Trigger Fast

The story of the ruthless land-baron forcing his poor neighbors off their land is one of the oldest and most traditional of "western" plots. The makers of "Trigger Fast" manage to keep this material from seeming stale by adopting a measured, deliberate pace which allows for more nuances in characterization than one is used to seeing in this sort of production. Fans of fast, violent action may be disappointed but the patient viewer will be rewarded by a western which, though modest, is still a cut above average.

However, "Trigger Fast" has a curious quality which occasionally works to its detriment. There are simply too many characters than are needed to tell this story and the script doesn't have time to adequately develop each one of them. One gets the impression that there's a larger movie in the background of which we're seeing only a condensed version.

This may explain why top-billed Jurgen Prochow, for example, has only a small part which ends early in the movie, and why second-billed Martin Sheen disappears entirely for long sections of the story. In fact, of the four actors featured prominently on the videotape box, only Corbin Bernsen, as the villain, has a major role. Meanwhile, Walker Brandt, playing the woman at the center of the story, barely gets mentioned on the box at all.

One scene that may draw unintended laughs involves Gerard Christopher. He's tied up inside a barn and given a whipping by Corbin Bernsen. He's then rescued by friends who lay him down to recover on a pile of straw. You'd think they'd position him to spare his raw and bleeding back but no -- they lay him face-up so that his back is pressed down against the straw. Ouch! This must hurt almost as much as the whipping and it's sure going to make those wounds harder to clean.