The Deadening

In Beane’s intense debut, a WWI veteran finds trouble on a Nebraska ranch. Harrell Hickman escapes the Baltimore veteran’s hospital where he’s been committed for shell shock and hops a train headed west. With little else but three bottles of laudanum to numb the memories, he reaches Nebraska, where he finds peace mending fences for rancher John Conover. His mental state is precarious, however, and when another ranch hand, Dub, mocks him one too many times, he burns Dub’s face on a stove. Booted from the ranch, Hickman takes odd jobs in the nearby town of Wisdom, where he earns sympathy from the sheriff, who lost his arm and eye in WWI. With winter approaching and the other ranch hands gone, Conover sends his son, Israel, to bring Hickman back to the ranch, where tensions between the veteran and his bosses eventually rise to dangerous levels. Even though Beane grants limited access to his antihero’s emotional and psychological state, Hickman’s restless and violent actions still give insight into the character and offer an unsparing view of combat trauma. Fans of David Morrell’s First Blood ought to take note. (Nov.)

Correction: A previous version of this review misstated the location of the ranch.