Run, Simon, Run starring Burt Reynolds

 

This 1970 TV-movie is a contemporary Western starring a pre-superstardom Burt Reynolds.

I am an unabashed early-Reynolds fan and I must admit I had never heard of this film.

Reynolds plays Simon Zuniga, a Papago Indian just released from the Arizona State Pen.

He returns to the Reservation and confronts the changes there and via a quiet stoic remove from the changes, instigates changes of his own.

This film is reflective of the AIM movement [American Indian Movement] and is sharply written, sensitive, low-key and works quite well. Reynolds is all quiet charm here, more reflective of a brooding Steve McQueen or Charles Bronson than the noted wisecracker that he would become.

I sought it out of curiosity but wound up getting far more out of it than I expected.

Dignified and strong with a fine score by The Orphanage.