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Review: The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (2018)
This was an okay movie. I saw what it was going for. It was a lower budget movie that intended to focus on a good script. The script was alright, but the setting and premise wasn't particularly interesting to me, so I wasn't overly invested.
I still think this movie was worth a watch. Also it is shorter than the average film, around 1.5 hours long, so it definitely won't be eating up that much time.
Spoilers.
Story
There was a mass shooting and the local militia met up to discuss us. They discovered that some of their weapons were missing, which led the group to believe that the mass shooter was among them.
Gannon, an ex-cop, was responsible for questioning the others. As for why he was automatically ruled a suspect, that's something I'm not certain of. But for the purposes of this movie, I had to suspend disbelief.
At the end of the movie, we found out that the mass shooting was fabricated only to spur the militia into acting, which would give the police an excuse to take them down.
Since this was a thriller in a limited setting (locked warehouse), there weren't really that many possibilities to choose from, so I wasn't particularly surprised by the reveal. But I do think that the events of the movie were arranged in a way that made sense for the most part, and I will give them that.
Production
The acting wasn't particularly good. Our main character, Gannon, swung between super amicable and extremely cold, as his role as an interrogator, but it doesn't work here, because he already has a rapport with the members of the militia. They already knew him as a person before the interrogation, so when he was acting off, it wouldn't have had the same effect.
The lighting and colour palette was generally drab. Nothing about it excited me unfortunately, which didn't help the fact that the setting and premise already wasn't interesting to me.
Characters
Gannon was the main character, an ex-cop who was good at interrogation and profiling, and he was in charge of getting a confession. Like I said, it's unclear why Gannon was cleared of suspicion. His alibi was that he was hunting and that the blood in his car was still fresh, and that if he was actually trying to cover up for himself, he would've cleaned it. I didn't think it wasn't super concrete, but I'll let it go. Like I said, Gannon wasn't effective because his personality and attitude changed too much as he questioned Morris and Keating. I particularly found it incredibly unbelievable when he was being all buddy-buddy to Morris and pretending that he had to tie him up for the sake of appearances. It felt so much like he was acting. He had a special connection with Noah because Noah was a cop, and so Gannon was protective over him, which is kind of a flaw, because we didn't know that much about Noah and it felt like Gannon was just blindly trusting him. In the end of the movie, Gannon felt betrayed that he'd been used, but like Noah said, he wasn't a cop and Noah couldn't just share that with him. At the end of the movie, Noah asked Gannon whether he wanted to return to the police, and the movie ended before Gannon replied.
Ford was the leader of the militia, but it was also unclear whey he was cleared of suspicion. But all things considered, he didn't actually have a big role in the plot. His only contributions were pointing out the flaw in Morris' confession, and being the driving force behind putting the blame on Noah.
Beckmann was the guy responsible for manning the communications equipment. He was cleared of suspicion because he was at work, as a teacher.
Morris was the first man who was questioned. He did hate the cops for raping and killing his daughter, and when being questioned by Gannon, he decided to take responsibility because that was the only way he could draw attention for his daughter, but his confession was found out to be false.
Hubbel was an old man, and his alibi was that he was hunting, and still had a deer in his trunk. I'm not sure why Gannon asked him to bring his deer in so that they could prepare it, but perhaps it was to get rid of the smell and to avoid attracting people or animals.
Keating was the antisocial genius kid. He was very smart, but very antisocial, and he was portrayed as a loner kid planning to shoot up his former high school. He confessed as well, but he also got the details of the mass shooting wrong, which proved that he was not the perpetrator.
Noah was the undercover cop. I was a bit confused when Gannon called him his brother. I was also confused when Noah said he didn't want to be an embarrassment to Gannon, which felt like something that brothers who grew up together might say. But I think it was meant to be figurative, as in Gannon still held the police brotherhood in strong regard and considered Noah to be like a brother to him. Anyway, Noah and his team fabricated the story of the shooting to get all of the others in action, and to force their hand into defending themselves, which would give the police a reason to take them down.
Themes
This wasn't so much a theme, but the whole time, I was wondering whether this movie was propaganda for anything. At first, when the militia meeting got together, I thought this was going to be an NRA propaganda movie, and then as the movie progressed, I wondered if it was a cop propaganda film. While I don't think this movie portrayed either in a heroic light, I felt that it did portray the militia in a bit of a sympathetic light. I don't know if that was part of the propaganda though.
