"Red Headed Stranger" ends up being a very good movie. It does suffer from a small budget but that's noticed less and less as the movie goes on. Another problem is the casting. Many of the cast are either miscast or seem to be non-actors (including Willie's drummer Paul English). That said, there are some very good performances in this movie as well, with stand-out work by Willie Nelson and R. G. Armstrong. "Red Headed Stranger" takes a little while to get into its groove but it all leads up to a terrific last twenty minutes or so. Honorable mentions: a wet Morgan Fairchild and a very dreamy Marinell Madden.

Boy oh boy, if this film didn't star Willie Nelson I hazard to think what the reviews might be like. This is one mess of a story, defying logic and credibility even in the days of the Wild West. The wedding scene at the start of the film is where it all begins, I initially thought Willie was the father giving his daughter away. That he was marrying a character portrayed by Morgan Fairchild might have been an interesting hook, but as it quickly turns out, the marriage is doomed from the start. But not in any way you might expect.

There's the usual predictable opposition on hand to give Preacher Shay (Nelson) a hard go of it, and Sheriff Reese Scoby (R.G. Armstrong) isn't much help at first. There's no single event that triggers the sheriff to righteous action, he just suddenly sees it his duty to help the new Preacher oppose town boss Larn Claver (Royal Dano) and his clan. That opposition takes focus in the windmill project that promises to relieve the town's reliance on Claver's control of the only available water supply. Through it all, Raysha Shay (Fairchild) grows increasingly disillusioned with frontier life, and longs to return home to Philadelphia.

Only a quick furtive glance at the opening wedding scene gives a hint of what's to come. When a former suitor takes Raysha away from Montana, Nelson's character transforms from a man of God to a man of the devil. Tracking down the lovers to a saloon in another town, the good Reverend simply guns them down. Two shots and it's all over, and no one arrives on the scene to see what all the fuss is about. The Preacher draws a bye and gets away with murder. Sheriff Scoby, who's been run out of his own town for failing to keep the Claver's at bay, tracks Shay to a secluded farm where he's taken in by a woman who sent her shiftless husband packing a couple years earlier. Katherine Ross should have known better, but hey, it's what the part called for.

How this all translates into anything remotely believable is beyond me. Sheriff Scoby shoots Shay at point blank range but doesn't kill him, he goes into an alcoholic depression, Shay recovers to shake Scoby out of his stupor, and the pair heads back to Driscoll to square things with the Claver's. I'll have to assume that one's takeaway from all this should be that Preacher Shay is a tortured hero whose singular brand of justice is fitting retribution in a lawless wilderness. Instead, all I got was that Shay got away with murder more than once, backed by a pretty decent soundtrack.

I guess if you're a Willie Nelson fan, the story is forgivable given the "Red Headed Stranger's" real life reputation and charisma. But if you expect anything remotely plausible coming out of this flick, you'll be left with blue eyes crying in the rain.

Willie played a peaceable man who is singled out for harassment by a group of thugs and killers. His life becomes a mess because of these people, making him cynical and hard. A good woman attempts to bring him back from his hard hearted ways. Very good western with a good message.