Sure Fire

Like Last Chants for a Slow Dance, Jon Jost's Sure Fire features Tom Blair in a dark, tragic character study. Blair plays Wes, a small-time real estate tycoon with big plans to lure urban Californians to his rural Utah town with the promise of cheap vacation homes. Wes applies his scheming business sense to every part of his life, from deciding on a gift for his wife to paying off his friend Larry's (Robert Ernst) debts to keep him under his thumb. The film culminates during a hunting trip, when Wes' troubled relationship with his teenage son, Phillip (Phillip R. Brown), leads to a shocking end.