Overall
Overall, this was an okay movie. Like I said, I can see what it was going for, and I think it fulfilled that purpose given the budget it had. I would still recommend it as an okay flick.
I still think this movie was worth a watch. Also it is shorter than the average film, around 1.5 hours long, so it definitely won't be eating up that much time.
Spoilers.
Story
There was a mass shooting and the local militia met up to discuss us. They discovered that some of their weapons were missing, which led the group to believe that the mass shooter was among them.
Gannon, an ex-cop, was responsible for questioning the others. As for why he was automatically ruled a suspect, that's something I'm not certain of. But for the purposes of this movie, I had to suspend disbelief.
At the end of the movie, we found out that the mass shooting was fabricated only to spur the militia into acting, which would give the police an excuse to take them down.
Since this was a thriller in a limited setting (locked warehouse), there weren't really that many possibilities to choose from, so I wasn't particularly surprised by the reveal. But I do think that the events of the movie were arranged in a way that made sense for the most part, and I will give them that.
Production
The acting wasn't particularly good. Our main character, Gannon, swung between super amicable and extremely cold, as his role as an interrogator, but it doesn't work here, because he already has a rapport with the members of the militia. They already knew him as a person before the interrogation, so when he was acting off, it wouldn't have had the same effect.
The lighting and colour palette was generally drab. Nothing about it excited me unfortunately, which didn't help the fact that the setting and premise already wasn't interesting to me.
Characters
Gannon was the main character, an ex-cop who was good at interrogation and profiling, and he was in charge of getting a confession. Like I said, it's unclear why Gannon was cleared of suspicion. His alibi was that he was hunting and that the blood in his car was still fresh, and that if he was actually trying to cover up for himself, he would've cleaned it. I didn't think it wasn't super concrete, but I'll let it go. Like I said, Gannon wasn't effective because his personality and attitude changed too much as he questioned Morris and Keating. I particularly found it incredibly unbelievable when he was being all buddy-buddy to Morris and pretending that he had to tie him up for the sake of appearances. It felt so much like he was acting. He had a special connection with Noah because Noah was a cop, and so Gannon was protective over him, which is kind of a flaw, because we didn't know that much about Noah and it felt like Gannon was just blindly trusting him. In the end of the movie, Gannon felt betrayed that he'd been used, but like Noah said, he wasn't a cop and Noah couldn't just share that with him. At the end of the movie, Noah asked Gannon whether he wanted to return to the police, and the movie ended before Gannon replied.
Ford was the leader of the militia, but it was also unclear whey he was cleared of suspicion. But all things considered, he didn't actually have a big role in the plot. His only contributions were pointing out the flaw in Morris' confession, and being the driving force behind putting the blame on Noah.
Beckmann was the guy responsible for manning the communications equipment. He was cleared of suspicion because he was at work, as a teacher.
Morris was the first man who was questioned. He did hate the cops for raping and killing his daughter, and when being questioned by Gannon, he decided to take responsibility because that was the only way he could draw attention for his daughter, but his confession was found out to be false.
Hubbel was an old man, and his alibi was that he was hunting, and still had a deer in his trunk. I'm not sure why Gannon asked him to bring his deer in so that they could prepare it, but perhaps it was to get rid of the smell and to avoid attracting people or animals.
Keating was the antisocial genius kid. He was very smart, but very antisocial, and he was portrayed as a loner kid planning to shoot up his former high school. He confessed as well, but he also got the details of the mass shooting wrong, which proved that he was not the perpetrator.
Noah was the undercover cop. I was a bit confused when Gannon called him his brother. I was also confused when Noah said he didn't want to be an embarrassment to Gannon, which felt like something that brothers who grew up together might say. But I think it was meant to be figurative, as in Gannon still held the police brotherhood in strong regard and considered Noah to be like a brother to him. Anyway, Noah and his team fabricated the story of the shooting to get all of the others in action, and to force their hand into defending themselves, which would give the police a reason to take them down.
Themes
This wasn't so much a theme, but the whole time, I was wondering whether this movie was propaganda for anything. At first, when the militia meeting got together, I thought this was going to be an NRA propaganda movie, and then as the movie progressed, I wondered if it was a cop propaganda film. While I don't think this movie portrayed either in a heroic light, I felt that it did portray the militia in a bit of a sympathetic light. I don't know if that was part of the propaganda though.
Overall
Overall, this was an okay movie. Like I said, I can see what it was going for, and I think it fulfilled that purpose given the budget it had. I would still recommend it as an okay flick.