Three friends (Ronny Cox, Art Hindle, and Tim Maier) leave their families behind and go on a 72-mile run through the desert of New Mexico.  They’re marathon runners and they are trying to survive the ultimate challenge.  Instead, they run into a right-wing militia led by “Colonel” Crouse (M. Emmet Walsh) and Sonny (William Russ).  Soon, the joggers are being chased through the desert.  Their survival depends on if they have the raw courage to make it back to civilization.

Raw Courage was written and produced by Ronny Cox and I like to think that he made this movie as his way to get back at everyone who typecast him as a victim after Deliverance.  Cox’s jogger never gives up in Raw Courage, even while being chased through the broiling desert by a bunch of madmen on motorcycles.  Cox and Art Hindle both give good performances and their well-matched by Walsh and Russ.  (Unfortunately, Walsh’s role in pretty small.  Most of the actual villainy is committed by William Russ.)  Cox and Hindle both play intelligent men who just happened to find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That the victims are sympathetic and you actually care about whether or not they make it back to their families elevates the film.

The film does start to run out of gas towards the end.  The scenes of our heroes running through the desert start to get repetitive.  Raw Courage is still an exciting action film and it’s flat, made-for-TV look is probably less of a problem when viewed on YouTube than it was when the movie was initially released.  The film provides a rare starring role for Ronny Cox, four years before Robocop typecast him as everyone’s favorite corporate villain.  Cox delivers.  It’s a shame he didn’t get to play more heroes.