One False Move

Carl Franklin made his directorial bow with the story of three LA drug dealers who, after committing a rather messy murder, hide out in a rural Arkansas town. Assuming that the local rubes will offer them little interference, the criminals have not reckoned with sheriff Hurricane Dixon (Bill Paxton). Despite the arrogance of the LAPD agents sent to Arkansas to collar the crooks, it is down-home Dixon who puts the final bloody showdown into motion (the fact that the thieves have been falling out throughout the film doesn't hurt things either). Carl Franklin knows where he's going in every frenetic frame of One False Move, and his movie was one of the most acclaimed independent releases of 1991.