the shootings, Charlotte stabbing the leader, pushed to the floor after being held, the thieves and their being shot, the elderly couple, the young man, Verne and Pete, the knife salesman and his hiding? The young woman, holding people up, the knife, her death?
9. The sheriff, ringing Verne, deciding to come, on the road?
10. The salesman, timid, his decision, surviving, going to the car, taking the money, getting the petrol, the young couple, the confrontation, the promise of the money, the attack, the death of the wife? And discovery of the baby crying the car? His driving away, the scenes throughout of the upturned petrol truck, the pursuit of the sheriff, the leak in the salesman’s car, out of petrol? Lighting the explosion?
11. The tension of the situation, familiar, characters and confrontations, the touch of parody, and the moral about greed and money?