Critical Response
The film bears a 0% freshness rating on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.
At the time of its release Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel included the film in their "Worst of" list for 1994, singling out the melancholy tone of the film, and the quality of Seagal's dialogue. Ebert in particular singled out the speech by Seagal's character that concluded the film, which he saw as extraneous, and an example of the film's "egotistical vanity scenes", as well as its inaccuracies.
Variety film critic Leonard Klady referred to the film as "a vanity production parading as a social statement" and commented that the film seemingly borrowed heavily from the earlier film, Billy Jack but opined that Seagal lacked "acting technique and the ability behind the camera to keep the story simple and direct" that Billy Jack star Tom Laughlin, exhibited. Like Ebert, Klady also singled out the speech by Seagal's character at the end of the film.
Read more about this topic: On Deadly Ground
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