About equal parts movie and stock footage, "Mustang!" is probably the only movie I've seen where every character is a creep, even the hero. Would it have hurt Gabe (Jack Buetel) or Nancy (Madalyn Trahey) to crack a smile every now and then? I don't think I'm being too picky when I say that the lead character should have had at least some charisma for the part, while the romantic interest of the story could have shown a hint of charm. Maybe the idea was to convey that the real star of the picture was August Moon, introduced in the opening credits as 'The Mustang'. If I may call him August for short, I'd say he was the only character in the story that didn't have to brood through his lines to create an impression. A quite natural performance too, doing what horses do, mainly running around the countryside and hanging out with the rest of the herd. If I had to guess, he probably could also tell the difference between a raccoon and an opossum, as outdoors-man Gabe certainly couldn't.
I didn't start out trying to be so harsh on the film, but this one was just a chore to sit through. Maybe with it's current run on Encore Westerns, someone could get around to fixing up the cast credits on IMDb, as characters Sam and Shortbread were prominently mentioned, while Lou Hollis owned the ranch where the story took place; he's listed as a ranch hand. I already forgot the names of the two airplane shooter guys, but it's not that important, they were only in it for the money.
The genre description for this one is Romance/Western, but one could make a pretty good case that it's neither. Only recommended for folks like myself who get up at four in the morning with nothing else to catch on TV.
I didn't start out trying to be so harsh on the film, but this one was just a chore to sit through. Maybe with it's current run on Encore Westerns, someone could get around to fixing up the cast credits on IMDb, as characters Sam and Shortbread were prominently mentioned, while Lou Hollis owned the ranch where the story took place; he's listed as a ranch hand. I already forgot the names of the two airplane shooter guys, but it's not that important, they were only in it for the money.
The genre description for this one is Romance/Western, but one could make a pretty good case that it's neither. Only recommended for folks like myself who get up at four in the morning with nothing else to catch on TV.