Thieves Highway: Modern Day Cattle Rustling

The Wild West still gets pretty wild in the same ways it always did. “Old West”-style crimes like cattle rustling might sound archaic and quaint, but they still happen quite a bit. In fact, cattle rustling often devastates small ranchers and raises the price of beef for everyone (through contracted supply and increased insurance premiums). Unfortunately, the victims are usually red state residents and red meat eaters, so the press doesn’t care. However, Frank Bennett cares and not just because it is his job in Jesse V. Johnson’s Thieves Highway, which is now playing in theaters (and releases Tuesday on digital).

Bennett carries a badge and a gun, but he works for the Department of Agriculture. He will need that gun, judging from the savage attack on his colleague during the prologue. His partner Bill will also transfer to a desk job next week, for the sake of his pregnant wife. That always tempts the movie fates. Sure enough, they are nearly run off the road by three tractor trailers loaded with rustled cattle.

Being out-manned and out-gunned, Bennett will need the help of Aksel, a crotchety old-timer with serious libertarian inclinations. He might take some convincing, but at least he is comfortable handling firearms.

There is a common prejudice that only “serious” “art” films or “truth-telling” documentaries can raise awareness for an important issue. However, working-class action movie like Thieves Highway can arguably do so much more effectively. Frankly, after watching Johnson’s latest, viewers will be convinced one of the most effective things the Federal government could do to lower beef prices would be an increased effort to prevent and prosecute rustling. (Just google “modern cattle rustling.” It’s a thing and it’s a problem.)

The screenwriter Travis Mills’ narrative is pretty simple, but it is definitely evokes the beats of traditional westerns. Aaron Eckhart has the right dignified swagger and the appropriate brooding strength to be the Will Kane of cattle. The bad guys are also colorfully villainous, including Devon Sawa as the stone-cold ringleader, Jones. However, he is overshadowed midway through by the gang’s flamboyantly fierce “surprise” collaborator. Plus, rapper Tracy “The D.O.C.” Curry is entertainingly grizzled and grouchy as old Aksel.

The first act starts slow, but it helps establish the considerable stakes for real people. Johnson knows how to stage action films, having helmed some of Scott Adkins best (and funniest) films, such as Accident Man and The Debt Collector duology. The shootouts in Thieves Highway are not at that level, but they are still professional grade.

The film also really connects to the current Western zeitgeist, reflecting the attitudes and justifiable anxieties of ranchers and farmers who feel like they are getting shafted by the system. Recommended for some really good performances and the timely exposure of the rustling problem, Thieves Highway currently screens at the Kent Theatre in Brooklyn and releases on digital this Tuesday (12/16).